The following is a teaching transcription. It has not been checked for complete transcription accuracy.

Isaac Has Come!

Let's turn to Genesis 22. What we saw in chapter 21 was the birth of the promised son. Remember, God had promised to Abraham and Sarah that through them, all the nations of the earth would be blessed and that he would give them offspring that would lead to a multitude descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. And God did promise additionally to Abraham that he would give Abraham's descendants the land of Canaan as their place to inhabit.

These promises have not yet come to pass, but in chapter 21, the miracle baby, Isaac, is born after years of God making his promise, after years of faltering faith, stumbles into trying to work it out by their own flesh. Abraham and Sarah received this promised child and they absolutely rejoiced. And of course, Ishmael, the son who is older and was the work of the flesh, the offspring of Abraham with Hagar, he's sent on his way. So, he is no longer an option to be the one that God will bless Abraham through. Isaac is the exclusive line through which God is going to work.

But There Is More!

But at that point or at this point, the job is not finished. There are so many things that I just mentioned that God still has to do for Abraham and for his offspring. Isaac's birth is just one step in that direction. And so today, we're going to see a couple of events in Genesis 22 and in Genesis 23 that would have greatly challenged the faith of Abraham as he was on his way to the ultimate promises of God.

And what Abraham is going to do for us in this study is he is going to serve as the prototype of what the man or the woman of God can expect to experience on their journey towards the ultimate promises that God has for them. We're going to look at what it's like to be a child of God, to walk with God, to be one of the God's people. And so, as we go through these texts, I'll draw out for you various points that come from Abraham's life, the decisions that he made and the way that God interacted with him.

1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

A Severe Command

Now, this is an ominous moment for the reader. We understand immediately the severity of this command from God to this man Abraham, and we're going to talk about this command in a moment and what God might have meant when he said this to Abraham. And of course, we know at the very beginning of this movement that God is not going to require Abraham to go through with the actual sacrifice of Isaac.

So, the reader has that understanding. In fact, the original readers, the people of Israel, they were in great suspense with this passage because they knew that Isaac was their ancestor and that Isaac at this point in the story has had no children of his own. They know that he's got to marry Rebekah. They know that Isaac and Rebekah have to have Jacob and Esau. And they know that Jacob needs to get married to Leah and to Rachel and to his concubines and that they need to have children who will become the ancestors or the forefathers of the 12 tribes of Israel.

So, the original Israelite readers already knew the outcome of this story. Isaac lives and they knew that because they were alive. But still Abraham doesn't know that. So, let's focus on the first phrase there in verse 1. It says that God tested Abraham. God tested Abraham. Every time this word tested is used in the Bible, it's used to describe trying to draw out the quality, the value or an ultimate attribute from someone. It might be people testing God. It might be people testing others, or in this case, it might God testing someone on earth. And God is testing his man Abraham to draw out an attribute to perfect a quality in Abraham's life.

If you jump down to verse 12, what you'll discover is that God says, "I now know that you fear God seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me." The thing that God was looking to test or draw out or perfect in Abraham was his ultimate respect and reverence for God, a belief, a faith, a trust in God even above his love for the promise that God made to him about Isaac. So, God is testing his man.

Now, when it says that in verse 12 that God says, "I now know." Of course, God knew at the beginning of this story exactly what was going on in Abraham's heart. God knew it in his mind, but God wanted to experience it through Abraham's life. And Abraham needed to experience it as well being stretched to the limits. Now, this of course, this command that God gave to Abraham, this test that he gave to Abraham, I think it's safe to say this feels like an unreasonable command from God. I mean, such a challenge that he gave to him at this point.

"Am I going to?" Abraham could have thought. "Am I going to cling to my child who is of course the child of promise, or am I going to step out into obedience to the Lord, listen to the clear command of God? And if I listen to the clear command of God, and this child dies before he has any offspring of his own, what does that mean for the ultimate promise that God has made to me and Sarah? He's confirmed to me that it's through Isaac that all the nations will be blessed. And so, what happens if Isaac dies?"

