THE PROMISE OUTLIVES ABRAHAM

Genesis 23:1–25:11

Abraham's story is coming to an end.

Sarah will die.

Abraham will die.

And before Abraham dies, he faces two enormous questions:

What happens to the land God promised?

What happens to the family God promised?

Genesis 23 and 24 can look like an interruption after the drama of Genesis 22.

Chapter 23 is mostly about buying a burial plot.

Chapter 24 is mostly about finding Isaac a wife.

Then Abraham dies in chapter 25.

Why does Genesis spend so much time on these things?

Because God's promises were never supposed to die with Abraham.

FIRST SARAH DIES

Genesis 23 begins:

“And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old... And Sarah died...”
— Genesis 23:1–2

Sarah had traveled with Abraham.

She had waited through the long years when God's promised son did not come.

She had laughed when God said she would have a child in her old age.

Then she had held Isaac in her arms.

Now Sarah is dead.

And Abraham weeps.

“Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.”
— Genesis 23:2

The Bible doesn't treat faith as pretending death doesn't hurt.

Abraham believed God's promises.

And Abraham cried.

Those aren't contradictions.

ABRAHAM HAS A PROBLEM

God had repeatedly promised Abraham the land of Canaan.

Yet when Sarah dies, Abraham says:

“I am a stranger and a sojourner with you...”
— Genesis 23:4

Think about that.

God had promised Abraham an entire land.

But after years of living there, Abraham still describes himself as:

a stranger.

He doesn't even own a place to bury his wife.

So Abraham asks the people of the land:

“Give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
— Genesis 23:4

What follows may seem like one of the least exciting sections in Genesis.

There is a negotiation.

A field.

A cave.

A price.

Witnesses.

Property boundaries.

Even the trees are mentioned.

Why all the legal detail?

Because something important is happening.

ABRAHAM FINALLY OWNS A PIECE OF THE PROMISED LAND

Abraham purchases the field of Ephron and the cave of Machpelah.

Genesis carefully records that the property:

“were made sure unto Abraham for a possession...”
— Genesis 23:17–18

This is not Abraham simply camping somewhere.

He owns it.

And what is Abraham's first permanent possession in the land God promised him?

Not a palace.

Not a city.

Not a farm.

A GRAVE.

That sounds almost like failure.

But Abraham apparently sees things differently.

Sarah will be buried here.

Abraham will later be buried here.

Isaac and Rebekah will be associated with this family burial place.

Jacob and Leah will also be buried there.

Abraham may still be a stranger in the land.

But he is putting his dead in the soil God promised to his descendants.

The grave itself becomes an expression of hope.

BUT THERE IS ANOTHER PROBLEM

God didn't merely promise Abraham land.

God promised Abraham descendants.

And God had made something very clear:

“In Isaac shall thy seed be called.”
— Genesis 21:12

Genesis 22 nearly took Isaac away.

But Isaac survived.

Now another problem becomes obvious.

Isaac needs a wife.

If God's promise is going to continue through Isaac, there must be another generation.

So Genesis 24 begins:

“And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age...”
— Genesis 24:1

Abraham knows his own life is nearing its end.

The promise must move forward.

NOT JUST ANY WIFE

Abraham makes his servant swear that he will not take a wife for Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites.

Instead, the servant must go to Abraham's relatives and find a wife there.

But Abraham adds another instruction that is extremely important.

The servant asks what he should do if the woman refuses to come.

Should he take Isaac back to Abraham's homeland?

Abraham answers:

“Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.”
— Genesis 24:6

Why is Abraham so insistent?

Because God had called Abraham out of that land and promised him this land.

Isaac must not abandon the land of promise in order to find a wife.

The wife must come to Isaac.

Abraham trusts that the God who made the promise can also provide what is necessary to fulfill it.

“HE SHALL SEND HIS ANGEL BEFORE THEE”

Abraham tells his servant:

“The LORD God of heaven... shall send his angel before thee...”
— Genesis 24:7

Notice Abraham's confidence.

He doesn't know who the woman will be.

He doesn't know exactly how the servant will find her.

He doesn't know whether she will agree to leave her home.

But Abraham knows something more important:

God made the promise.

Therefore Abraham trusts God to provide what the promise requires.

That theme should sound familiar.

In Genesis 22:

God will provide the sacrifice.

In Genesis 24:

God will provide the wife.

THEN REBEKAH APPEARS

The servant reaches Mesopotamia and stops beside a well.

He prays for God's guidance.

Before he has even finished praying, Rebekah arrives.

She gives him water.

Then she voluntarily offers to water his camels.

The servant watches her carefully.

