The Death of Sarah and Land in Canaan (Gen 23:1-20)
The Death of Sarah
Gen 23
Connection/Tension
There are times where my life feels so mundane and unspiritual. I wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, go to sleep, and I can lack a sense of God’s presence and power on my life. And that feels like a disconnect from the Scriptures and from the Jesus I follow who always had God’s life and energy overflowing from him. I can feel this sometimes when I’m sitting at the table with my family or cleaning and house, and there just doesn’t seem to be anything exceptional or godly about my life- I’m just going about doing the next thing. And that can be troubling to me.
Are you wanting to grow with me in living less mundane, less dry, more spiritual lives in the presence of God and the power of the Spirit?
As we jump into our passage, we will keep learning from Abraham’s life, and he is going to help us in this area:
Context
We are reaching the end of our journey with Abraham and Sarah. Over the next few chapters, we will witness the death of this great couple, and we will come to an end of this section of Genesis.
At this point in the story, Abraham has passed the greatest test he has yet faced and offered to lay down the life of his son Isaac in obedience to his God.
Now, after that climatic victory, we find this family back in a familiar place, wandering about Canaan from place to place with no place to call their home…[1]
Revelation
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.
During their continuous wanderings, they reach a moment of loss and mourning: Abraham’s wife Sarah dies.
Sarah is the only woman whom the Bible records her age, death, and burial-[2] an indication of her large role in the story of God’s people.
She dies “in the land of Canaan,” another victory to acknowledge in the incredible story of her life. At the start and throughout it all, she trusted God’s promises to her husband Abraham and left behind everything they ever knew and stayed with him though all kinds of trials and mistreatments. She has her moments of ugly failure, yet, at the end of it all, she died in faith in the land God brought them to.
Righty does Abraham mourn and weep for the loss of his companion in life. She represented God’s greatest provision for him for she was his helper and through her womb came the child of promise. Sarah joins Abraham as a hero of the faith.
As a hero of the faith, Sarah stands forth as a model of femininity and an example for women of God to follow (1 Pet 3:5 – 6). She lived a life of serving her husband, serving her family, and serving the people of God. She’s not the first, and she’s not the last woman God uses to rescue the world. Ever since the beginning, God had promised he would bring forth a male deliverer through a woman (Gen 3:15), and Sarah wonderfully participates in that plan.
Ladies who are married, making your husbands, your families, and your local church your focus and priority is a really good life (the Apostle Peter specifically praises her for how she submitted to her husband’s leadership). Following Sarah on this path is a great path to walk. Our culture often looks down at a woman making her husband and family her priority and focus, but Sarah wouldn’t, and neither would our God.
And to you women who are not yet in the position of having a family (maybe you don’t want one or you’re still waiting), if you serve Jesus with all your heart and completely surrender to his leadership, you’re already serving the one that earthly marriage points to. Earthly marriage is good, but it’s not everything- Jesus is.
Now let’s return to our story and see what happens next after Abraham mourns for Sarah,
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.”
Abraham rises from his mourning to speak with the Hittites, a people group of Canaan who were in possession of some of its land.
He identifies himself as a “sojourner and foreigner.” The Hebrew word for “sojourner” means someone who “leaves village or tribe because of war, famine, blood guilt, etc. and seeks shelter or residence in another place, where his right of landed property… has been curtailed.”[3] A more modern word that captures this idea is “refugee.” What’s different about Abaham is that he entered this needy and difficult state not because of war or famine, but because of the call of God, and his faithful obedience to it. It was a test that proved and grew his faith- one he had to live out decade after decade after decade…
As a refugee, Abraham has no land to bury his dead. He finds himself in a humble and low place, asking the local people to sell him property so that he can have a burial place for Sarah.
One thing we will notice throughout this story is that Abraham’s story, as it unfolds in these ordinary events, at another level, represent the bigger story of humanity and the people of God.
At one level, this is a story of Abraham finding a place to bury Sarah.
At another level, Moses, the author, is using Abraham’s life to symbolize greater realities to teach us about God and about ourselves.
In this verse, when Abraham calls himself a “sojourner and foreigner,” his words connect to the larger story of Genesis and humanity. To be a “sojourner and foreigner” is to be someone far away from home, and without a home, and struggling to survive in this world without this great necessity!
