Genesis 23:1-4 KJV
1 And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.
2 And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,
4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
Amen, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome to the cafe, pastor Clark Covington here the another episode of KJV cafe Just finished off a oat milk decaf latte It's fun being in your 40s. Amen Definitely wouldn't have been decaf 10 or 20 years ago. I'll tell you that But now that's that's where we're at But man, it's good to be at the cafe. Hopefully you're having a great day great week sun is shining. It's beautiful outside And we are gonna dive right in here. We're tackling all of Genesis 23 in just a few episodes and last episode we spoke about this idea That Abraham made sure That it was noted That he made sure that the purchase was secure that the witnesses were there of this cave of Macphelia, right and What's so fascinating about Genesis 23 is that there's a lot of modern-day Stuff happening right like I spoke a lot about the idea of conflict over this This actual building or like compound if you would between Muslims and Israelis between the Palestinians and That's true. It's there like again. They have very hard rules things have happened in the past people have gotten killed there before It's you know, all this stuff They can only Israelis can only go in one entrance almost every day of the year But one day of the year can go in the other entrance and all this stuff But how about this the conflict in Palestine in general? You know, I was just thinking of this like The when the Israelis say this is our land, right and the whole world is saying let's get a two-state solution And we go to Genesis 23 This is an example of how it really is their land, and I know that's not popular to say and I know that I'm not going to Find myself on any diplomatic committees for saying it, but it's true. It's their land and Abraham is pointing this out You know through Genesis 23 that he wants to make it clear. He's buying this, you know now God gave him all the land so just a little note about that you can see it throughout scripture You know when that's so if we're biblically literate we would have a very unique view of the tensions in the Middle East Number one we'd understand that God gave them the land not just by the way modern-day Israel But if you look at the boundaries of the land, it's much bigger than that Okay, and I'm not an expert in in Geology, I'm not an expert in geology. That's rocks, right or geography or or you know anything else really GIS or any of it, but It's much bigger than what you see, you know if you look on the map It's just so tiny, but God promised them a fair bit of land right and then Biblically speaking we understand that in the end times in the last days and as I understand it during the tribulation period which would be after the rapture of the church that all the enemies of Israel are Like surrounding Israel like they're literally in the valley of Megiddo Which is a real place as well, and that's the idea of Armageddon where God returns and wipes out Israel's enemies Miraculously right when they're ready to finally just destroy them Okay, and so when you see the tensions in the Middle East you see that it's very biblical and very telling of the end times And I'm not somebody that's setting a date here Or there or anything other than to say that I believe we're at the very end at the end times like in my mind in my heart I'm prepared for the Lord to come back at any moment. I really believe that there's been times I thought he would already we went to vote the other day early voting for the presidential election and I kind of was just Laughing chuckling to myself. We're still here, you know, I thought after I thought four years ago. Yeah, that'd be about it But hey, he's coming soon and when we look at all of these things we're biblically literate we understand that Israel That's that's God's chosen people. We understand his land is actually not just what they have but bigger than what they have We understand that this two-state solution will never work because God is it in charge and God is at work And we understand that chapters like Genesis 23 help us to understand that there is biblical foundation for the Israelites saying This is ours, you know, like literally we bought it, but but anyways I mean again step back from the political stuff and the current events to just get back into the scripture So we understand Sarah. She's a hundred twenty seven when she dies How old would Isaac be at that time? He would have been 37, okay? So Isaac was born when Sarah was 90 and Abraham was a hundred and so if we understand that Sarah being 90 when Isaac was born And she dies at 127 then we can deduce here that Isaac would have been 37 and We see an interesting thing here In verse two and Sarah died Encouraged araba the same as Hebron in the land of Canaan and again, we've identified Hebron as Modern-day Hebron. We identified it's in modern-day Palestine. We identified it as 20-some miles from Jerusalem It's also 26 miles from bear shiba and look at this in verse 2 of Genesis 23 