Genesis says:

“the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not.”
— Genesis 24:21

He doesn't immediately shout:

“This must be her!”

He watches.

He asks questions.

He learns who she is.

Then he worships God.

“Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham... I being in the way, the LORD led me...”
— Genesis 24:27

That's one of the beautiful themes of this chapter.

God doesn't appear with thunder from heaven.

There is no burning bush.

There is no spectacular miracle.

There is a journey.

A prayer.

A well.

A woman willing to give water.

A conversation.

A family decision.

Yet behind these very ordinary events, the servant recognizes:

THE LORD LED ME.

BUT REBEKAH MUST CHOOSE

The family finally asks Rebekah:

“Wilt thou go with this man?”
— Genesis 24:58

She answers:

“I will go.”

Those are only three words.

But think about what they mean.

Rebekah is leaving her home and family.

She is traveling to a land she has not seen.

She will marry a man she has never met.

In that sense, Rebekah now does something remarkably similar to what Abraham did years earlier.

God had called Abraham to leave his homeland and go to the land of promise.

Now Rebekah leaves her homeland and goes to that same land.

The next generation is entering the promise.

AND THEN ISAAC SEES HER

Near the end of the chapter, Isaac is in the field.

He looks up.

The camels are coming.

Rebekah sees Isaac and asks the servant:

“What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us?”
— Genesis 24:65

The servant answers:

“It is my master.”

Then comes one of the quietest and most beautiful endings in Genesis:

“And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.”
— Genesis 24:67

Don't miss how Genesis has arranged the story.

Chapter 23 begins with Sarah's death.

Chapter 24 ends with Rebekah entering Sarah's tent.

Sarah is gone.

Rebekah has arrived.

One generation is passing.

Another generation is taking its place.

THEN ABRAHAM DIES

Genesis 25 gives us the final events of Abraham's life.

He has other descendants through Keturah.

But Genesis makes an important distinction:

“And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.”
— Genesis 25:5

The covenant line remains with Isaac.

Then Abraham dies:

“Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age...”
— Genesis 25:8

And who buries him?

“And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah...”
— Genesis 25:9

The same place Abraham purchased when Sarah died.

Abraham is buried beside Sarah.

The man who entered Canaan as a stranger now lies in the small piece of Canaan that actually belonged to him.

But God's story doesn't end at Abraham's grave.

READ THE NEXT SENTENCE

This may be the sentence that explains the whole section:

“And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac...”
— Genesis 25:11

There it is.

ABRAHAM DIED.

THE PROMISE DIDN'T.

God's plan had never depended upon Abraham living forever.

Sarah died.

God's promise remained.

Abraham died.

God's promise remained.

The first generation passed away.

God blessed Isaac.

LOOK AT THE WHOLE MOVEMENT

Now step back and look at Genesis 22 through 25.

Genesis 22 — THE SON

Isaac appears destined to die.

But God provides.

The promised son lives.

Genesis 23 — THE LAND

Sarah dies while Abraham is still a stranger.

Abraham purchases Machpelah.

The family now possesses a piece of the promised land.

Genesis 24 — THE NEXT GENERATION

Isaac needs a wife.

God leads the servant to Rebekah.

The promised family can continue.

Genesis 25 — ABRAHAM DIES

Abraham's life ends.

But then:

“God blessed his son Isaac.”

The promise moves forward.

GOD'S PLAN IS BIGGER THAN ONE PERSON

That may be one of the most important lessons in this section of Genesis.

Abraham was enormously important.

But God's plan was never about Abraham alone.

Abraham was part of something God was doing that began before Abraham was born and would continue long after Abraham died.

Eventually Isaac will die.

Jacob will die.

Joseph will die.

Moses will die.

David will die.

The prophets will die.

Generations will come and go.

But God's purpose keeps moving.

And eventually the promise given to Abraham reaches the One toward whom the story has been moving.

Paul writes:

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made... And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
— Galatians 3:16

Abraham could not see everything God was going to do.

He didn't need to.

He needed to trust the One who made the promise.

PERHAPS THAT IS WHY A GRAVE IS SUCH AN APPROPRIATE BEGINNING

Genesis 23 begins with Abraham standing beside Sarah's body.

Humanly speaking, death seems to say:

It's over.

But Abraham buys a grave in the land of promise.

Then Rebekah comes.

Isaac marries.

Abraham dies.

And God blesses Isaac.

Death does not stop God's purpose.

One generation hands the promise to another.

And the story continues.

THE PEOPLE DIE.

THE PROMISE LIVES.

TEXT B4 TRADITION

Read First. Conclude Later.

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