This image helps capture what it is to be a human being in this fallen age. To be a human in Abraham’s time and our own is to be East of Eden and outside of our true home. Because of the sins of our first parents and our own, we live outside of the world God intended for us and we find ourselves surrounded by thorns and thistles rather than fruitful trees.
That’s the clue that we are all away from home, the thorn pricks we continually receive from this life.
Who here doesn’t have a painful relationship you have to navigate?
Who here doesn’t have some pain in your body you have to endure?
Who here doesn’t have unhealthy emotions to regulate?
Who here doesn’t feel lonely or alienated from others?
Who here doesn’t encounter frustrations or annoyances?
Who here isn’t sad that one day will die or that someone you love has died and you can’t talk to them again in this life?
These things are all reminders that, as much of a home that we can make or enjoy at times in this world, it’s not the home we were made for and it’s not the home we need (it will be when Jesus comes back and makes all things new, but for the moment, we are exiles).
Thankfully, as we will see, God has a plan to bring Abraham home and all of his people home.
So, getting back to the story, how then do the inhabitants of the land respond to Abraham’s request?
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.
The Hittites respond in a startling way to this wonderer who hasn’t possessed a bit of land in all these years. They call him “a prince of God among us.” They refer to him as having the authority and the dignity of a ruler- a strange statement since he possesses to land. Yet, throughout his life, he has waged war and conquered kings (Gen 14) and made covenants and agreements (Gen 18:27). Though not was not grasping for temporal power and fame, God has been in the process of elevating this man to a place of rule and exultation befitting of a ruler.[4]
What’s remarkable is that the kings of Canaan recognize that God is the source of his exaltation because they call him “a prince of God.” God has made Abraham great in a way that does not draw attention to Abraham’s greatness, but to God’s. In Gen 14, Abraham refused the riches of Canaan, simply to clarify that men had not provided for his needs, but God had!
Abraham became great not by grasping at the riches and successes of this world, but by laying them down so that he could have more of God and be more like God![5]
What’s amazing about Abaham is that he lived an otherworldly life, and people who didn’t know and love God yet could recognize it.[6]
How did he do it? (And you could ask the same thing about Jesus, who lived an even more radically otherworldly life).
Abraham’s ultimate goals and purposes in life did not terminate on this world, in things he could see and touch. His ultimate goals and purposes were in another world (Heb 11:10). He desired not what this life could offer, but what God offers to all who surrender everything to him. That’s the difference between a worldly and otherworldly life, what world are you living for?
If you find your ultimate purposes and meaning in what you can get in this life, your life will look very much like everyone else’s.
If you look for those in God and in the new creation he will bring, you will get radical. You’ll do things like move to another country to make disciples or invite the poor into your home for a feast. You will do things that testify to others that you have treasure beyond this life and they will see and sense God in you.
Abraham lives this kind of radical life (leaving his inheritance a lifetime behind him to wonder in this strange land with nothing but the presence of God as his treasure). The Hittites can tell, call him a “Prince of God” and now address him with honor and hear his request. Let’s hear that conversation,
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.”
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.” 12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land.
Now that the rulers of the Hittites have granted Abraham to request a burial place, he names a specific one- the cave of Machpelah, on the edge of Ephron’s field. Abraham insists here for the first time of paying the full price of the field. Ephron, who happens to be there, responds that Abraham can have the field as a burial place- at the very least indicating that he was open to selling it. Abraham interprets this response as gracious, and bows down a second time, again honoring his neighbors, then he continues to speak,
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.
Abraham insists now a second time on paying the full purchase price of the field. This time Ephron accepts his offer and sells it to him for four hundred shekels of silver (a shekel being a measurement of weight).
Why does Abraham insist on buying the field? Why not just accept it as a gift?
John Sailhamer was helpful for me. He pointed out that this was not the first time Abraham refused a gift from a Canaanite king. We mentioned before that when the king of Sodom offered Abraham the spoils of war, he refused, lest any man should say, “I have made Abram rich” (14:23). Abraham’s insistence on buying the field likely points to his commitment to his life displaying that God is provider.[7]
Another way to think of this is that God promised this land to Abraham and his descendants. He firmly trusts that promise and insists that it comes to him by God’s hand and not by the hand of another.[8] And now we see Abraham successfully obtain this burial site,
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.