It was quite a conundrum for Abraham. And I don't know how he would have felt about this concept. I don't know if he had wondered in his interactions with God up to this point if God was like other deities in that region at that time. Deities that would have asked for child sacrifice. I don't know if Abraham is thinking to himself, "Okay, here we go. I thought that God was different. Perhaps he's not and he's asking something from me that these other deities have asked of their followers."

I don't know if that's what Abraham was going through. But I do know that later in Scripture, in the law, God firmly forbade his people, the people of Israel from entering into the abomination that is child sacrifice.

And I also know that in Scripture, the only person that God asked in a sense to step forward into the sacrifice of a child is himself. In a sense, I think that this passage just meant to abhor us and even abhor Abraham so that we could all breathe a sigh of relief when he is not asked to go through with it, and so that we could understand that when the father sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us, we would understand this is an incredible and magnificent gift that we have been given in Jesus. God did the thing that none of us wanted to do, could do, or should do.

1. God Tests His People

But all that to say, the first thing I wanted you to see about this man as he walks with God is number one, God tests his people. God tests his people. Now, he will test us at times through trials. He will test us at times through difficulties in life. He will test our allegiance to him, our faith to him. We can say all day long that we want to serve the Lord, that we want to walk with the Lord. But sometimes, a big command from God will come our way. And the question is, will I be allegiant to the Lord? This wasn't so much just a trial that Abraham was going through but a question of allegiance and obedience to God. Will I do the thing that God has laid upon my heart? And that is often a test that God will bring his people through. Will you obey? Will you follow me?

So, number one, God tests his people. And in this test, what we're going to learn from Abraham's life is that because he forsook all to follow the Lord, his life was infinitely blessed. Doesn't that sound familiar? This is what Jesus said to his disciples before the mountain of transfiguration. He said, "If you deny yourself, if you lay down your life and come and follow after me, you will find your life. You will discover your life."

The forsaking of all. There were times where Jesus said that you have to forsake even family and those that are close to you in order to pursue the Lord. And in a sense, Abraham is typifying that radical experience and reality and of course, his relationship with Isaac is going to be infinitely blessed because he put God first in his life.

Ishmael?

Now, I also wanted to before we continue reading in the text, I wanted to point out a couple of things. In verse 2, notice that God says, "Take your son, your only son Isaac." To me, that's a beautiful statement from God. Obviously, Abraham had another son. We've read of him. He's here in the book of Genesis. We just saw him in the previous chapter. He had Ishmael through Hagar but in the mind of God, as the years have gone by, he looks at Abraham's life and he says, "Abraham, I don't even regard the work of your flesh. I don't even regard the sinful thing that you did. You have one son in my mind."

And I don't mean to spiritualize it too much or press it too much but I love the idea of God looking at our lives, seeing past the works of the flesh that we have so often engaged in and saying all I can see with my eyes of grace are the righteous things that you have done, the things of faith. Everything else melts away in the vision of God for his people and he sees that which is pure and good and holy and true.

On that final day of judgment, everything that we've done that is wood and hay and stubble, it will melt away with fervent heat and the things that we've done that are lasting, those will be the things to enter into eternity with us.

Mt. Moriah?

The other thing I wanted to point out before continuing on in the text is where God sent Abraham to for this sacrifice. He sent him to the land of Moriah in the mountains. And this is commonly identified with Jerusalem even modern day Jerusalem which at that time was really not a built up civilization. It was just a vacant mountain range as best as we can tell.

And so, many people have thought that Mount Moriah is eventually becomes Jerusalem and might even be the exact hilltop on which Jesus himself was crucified, Mount Calvary. I tend to think that's the reality. It says in 2 Chronicles 3 that the temple was placed on Mount Moriah. But there are some scholars that wonder if this is actually the case or not. But that is the at least traditional understanding of Mount Moriah.

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

His Immediate Obedience

So, Abraham immediately goes out on this 50-mile journey to Mount Moriah from Beersheba where he previously been in the south. Now, what I want you to notice from those verses we just read is the immediate obedience of Abraham. He's told to do something very difficult, and one of the mistakes that people often make when being commissioned into something difficult from God is to delay.

