The death of Abraham’s wife Sarah is recounted in Genesis 23. For many Bible readers, this is a very strange chapter of the Bible.
Although the Lord had blessed him abundantly, Abraham did not own a single bit of land and therefore had no place to bury his wife. So, Abraham went before the Hittite people (who then inhabited the land of Canaan) and made a request: “I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.” (v4) The Hittites, acknowledging that Abraham is “a mighty prince” among them, gladly agree to sell him a burial plot.
Abraham asked to purchase the cave of Machpelah. This land was owned by a man named Ephron the Hittite. Ephron stepped forward and confirmed his willingness to sell Abraham the property. What followed was an elongated negotiation, at the end of which Abraham agreed to pay 400 shekels of silver.
The text emphasizes that the deal was finalized: “Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre – both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field – was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.” (v17-18)
Remarkably, the author repeats this fact only two verses later! “So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.” (v20)
This account occupies an entire chapter! This begs the question: why does the author craft such a wonderfully detailed description of this ancient real estate transaction? After all, the entire story could have been summarized in a single sentence: “Abraham’s wife Sarah died and was buried in Canaan, in a cave Abraham purchased from the Hittites.” Why then such an elaborate narrative?
The author clearly believed that the acquisition of this property was a momentous occasion. To discover the reason, we must consider the larger picture.
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Several weeks ago, we noted how many Bible readers fail to recognize the full import of God’s promises to Abraham. Unfortunately, some pastors tend to ignore the Old Testament altogether; those who do address the story of Abraham often reduce him to merely an example of this or that quality.
Abraham is obviously acknowledged as the patriarch of Israel & therefore the ancestor of Jesus. However, there is widespread failure to connect Abraham with the larger story of God and creation.
Such isolated treatments are quite misleading; they reduce God’s dealings with Abraham (and Israel) to merely an extended prelude to the coming of Jesus. Even worse, it suggests that while God’s interactions with Abraham & Israel were of one nature, the work of Jesus is a totally different thing altogether. This does violence to the scriptures as a single, unified narrative. It fails to recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham and Israel.
The blessing of Abraham hearkens back to the creation story where God pronounces his blessing upon humanity. Humans were given a highly exalted role. They were formed as God’s image bearers and called to exercise the divine authority over the created order so that the world might flourish. Tragically, this blessing was thwarted by human wickedness and rebellion.
In the face of this catastrophe, God responds by making a covenant with Abraham. The Lord promised to bless Abraham & his family, but also to use them as a channel to bring blessing to “all peoples on earth.” This covenant amounts to nothing less that God’s commitment to rescue and restore the entire creation. Abraham and his descendants, the people of Israel, were called to fulfill the role marked out for humanity from the beginning. Through proper worship and obedience, they were meant to reflect God’s image and govern the world according to the divine wisdom.
When the Lord first spoke to Abraham, he commanded, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Abraham famously responded to God’s imperative with alacrity: ”So, Abram left, as the LORD had told him.” The text describes no hemming or hawing, no anguish of soul, just straightforward obedience.
When Abraham arrived in Canaan, the Lord appeared to him again, saying, “To your offspring I will give this land.“ (Genesis 12:7) Throughout Abraham’s story, this promise would be repeatedly affirmed. (Genesis 13:15,17; 15:7,18-21; 17:8; 22:17)
Notably, although God initially commanded Abraham to leave the land of his birth, now the Lord vows to give him land in return. (The same could be said about Abraham’s relationships: even though God ordered him to leave his people, the Lord also pledged give him a new family.) The point is that whatever God asks us to sacrifice on his behalf, he will ultimately – whether in this life or the next – provide us with far, far more in return.
Now it is quite true that this promise was never fulfilled during Abraham’s lifetime. In fact, at the time of his death, Abraham owned only one small plot of land in Canaan. This brings us back to the story found in Genesis 23, where Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite as a burial plot for his wife Sarah.
We should now be able to see why the author placed so much emphasis on this story. Abraham’s purchase represented the initial fulfillment of God’s promises. The cave of Machpelah was like a down payment, a guarantee that eventually all the land of Canaan would be given to Abraham’s descendants. This promise would indeed reach its fulfillment 400 years later, when Joshua & the Israelities conquered the land of Canaan.
Abraham himself would eventually be buried in the cave of Machpelah, along with Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob & Leah. (Jacob’s wife Rachel died during childbirth and was buried near Bethlehem.)
This site is known as “the Tomb of the Patriarchs,” and can be visited in the town of Hebron in southern Israel. It’s considered the second most holy site in Judaism, behind only the Western Wall. Two thousand years ago, Herod the Great constructed a large fortress-like enclosure over and around the cave, which still stands today.
God’s promise to give Israel the land of Canaan resonates deeply with the creation story.
Adam and Eve were given responsibility to care for the Garden of Eden. Their story symbolizes how God granted humans sovereignty over all creation, so that the world might be governed wisely and become a place of joy & delight. Sadly, human disobedience plunged the world into enmity, suffering and death. They were banished from the Garden and lost access to the tree of life.
In the same way, God gave Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan. Now Israel was called to be God’s image bearers, the genuine human beings who would offer God wholehearted worship and obedience. Their covenant faithfulness would bring about God’s rich blessing.
But the rebellious people of Israel would suffer the same fate as Adam and Eve. Their disobedience would bring the curses down upon their heads. Israel was cast out of the promised land and sent into exile.
Having a secure grasp on these themes allows us to properly comprehend the work of Jesus. Far too many Christians see the goal of Christianity as enabling us to escape the corrupted creation and enjoy a postmortem existence in some heavenly sphere.
But the task of Jesus was precisely the same as that of Adam and Israel: to reflect the image of God and exercise sovereignty over creation, allowing the earth to become a place of eternal joy, peace and life.
This key principle can be illustrated by innumerable passages throughout the New Testament. Let me simply mention one of the beatitudes: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Jesus highlights meekness (humble submission to God) as a key quality which characterizes God’s faithful people. But Christians rarely ponder the promised reward: such people will inherit the earth.
This is not a puzzling oddity, but perfectly consistent with all that’s gone before. Just as Adam was given the Garden & Israel the land of Canaan, so those who follow Jesus are will someday be given authority over the redeemed earth. If you grasp this, the otherwise strange story of Abraham’s purchase will spring to life, a powerful foreshadowing of the time when God’s people “will reign on the earth.”
