Sunday
Morning Bible Study
April 29,
2007
Introduction
Illustration
A couple from Minneapolis
decided to go to Florida for a
long weekend to thaw out during one particularly icy winter. Because both had
jobs, they had difficulty coordinating their travel schedules. It was decided
that the husband would fly to Florida
on a Thursday, and his wife would follow him the next day. Upon arriving as
planned, the husband checked into the hotel. There he decided to open his laptop
and send his wife an e-mail back in Minneapolis.
However, he accidentally left off one letter in her address, and sent the
e-mail without realizing his error. In Houston,
a widow had just returned from her husband’s funeral. He was a minister of many
years who had been ‘called home to glory’ following a heart attack. The widow
checked her e-mail, expecting messages from relatives and friends. Upon reading
the first message, she fainted and fell to the floor. The widow’s son rushed
into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen,
which read:
To: My Loving Wife
From: Your Departed Husband
Subject: I’ve Arrived!
I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I’ve seen that everything has
been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then!
Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.
P.S. Sure is hot down here!
We’ve come quite a long way in our journey with this man of faith,
Abraham. We’ve seen him perform great
feats of heroism. We’ve seen him act like
a coward. We’ve seen him trust God. We’ve seen him act out in the flesh.
Today we’re going to see him dealing with something that is common to all
men, the death of a loved one.
:1 Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of
the life of Sarah.
Abraham would be 137 years old. Isaac would be 37 years old.
We are often told how long men lived in the Bible. This is the only place where we know how old
a woman was – I guess it has something to do with asking a woman her age…
:2 So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron)
in the land of Canaan,
and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
Kirjath Arba – “city of Arba”
Hebron – “association”
This is one of the places where Abraham has lived. When Lot
chose to live in the Jordan
valley, this was the first place Abraham spent some time at (Gen. 13:8). This
was where Abraham was living when he heard about Lot
being captured by the Eastern kings (Gen. 14:13). This is where the Lord
visited Abraham and Sarah to tell them about the upcoming birth of their son
Isaac (Gen. 18).
Lesson
Mourning
mourn – caphad – to wail,
lament, mourn
This is the first time the word “mourn” is found in the Bible, and it is
used for a godly man mourning and weeping over the death of his beloved wife.
Jesus said,
(Mat 5:4 NKJV)
Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He took the righteous believers with Him to
heaven. But prior to the resurrection, the
place where the righteous believers went at death was called “Abraham’s bosom”
(Luke 16:22). It was seen as a place where the righteous
dead were comforted.
(2 Cor
1:3-4 NKJV) Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
{4} who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are
comforted by God.
I find it fascinating that Abraham mourned. Abraham was comforted. Abraham’s bosom was known as a place of
comfort.
God understands grief.
When Jesus’ friend Lazarus died, Jesus went to visit Lazarus’ sisters
Martha and Mary.
(John
11:32-36 NKJV) Then, when Mary came
where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him,
"Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." {33}
Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping,
He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. {34} And He said, "Where have
you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." {35}
Jesus wept. {36} Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"
I know that some of us preachers will say that Jesus was
weeping over the unbelief of the people and that may be. But the Scripture doesn’t specifically say
that. And even though the Jews may have
been wrong about Jesus’ reason for weeping, I’m not sure I read where John
corrected their view.
I think Jesus understands what it is to lose a loved one.
God understands and pays attention to your loss.
(Psa 56:8 NKJV)
You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in
Your book?
God wants to bring you comfort. God wants to use you to bring others comfort
as well.
:3 Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of
Heth, saying,
sons of Heth – these are the people known as the “Hittites”. The
Hittites would become a great empire in about six hundred years. The Hittite empire of ancient times was
centered in the area of modern Turkey
and did not extend this far, but apparently there are a few pockets of Hittites
that settled in the south. Esau would marry two Hittite girls (Gen. 26:34). The
Hittites were a part of the inhabitants of Canaan that Joshua
conquered (Josh. 9:1). David had some Hittites among his men, including a man
named Uriah who was married to a gal named Bathsheba (2Sam. 11:3).
:4 "I am a foreigner and a visitor among you.
Even though we see Abraham as a wealthy man because of the size of his
flocks and the number of servants, up to this point, Abraham does not own any
property in the land of Canaan.
Lesson
Just passing through
(Heb 11:9-10 NKJV) By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a
foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
the same promise; {10} for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose
builder and maker is God.
This isn’t all there is. There is a
city we will one day go to that will be our real home.
Illustration
When you go on a trip to a foreign country, some countries are more foreign
than others.
When you’re in Russia
or in Israel,
one of the first things you notice is that you can’t read the signs. Both Russian and Hebrew alphabets are unlike
anything we’re used to. It’s “foreign”
to us.