In the delay we tend to build excuses. We tend to build reasons and obstacles for doing the thing we know the Lord has laid upon our hearts. Abraham did not do that. "He rose up early," it says in verse 3. "He saddled the donkey. He cut the wood and he arose and went to the place." He wasted no time, 50 miles in three days. He was moving rather quickly to get to Mount Moriah to be obedient to the Lord. This is instant, unquestioning obedience to God.

2. God's People Must Obey

One thing that you don't discover in this text are the feelings that Abraham was going through, the questions that he was asking. The thoughts that were circulating through our minds. And of course, we can import into the text what we would guess or think that he might have been questioning or wondering or feeling at the moment. And in our modern era in world, it seems that so often that's the big thing we want to know. What's your experience? What's the feeling that you're going through.

But none of that is mentioned with the patriarch. He just steps out and does the hard thing. There's no mention of what's happening internally. This leads me to a second point. I'm sure you would have guessed it from looking at this text. But we've got to see this. When it comes to walking with God, God's people, we must obey. We must obey. We must not argue with the Lord. We must not debate with the Lord. We must step out in allegiance to God. Again, I'm sure that there was confusion going on in Abraham's heart and I'll talk about that in a moment, but he was willing to step out and start the process of obedience. So, God will test us and we must obey.

5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

Abraham As The Focus

Now, we don't know exactly how old Isaac was at this point. Most people regard him as at least a young man stronger than his elderly father. In the next chapter, he will be 37 years old, so perhaps he's nearing that stage of his life. It's hard to say with certainty but he sure doesn't appear to be a young child at this point but more of a full grown person that is complicit with Abraham in stepping out into obedience. In fact, in some ancient Israelite traditions, Isaac is the focus of this passage and Isaac's obedience is the focus of this passage, and not Abraham. But the text just seems to continually draw us back to Abraham and that's why I am focusing on him as I teach this passage to you.

God Will Provide

But notice here that Abraham, he believed that God would provide for them. Isaac approaches his dad. They're getting close to Mount Moriah. He looks around, he sees the wood. He sees the fire. He realizes that everything is there for the sacrifice except the sacrifice itself. And so he asks his father, "Hey, where is the sacrifice? What are we going to sacrifice?" And Abraham says, "God will provide for himself the lamb."

Now, Abraham did not know how this would occur. I am certain of this because of the Scripture itself. There are two things that Abraham knew, it appears. The first thing that he knew is that the promise would come through Isaac. God had made incredible promises, chapter 12, chapter 15, chapter 14, chapter 17, chapter 21. He had made incredible promises to Abraham. And he had confirmed that these promises would flow not just from Abraham and Sarah but through Isaac.

So, Abraham believed that. That's what he knew, number one, the promise will flow through Isaac. And the second thing that he knew was that God had asked him to sacrifice Isaac. This was the second thing that he was conscious of. He knew that the promise had to come through Isaac and he knew that God had asked him to sacrifice Isaac. It says in Hebrews 11:19. It actually gives us insight into what Abraham was thinking at this point.

It says in Hebrews 11:19 that, "Abraham considered that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back." In other words, Abraham apparently had so much faith in God at this point that he took his two irreconcilable truths that the promise would come through Isaac but that God had asked him to take Isaac's life. He took these two things that he seemingly could not reconcile and he reconciled them with the understanding that even if Isaac died, he would have to be raised back to life in order to fulfill the first thing that Abraham knew about God.

Christ, The Lamb

And I love the way that Abraham says it there. He says, "God himself will provide a lamb." This reminds us, of course, of the ultimate provision of God. God provided the lamb of Jesus Christ. The lamb was sacrificed on the Passover. The lamb became an emblem of the sacrifice for the people of Israel each and every single year. But when Jesus came, John the Baptist's forerunner said, "Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

And I know that Abraham was not at this point thinking to himself, "Oh, I know Jesus is going to come. He'll be the lamb." But I think unbeknownst to him, he was speaking a prophetic word. God will himself provide the lamb. Or in one sense, God himself will be the lamb that is provided.