You wouldn’t think it, but this is yet another moment of great victory for Abraham. At the moment of losing Sarah, his greatest treasure, he gains something of immense importance: his first portion of land in Canaan.
Decades ago, God had promised Abraham a kingdom: both a multitude of offspring and all of Canaan. By the end of his life, he has not obtained the fullness of these promises, but the first fruits. He has so far obtained a son, and now he receives his first portion of land.
This field of land is concrete pointers to the future: his seed will one day be the lords of all of Canaan. Sometimes the Bible tells us things, and sometimes it shows us things with pictures and stories. Here, the Bible is showing us something: “God always keeps his promises!” This small inheritance is a pointer to the future inheritance is coming when Abraham’s family possesses all of Canaan (1 Kings 4:20 – 21).
This pattern seems to be how God works in the world: he has a plan to make all things right and turn this world in a perfect home for his people all over again. In the meantime, he gives us foretastes of the world to come in the amazing blessings we experience in the present as God’s people.
All of the good things we enjoy as God’s people are realities of the age to come, coming to us now through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how God wants us to live by faith: to receive small amounts of our future inheritance now and keep hoping he will make everything right when Jesus comes back. Here are some examples of what I mean:
When we read the Word and pray, and we have a sense that God is near, that’s his presence that will be everywhere and always be available in the world to come that we are accessing right now.
When we gather to sing (and I’m thinking especially at the moments where the worship band stops playing and it’s just our voices) and we experience the love and beauty of God, that’s the love and beauty of God coming into our world from a future one (and that’s what it will always be like when Jesus rules as king).
When God miraculously heals bodies, he brings the wholeness and health from the world to come into our own.
One time, I was out evangelizing on the streets of Minneapolis with a group of bold and powerful evangelists. We met a young man who shared with our group that he had knee pain and we asked if we could pray for him. After we reached out our hands and called on God to heal this man. Thankfully, God healed him. Yet, I don’t think this young man expected it because he started running away frightened, yelling, “what did you do to me?” It took a few moments for him to calm down and to come back and talk to us about the God who heals. God brought a sign from the world to be into the world that is as a testimony to who he is and what he can do.
This is what we are praying for, all these things and more, when we pray, “your kingdom come!”
Christ and the Church
Jesus is the greatest example of this of all. He was the perfect human being who doesn’t belong to this time (he belongs to the future time when all things are right). And by his life, death, and resurrection, he begins to bring new creation life and blessing to his people in this time and secure it for us in full when he comes back to make all things new.
And when we follow him and live like him, our lives have the very same function, our lives become pointers not to the world as it is, but to the world as it should be and the world as it will be when the king returns to rule.
How could we live like this in our church community?
Our church community is like this little piece of land Abraham purchased. It’s a picture of the future in the present. In this place, God’s kingdom, influence, and rule holds sway rather than that of our flesh or the world. Just as Abraham became the Lord of this little bit of land where he buried his wife, the Lord Jesus reigns here and we await for him to return to raise all of his people to live that never ends.
And here is one reason our church value “love his family” is so crucial! When we love one another (instead of fragmenting and fighting), our church community becomes a clearer picture of heaven where there will be no division- only love, unity, and peace without end. The more we love one another, the more the future breaks into the present, and the more our neighbors, family, and friends will want to partake with us.
Jesus rose from the grave not so that we could just have our sins forgiven and keep living like this world is our home and all we have. He rose from the grave so we could live for another world and supernatural lives like his in this one, and so that not only each one of us, but our whole community could become otherworldly. Let’s pray. **SPECIAL NOTE: The last section of this manuscript changed greatly when this sermon was preached (beginning with the exposition of verses 17 and beyond).
Reflection Questions:
1. What’s one earthly blessing you’re clinging onto that you need to let go of in your heart so you can be freer to love others?
2. What’s one new way you would behave if you truly believed that the life and world to come mean infinitely more than this life?
[1] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on Genesis, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009), 577.
[2] Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 29.
[3] Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 201.
[4] Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, Second Edition. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 272.
[5] Chystostom helped me here in Mark Sheridan, ed., Genesis 12–50, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 118.
[6] I got this term from Jeff Vanderselt in a zoom conversation.
[7] John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary, ed. Gary Lee (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 180.
[8] Daniel Simmons helped me with this observation.