There is a sense beloved that we ought to feel a little “foreign” in this
world we live in. When we start feeling
too comfortable and too familiar with this world I think we’re headed for
trouble.
When someone tells a dirty joke a work, it ought to sound like a foreign
language to us. When people talk about
how to take advantage of a customer, it ought to feel out of place.
Peter writes,
(1 Pet 2:11-12 NKJV) Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, {12} having your conduct
honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers,
they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of
visitation.
The “day of visitation” is the day a person meets
God. Hopefully there will be more than a
few people who will give thanks to God for the things we said and the things we
did that caused them to turn their lives over to the Lord.
But it won’t happen if we are too much “at home” in the
world. Only if we’re “strangers”.
:4 Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead
out of my sight."
This is the first mention of burial in the Bible. When death comes to a
body, after 24 hours the body begins to decay.
Eventually it will attract wild animals.
Burial was practiced quickly.
Lesson
Death and Burial
Burial customs have changed through the years.
Some people have customs about the funeral procession …
Illustration
A woman was leaving the corner convenience store with her morning coffee
when she noticed a most unusual funeral procession approaching the nearby
cemetery. A long, black hearse was followed by a second long, black hearse
about 50 feet behind. Behind the second hearse was a solitary woman walking a
pit bull on a leash. Behind her were 200 women walking single file. The woman
couldn’t stand the curiosity. She respectfully approached the woman walking the
dog and said, “I am so sorry for your loss, and I know now is a bad time to
disturb you, but I’ve never seen a funeral like this. Whose funeral is it? “The
woman replied, “Well, that first hearse is for my husband.” “What happened to
him?” The woman replied, “My dog attacked and killed him.” She inquired
further, “Well, who is in the second hearse?” The woman answered, “My
mother-in-law. She was trying to help my husband when the dog turned on her.” A
poignant and thoughtful moment of silence passed between the two women. “Could
I borrow that dog?” “Get in line.”
Some people have customs about the words said at a funeral…
Illustration
Ol’ Fred had been a faithful Christian and was in the hospital, near death.
The family called their pastor to stand with them. As the pastor stood next to
the bed, Ol’ Fred’s condition appeared to deteriorate and he motioned
frantically for something to write on. The pastor lovingly handed him a pen and
a piece of paper, and Ol’Fred used his last bit of energy to scribble a note,
then he died. The pastor thought it best not to look at the note at that time,
so he placed it in his jacket pocket. At the funeral, as he was finishing the
message, he realized that he was wearing the same jacket that he was wearing
when Ol’ Fred died. He said, “You know, ol’ Fred handed me a note just before
he died. I haven’t looked at it, but knowing Fred, I’m sure there’s a word of
inspiration there for us all.” He opened the note, and read, “Please move,
you’re standing on my oxygen tube!”
In the ancient times, a typical burial consisted of a body wrapped in
clothes and placed on a carved out shelf in the wall of a cave. When the body was decomposed, the bones would
be collected into a common pit.
By the time of Jesus, the Greek culture had affected much of the
world. The Greeks were very
self-centered. They were concerned about
the appearance of their bodies. They
didn’t want their bones being mingled with other people. So, for the very rich,
a body was placed in a limestone sarcophagus, a stone coffin the size of the
body. You had a space all to yourself.
For those who couldn’t afford this, they would “borrow” a sarcophagus for
11 months, which is how long it would take for the limestone to decompose the
body until all that was left was bones.
Then the bones would be taken and placed in a separate “bone box” called
an “ossuary”.
Back in the time of Abraham, they followed the tradition of allowing the
body to decompose and then putting the bones in a common pit.
Some see this as part of what it means when the Scripture says …
(Judg 2:10 NKJV) When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers …
Sarah would not be the only one to be buried here. This is also where
Abraham would be buried (Gen. 25:9).
Eventually, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob would all be buried in this
same place. There is also a Jewish tradition that this is where Adam and Eve
are buried, though this is not found in the Bible. There is a mosque there
today that covers a system of caves.
What is the proper way to bury
the dead?
I am not aware of any Scripture that indicates how a person should be
buried.
Some folks are curious about cremation – is it okay to cremate a body? What takes years inside a coffin takes 30
minutes inside a crematorium. I don’t
see any problem with speeding up the process.
On the other hand, if you choose to honor your loved ones with an expensive
coffin, gravesite, and grave stone – that’s wonderful too.
What happens at death?
Here’s what we do know will happen:
When a believer dies, their spirit goes immediately to be with the Lord in
heaven.
Paul says that to be “absent from the body” is the same
thing as being “present with the Lord” (2Cor. 5:8)
Paul talks about his own death and describes it as
(Phil 1:23 NKJV)
…having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
God does not intend for dead believers to simply be disembodied spirits in
heaven, but there will also be a day when we our spirit will be reunited with a
physical, resurrected body.