3. God's People Must Believe God Will Provide

This leads me to a third thing that God's people must believe as they walk with the Lord. God's people must believe in God's provision.

What I don't mean by that is just the daily provision of our lives. That is something, of course, that God's people must believe in. But what I'm talking about are those moments where you know that obedience to God is going to hurt. You know that obedience to God is going to cost you. And in those moments, you have to believe that God is going to take care of you, that God is going to provide for you.

Perhaps the Lord has shown you that the person that you're dating is your unequal in Christ. They'd be an unequal yoke for you to continue on in a relationship with them. And as that is laid upon your heart is you see that they are not where they need to be spiritually and their love for God is not there. Perhaps they don't really even believe in the Gospel. As you consider that and realize that you aren't called to enter into that unequal yoke, you might be tempted to say, "But what will happen to me if I obey God? What will happen to me if I let go of this person?"

But you have to trust the provision of God. You have to trust that God is going to take care of you even if he doesn't bring a person into your life. You have to trust that God will watch over you and take care of your soul. And I think Abraham came to that place. He believed in the provision of God.

9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Faith

Now, at this point we just have to step back in. First of all, breathe a sigh of relief that the angel of the Lord, God himself, entered in and disrupted this whole scene. But then after we take that breath and exhale a little bit and the tension is released like ... You didn't have to do it. We then need to step back and recognize that Abraham's obedience to God, it really took a lot out of this man. It required a lot for Abraham to obey. I mean, first of all, there's the faith that he had to have. I mentioned it just a few minutes ago. The faith that God would raise Isaac from the dead. That is a difficult thing to believe, so that was costly on one hand.

Cost

Also, Abraham would have had to push past so many of his own impulses and emotions. I mean, no parent wants to do this kind of thing. And so, he'd have to push past his natural inclinations. He'd have to reframe also from challenging God as we talked about. And on top of all of it, Isaac himself would have to submit to this plan. There was a lot that went in to the obedience of Abraham. This was costly sacrifice, in other words.

4. God's People Must Prepare For Costly Sacrifice.

And God's people, this is a fourth thing I wanted you to see, God's people must prepare for costly sacrifice. God's people must prepare for costly sacrifice. This is what it took for God to say, "Now, I know this about you, Abraham. I know that your fear, your reverence, your faith, your respect for me is off the charts. You really do believe the massive promises that I have made to you." In so many ways, Abraham arrived on this day. In so many ways, his faith was purified this day. In many ways, he became the father of faith on this day because he believed and trusted the Lord.

So often, we have an image of what it's like to follow the Lord. We think that he is our servant, and that our needs must be met. But the reality is, is that God sees what we need better than we can see what we need. And he looked at Abraham and knew this was what this man needed. He needed to draw out and purify this man's faith and it was costly the sacrifice that this man entered into.

Perhaps for you, you're considering the call of God upon your life. Maybe you're praying through different ministries that God might launch you into, into your life. Or maybe you're considering the things that you know that you need to do with the relationships in your life or in your career or workplace. Maybe to you it feels too costly. Perhaps this is what it means for you to worship the Lord. Perhaps he's asking you to enter in to a costly sacrifice for him.

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

God Will Provide!

Abraham had said that about the Lord to Isaac. He had said, "God will provide. The Lord will provide himself a lamb." Now, here the angel interrupts him and then Abraham turns and looks and a lamb is not there but a ram is there. This might help us understand that the lamb that God will provide is still coming. That's Jesus. But Abraham takes that ram and he offers it as a sacrifice on to God and he says, "See? The Lord did. The Lord provided. The Lord, that's who he is. The Lord will provide."

Now, this is really cool because the ram, of course, was the lord's provision on that day for Abraham. But then the author includes and says, "That it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.'" So, this meant that the people of Israel when they built their tabernacle and then finally their temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, when they built that temple they could know when we go to the mount of the Lord and we offer sacrifices to God similar to what Abraham did in bringing his best, his firstborn, to the mountain top for God.

When we offer our sacrifices to God, we can trust that God will provide for us. He will take care of us. The Lord will provide. But then there is this more beautiful picture. Not only did the Lord provide with the ram, not only would the Lord provide for the people of Israel whenever they went to offer their sacrifices, but the Lord will provide on that mountain, that place on Mount Calvary where Jesus himself died for the sin of the world. I think this ultimately speaks of the provision of God for humanity's salvation through the blood of his only begotten son.

5. God Will Provide For His People When They Sacrifice Without Reservation.

This is another thing that we need to know if we want to walk with the Lord. Number five, God will provide for his people when they sacrifice without reservation. God will provide for his people when they sacrifice without reservation. You see, in a sense, what happens here is flipped in the New Testament. Here, Abraham offers a sacrifice. God refuses it, provides his own sacrifice and then the blessing of God is poured out upon Abraham as we'll see in the very next paragraph.

And in the New Testament, what we discover is that we might try to make our sacrifices that please God, that satisfy God but ultimately, we can't offer the perfect sacrifice. And so, God stops us dead in our tracks and says, "That's not what I want. That's not the sacrifice that I need. I will give the sacrifice myself," and of course, Jesus upon the cross. But what does that then do? That unlocks for those who believe in Jesus the possibility of the blessing of God being poured out upon their lives. As it says in Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Abraham was blessed after offering God sacrifice and we as God's children are blessed after we accept God's sacrifice. But here, we see that provision of God.

15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Reaffirmed Promise

Now, this is basically God reaffirming his promise that he's made to Abraham. He said most of these things to Abraham already. He's told Abraham that the families of the earth would be blessed through him. He's told Abraham that his descendants would be incredibly numerous. But there is one new wrinkle that God throws in to this promise to Abraham. It's there in verse 17 where it says, "And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies." The idea there is that the gate meant or it indicated that there was a city that Abraham's offspring would overthrow and that they would take the city for themselves, therefore, they would get the gate for themselves as well.

So, this was a new wrinkle because God of course had promised the land of Canaan to the people of Israel and he promised that they would have victory over the Canaanites because the Canaanites were now becoming ripe for God's judgment. But this now is the promise that God would give them victory in battle against the Canaanite cities. So, when you get to the book of Joshua and you see for example the people of Israel fighting against the first prime city, the city of Jericho and having great victory there that was clearly divinely given to them, you know that this promise started way back here in Genesis 22, power in battle over these cities.

6. God's People Must Cling To The Promise.

But I wanted to say it like this. God's people must hang on to the promise. And if you want to walk with the Lord, there are just going to be times where it feels like the stuff that God has said that his kingdom will produce just takes forever. That's what it will feel like. But Abraham just kept receiving this promise. He kept hearing this promise, this future thing that God was going to do. He didn't know if it would happen in his lifetime. He had certain indications that it would happen beyond his lifetime because it would be a descendant of his that all the families of the earth would be blessed by. But still even though it was far off, he just kept working towards, slowly moving towards that glorious vision that God had given to him.

You see, there's a balance and we'll see this in chapter 23. There's a balance between the eschatological hope that believers have. And I firmly believe that the eschatological hope that we have is the most significant and the most important of all hopes because if we set our hopes on what God is going to do here on earth, well, we're here. We will be gravely disappointed and disillusioned. We have to retain a strong eschatological hope but import that into our current time and moment. And that's what Abraham was able to do. He continued to believe in what God was up to. And God just kept telling him, "This is what I'm up to. This is what I'm up to. This is what I'm up to."

20 Now after these things it was told to Abraham, “Behold, Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23a (Bethuel fathered Rebekah.)

That's important because Rebekah would eventually become the bride for Abraham's son, Isaac, and we'll see that in our next study.