In Paul’s day, they were expecting Jesus to come back at any moment. And some folks were worried about those who
had died before Jesus came back. Would
they miss out on the resurrection?
(1 Th
4:13-18 NKJV) But I do not want you
to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you
sorrow as others who have no hope. {14} For if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
The proof that our physical bodies will one day be raised
from the dead is based on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. When Jesus returns in the rapture, a
resurrection will take place.
{15} For this we say to you by the word of the
Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no
means precede those who are asleep.
Paul is describing this event we call “The Rapture”. At the time of the rapture, there will be
some of us still alive in our old bodies on this earth. And we won’t be getting our new bodies before
those folks who have already died and are in heaven.
{16} For the Lord Himself will descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of
God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
There will be a trumpet blown, and those who have already
died before us will receive their new bodies.
{17} Then we who are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And
thus we shall always be with the Lord. {18} Therefore comfort one another with
these words.
After the dead have received their new bodies, then we too
will receive our new bodies without having to experience this thing called
death. Paul says it will happen in the
“twinkling of an eye” (1Cor. 15:52). One moment we will be looking at things as
normal, and the next moment we will find ourselves “in the air” and in the
Lord’s presence.
:5 And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,
:6 "Hear us, my lord: You are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead
in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his
burial place, that you may bury your dead."
mighty prince – the Hebrew text reads “a prince with God”. Maybe they heard the stories of Abimelech
finding out that Abraham was a prophet.
They themselves had witnessed how Abraham had taken on the Eastern Kings
to rescue Lot and the people of Sodom
(Gen. 14).
Abraham had a good testimony among these people.
When we lose our loved ones, we have an opportunity to impact those around
us who don’t know the Lord.
A funeral is an amazing opportunity to share the gospel. The reality of death makes our faith so much
more real. We have real hope that there
is life after this one. We believe this
because Jesus rose from the dead.
:7 Then Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, the
sons of Heth.
:8 And he spoke with them, saying, "If it is your wish that I bury my
dead out of my sight, hear me, and meet with Ephron the son of Zohar for me,
:9 "that he may give me the cave
of Machpelah which he has, which is
at the end of his field. Let him give it to me at the full price, as property
for a burial place among you."
Machpelah – Makpelah –
“double” or “portion”
It seems that Abraham only wants to buy the cave, not the entire field. Ephron will want to sell the field as well.
Apparently Hittite law required Ephron to be responsible for taxes on the
entire property if he sold Abraham only the cave, but not if he sold him the
entire parcel.
:10 Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite
answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Heth, all who entered at the
gate of his city, saying,
The gate of a city was where legal transactions took place.
:11 "No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and the cave that is
in it; I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people. I give it to
you. Bury your dead!"
Ephron is not really offering to give the cave away. This is middle eastern haggling, simply a
nice way of saying that he’s willing to sell it.
:12 Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land;
:13 and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land,
saying, "If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for
the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there."
:14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,
:15 "My lord, listen to me; the land is worth four hundred shekels of
silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead."
:16 And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out the silver for
Ephron which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred
shekels of silver, currency of the merchants.
Apparently this is a pretty high price for a field in those days. This is supposed to be the beginning of the
haggling process. Ephron starts at a
high number and is supposed to haggle with Abraham until they get to the real
price. But Abraham doesn’t want to
habble and he will pay the high price.
:17 So the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre,
the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the
field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded
:18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before
all who went in at the gate of his city.
:19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field
of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron)
in the land of Canaan.
:20 So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the
sons of Heth as property for a burial place.
There is a sense in which Abraham has declared that Canaan
is his home.
The custom was to be buried in your native land.
You will see this when Jacob dies in Egypt and Joseph has his father’s body
taken back and buried in Canaan, in this very cave.
By purchasing this property, Abraham is saying that even though he was a
“pilgrim” just passing through, that his mail still got delivered to Canaan.
God had told Abraham (Gen. 15:13-16) that though his descendants would
spend 400 years in Egypt,
they would come back and live in this land.
I wonder if this chapter isn’t a hint at the hope of things to come.
We can look at it and focus on the death of Sarah and the loss to Abraham.
But Abraham’s actions speak of the future.
His actions hint at his trusting God’s promise that one day this land
would belong to him and his ancestors.
For us, when we’ve lost a loved one who knew the Lord, we too have hope.
(1 Th 4:13 NKJV)
…lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
When we’ve lost a loved one, we will have sorrow because we miss them.
But we have more than sorrow. We
have hope. We have hope in a
resurrection. We have hope that we will
see them again. We know we haven’t
“lost” a loved one because they’re not “lost” – we know exactly where they are.
You can’t have this “hope” apart from Jesus Christ. If you are a person looking for hope today,
you need Jesus Christ.