23b These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

News From Afar

So, somebody comes out of the woodwork to bring Abraham some news. It feels kind of random to us and I'll talk about the reason that it's not random in a moment. But the news is real simple, "Hey, Abraham, your brother Nahor, he has 12 sons. Yet eight of them from his wife and four of them from his concubine." It's actually pretty similar numerically to Jacob who became Israel. He had eight sons who became eight patriarchs of Israel or over the 12 tribes. Eight of them from his wives, Rebekah and Leah, and then he had four of them from their maids or his concubines in a sense, and so 12 sons also.

But what is the deal? Why is this mentioned right here? Why is this random thing thrown in here? Well, on one hand, whenever you see this kind of genealogies or a little bit of a record, more often than not what you're reading is a record that would have helped the people of Israel know at the time that they read these books, where the people around them had come from or whom they had come from. And many of these people that are mentioned here would have been up in the region of Syria by the time the people of Israel would have read the book of Genesis.

A Decision

But the other reason or other reasons that this is important is because Abraham's family is held out to him again and in chapter 23, what we're going to read up is Sarah's death. And when Sarah dies, burial was a really big deal for the patriarchs and the question of where Sarah should be buried is going to come up. And with this news about Nahor from their homeland coming freshly to Abraham's ears, the temptation would be to say after Sarah's death, "Hey, let's go back and let's identify with our old home." And Abraham is going to have to make a faith decision to move forward and bury Sarah in the land of Canaan, in the Land of Promise as if that's the place that they now occupy. That's their new homeland in a sense.

But I think there's another reason why it's mentioned right here. I mean, think about what Abraham just went through. He went through this experience where he's tested. He's got one son. He's clinging to the promise of God. God is telling him for decades now that through his descendants, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God just reaffirms that promise again you're going to have descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. And in the midst of all these promises in the quiet of the night, when Abraham is by himself and just thinking about his life, he would be reminded and come to the conclusion, "God keep saying all these things to me, and all I have is one kid."

7. God's Tests Never Stop.

And then some messenger comes along and says, "Hey, I just want to give you a little family update. Nahor, your brother, 12 kids." It could have been a real disappointing piece of news for Abraham. But instead, Abraham was supposed to be filled with faith and say, "That's good. I'm so glad that God is blessing my brother, but I know that God is going to bless me as well." And so, I think he would have rejoiced with those who rejoiced and he would have just moved on in faith in his own life.

I think what I wanted to say here about the person of God before we move into chapter 23 is real simple. God's test, it just never really stops, does it? When you walk with the Lord, you might get past one major thing like Abraham did with this testing on Mount Moriah. But the second it's over, he gets this news. It's not as big of a test obviously but it's still a test to his heart. How will he feel about this moment?

1 Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

Sarah's Death

So, what that means, just to give you the timeline of it. That means that Isaac is 37. That means that Abraham is 137 at this point that Sarah dies at age 127.

Here we have the death of Sarah. Now, we read this and we think, okay, she was up there in years. It was her time. 127 years, she lived a good, full life, experienced the hand of God upon her life, and she died. But the thing is that you have to remember what Abraham and Sarah endured. They had gotten all these promises. Sarah had been assured that she was involved in all these promises that God had made to Abraham. It wouldn't happen through Hagar. It would happen through Sarah. And now, she has one son. He's 37 years old. He's unmarried. He has no offspring of his own. They don't have a land really to call their own. They are wealthy but they're nomadic. And so many of the promises that God has made to them had not yet come to pass. And in the midst of that, she dies.

I don't know what this was like for Abraham. It tells us there that he mourned and that he wept for her. So, I know that this hurt him on some level. I can only wonder if some of the hurt was connected to wondering if any of this that he'd heard from God was actually real. The years have just ticked by, is this really going to happen? Now, my beloved wife is dead. What is happening? I think this was another massive test for Abraham.

8. God's People Will Suffer Great Loss On Their Journey To The Promise.

And this is what I wanted you to see. God's people, we will suffer great loss on our journey to the promise. We will suffer great loss on our journey to the promise. Now Abraham here, he mourned. He mourned.

Years ago, I felt the call of God onto my life to become a servant to the body of Christ. And I heard the words of Jesus that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And with that and the authority of Christ who said to his disciples, "All authority is given to me and I give it to you. Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them that all that I have taught you and baptized them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." And with that filling of the spirit, the gifts of the spirit, with the enabling and the power of God with the calling of God firmly pressed upon my life and with the Scriptures like these that convinced me that God was for his people and God was moving. With all of these in my mind and heart, I began entering into the work of the Lord. I began entering into the work of the church.

The reality is, is that as the years have ticked by, I have realized over and over again how difficult that work can be. There are promises from God to be sure. And one day, there will be the glorious vision of God's people, pure and holy, clothed in clean garments, without blemish, worship and praising God. There will be no controversy. There will be no sin. There will be no division. There will be no chaos. There will be no trials. Every tear will be wiped away.

And that vision is there. That promise is there, and I firmly believe that when a person builds their life on Jesus and on his word, they are building their lives on a solid foundation. And when the storms of life come, they will not perish. But that doesn't mean that I haven't watched countless people build their lives on the sand. That doesn't mean that I haven't watched countless forms of division. That doesn't mean that I haven't seen many trials that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy, and I haven't seen many people endure things that seem so impossible to go through in life, great loss on the way to the promise.

That's what it's like to walk with God. And Abraham is demonstrating that to us here in this passage as he weeps for his bride, Sarah. But still he believes that God is doing something, so let's see what happens next.

3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, 4 “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The Hittites answered Abraham, 6 “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.” 7 Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. 8 And he said to them, “If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place.”

Abraham's Decision

Now, this is really cool, and I know that when you read a chapter like this, maybe in your morning quiet time, you think to yourself, "What in the world does this have to do with me?" But what Abraham was doing is Abraham was making a really important decision. Remember, Nahor, the news of Nahor back at home where Abraham had come from. Abraham traditionally would have taken Sarah, her bones, and gone back to his home country and buried Sarah there as an emblem or a message that that was his home.

But here, he makes a decision. That's not my home. My home, by faith, is the land of Canaan. God told me that all of these would be mine or belong to my descendants at some point. And so, he makes a decision to acquire a cave in a field in Canaan to bury Sarah in. He didn't even own a piece of land at this point. God had not given him any of Canaan, the Promised Land. He had to buy some of it for himself. But this was his decision to make new roots. This was faith as Abraham renounced his old life.

9. God's People Must Continually Reposition Themselves Toward The Promise.

You see, God's people must continually reposition themselves towards the promise. We must continually reposition ourselves towards the promise.

If I could just talk to you about this for a second. I believe personally that this is one of the major reasons that Sunday worship is so important for your soul. What we're doing right now is cool. I'm going to do this kind of thing as long as I possibly can in my human life. Not this particular Bible study, it will end at some point. But I am going to open up Scripture and explain God's word to people in all the different mediums that God gives. I will write about it. I will record about it. I will speak it in a microphone. I'll do what I can to share God's word.

But when we gather together on Sundays, it is so much more than a time for me or any other pastor to share the Scripture. It is that. That's part of it. but everything about it historically as we gather, as we say to one another, "Let's worship God," as we sing songs directed away from ourselves and to heaven, as we think about God, as we partake of the bread and the cup and commune with God, as we pray, as we confess our sins, as we have moments where we're quiet and reflecting upon God and praying personally to God. And as we greet one another and love one another, and yes, as we open up God's word and it's read and explained and preached to us, all of that, yes, it's helpful that day. Yes, there will be, there might be a word or something that you take away that day.

But the bigger lesson is this. You are doing something that is habitually, regularly repointing you to God's purpose and God's promises. You just can't do that as you just kind of fly through life. If you're listening to a Bible study while you're on your commute, cool. That's one thing. But that is the Bible coming alongside of you on your mission. But when you take time out of your life and you come to the house of God and you worship, you are refocusing yourself every single time you do on the purpose and the promise of God.

And this is what it's like to walk with the Lord. You go through different seasons, seasons where you're fired up for Jesus, seasons where you're lamenting your own sins, seasons where you're discouraged about a lack of fruitfulness, seasons of great celebration because tangible blessings are being poured out onto your life, great life moments that God has walked with you through in times of despair and loss in life. Over and over again, we have to refocus ourselves towards God's purposes and God's plan. And Abraham is doing that with this cave. He's saying, "Look, this is a new moment for me. I might be 137 years old, but I'm still walking with God. I'm still believing that he has a purpose and plan for my life.

10 Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, 11 “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.”

Giving?

Now, I realized when we read that and we see that he's saying to Abraham, "I give it to you," we think that he is offering it to Abraham for free. But this is Bedouin language for, "I will give it to you if you give money to me." So this is them bargaining. This is not Ephron offering the field to Abraham. What Ephron is doing, however, is he's trying to sweeten the deal for himself. And the way he's doing this is Abraham wants the cave, Ephron says, "You could have the cave and also the field." So, this is his way of saying, "You're going to have to buy the field also if you want the cave that's inside of it."

12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “My lord, listen to me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” 16 Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.

Shocking!

Now, if you're an Israelite reading this for the very first time, there is something rather shocking about this moment between Abraham and Ephron. It's real simple. Ephron says it's 400 shekels. It's a lot of money, by the way. In that era, this was something a wealthy person would have. I've even read that artists or day workers would have made something like 10 to 12 shekels in a year. So, this is a lot of money, 400 shekels for Abraham to spend.

But the shocking thing is that Abraham just hears it, 400 shekels, and he just starts counting out the 400 shekels. There's no bargaining. That's what would have shocked the Israelites. "Come on, Abraham, you got to try to drive a deal. He's ripping you off." But Abraham doesn't care about any of that. He just wants to purchase this at full price. He doesn't want to be a deter to anyone. And so he's not going to bargain with Ephron. He hears the price and he pays the price. He knew that this was going to be the first part of the Promised Land that he received or purchased, and he wanted to make sure that no one else could say that he had given it to Abraham.

17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites.

The Burial Cave

And so, he acquires this cave to be a burying place for Sarah, and it would actually end up being Abraham's burying place as well. Isaac and Rebekah would be buried there later, and then even later than that, Jacob and Leah would also be buried in this cave. Nobody has ever found this cave. There were claims that it was found and that the patriarch's bones were exhumed, I think, early in the 1100s or something like that but it's never been able to be verified in modern times.

And again, this is the only part of the Promised Land that Abraham is ever going to own. All through this chapter as we wrap this up, death is the theme. Chapter 23, death is the theme. Sarah dies, and the whole focus is on purchasing a grave. In a sense, what's happening here is that Abraham is communicating something, and I really want you to hear this last thing. What Abraham seems to be communicating is that he so believes in the promise, that he believes that even through after and in spite of death, Sarah will receive the promise.

10. God's People Obtain God's Promises Despite And Because Of Death.

This leads me to say the last thing, God's people obtain God's promises despite and sometimes because of death.

You see, God has made these incredible promises about his kingdom. And as much as we want to do what we can, working for his kingdom, towards his kingdom and we pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," as much as we desire that today, we also recognize that there will be a limit to the fruitfulness that we will see. And that in death, or the end of life as we know it, ultimately we will partake of the promise.

I don't think this is just a message of heaven and the great by and by. It's that pacifies us in the calamities of life. I think it gives us hope, hope in what is to come because the promises of God will most surely come to pass. You know all that justice that you're working for, it will surely come to pass. All the equity and equality that you're working for, it will surely come to pass. All the conversions and changed lives and sanctification that you are working for, it will surely come to pass. The prosperity, the grinding, the working so hard by the sweat of your brow to make it in life, it will surely come to pass.

As a believer in Jesus Christ, you will obtain the promise even in spite of and sometimes even because of death itself. And Abraham burying Sarah in this cave in Canaan was a loud message that God was fulfilling his promise to Sarah even through the barrier of death itself.