and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her And we're gonna talk about that when come back from this break. So stay tuned Hey, it's break time around here. Thank you for listening to KJV cafe If you haven't already visit KJV cafe.com for more information So when we look at verse 2 of Genesis 23 The latter part here and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and weep for he, you know, if you were thinking of a married couple, right? You wouldn't have to come to the house if you're already in the house, right? So married couple they're old and age the wife dies and The husband was there with her, right? And so when we read this it's a little bit different. You're like wait Where was he coming from? Now again in the last chapter Genesis 22? We see that after Lord relieves Abraham of having to sacrifice Isaac provides the ram in the thicket They return to bear shiba. They're obedient to God. They go back to where they had been and we understand that the biblical saying is the land of the Philistines Okay, so he goes there and we understand that bear shiba is not the same as Hebron So here is kind of what could be going on number one? He could have been in bear shiba handling business and she could have been in Hebron number two It could have simply meant that he was in another tent and so in Bible times The husband and the wife would stay in different tents, right? Sarah had her tent. He had his tent Remember they were sojourners. They were traveling through the land. They were also involved with cattle So it could be that he was out with the cattle in the pasture and it came into Weep for her and he says he wept for her and so it's just an interesting little tidbit here but it also shows us just the different way that they were living at that time and You know in certain households today, you may have something where You know the wife has a bedroom and the husband has a bedroom, right? And you know that's not that uncommon in certain societies is also not that uncommon in other societies to have the wife The husband and all the kids in the same room. So you have all kinds of different things But but still, you know, you see here could have been a different tent. It could have been out in the pasture He arrives there and he weeps for her. Amen. He is distraught He is also mourning her, right? And we see here that thereafter He is going to figure out like anyone would Now I need to bury her. So up to this point that need wasn't there and Now he mourns for her for ever period of time and in verse three Abraham stood up from from before his dad from so he stood up from Being with Sarah and spake unto the sons of heth Okay, and verse four. I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Okay Stranger in the Bible doesn't mean like stranger danger. Oh, there's someone we don't know out here It more would kind of kind of kind of take the term of like an immigrant right or a foreigner, right? And sojourner that idea of pitching the tent the idea of this is in our permanent home, right? And so he's talking to these people the son of heth the sons of heth And they're also called the children of heth and at times past I got duped bad reading around this time around this chapter I think it was this chapter of air of Abraham just bowing himself to the children of heth And I kept thinking there were literal children, but it's just another way to say The the the sons of heth now who are they? They are from the line of Canaan, right? They're from the line of Canaan And so we see here that in Genesis 10 We see this you know you from little you have Noah, right? So Genesis 10 one now these are the generations of the sons of Noah Shem Ham and Jaypeth, right and unto them were sons born after the flood. Okay, and So we see the sons of Jaypeth Gomor, Megar, Maydai, Jayvon, Tubal, Mishish and Tyrus the sons of Gomor on and on And then we have the sons of Ham Cush, Mizraim, Foot and Canaan and so you have you have Noah Then you have Ham one of the sons of Noah. That is the cursed line, right? And then from Ham you have Canaan Right and then from Canaan you have Sidon and Heth Okay, so so you have not that much of a difference really from Noah to Canaan To Heth you have three three generations. Okay, and so that's who these people are Right and that I think would be what connotates the idea of Canaanites because that's from that line and we understand by God's word These were pagan people. These were wicked people These were people that were practicing idolatry in all manner of wickedness so much so the Lord gave them many years to repent and they wouldn't and so the Lord commanded the Israelites to wipe them out and even further in the scripture God gives us Context to what they were doing like sacrificing their children their firstborn to molech the god of fire literally killing their own babies Imagine that even today you still see that through the sin of abortion and killing babies But they were doing it then and all other things horrible stuff and God said you Israelites when you go over there and You occupy the land wipe all of them out if not you'll follow after their their wicked sinful traditions We don't want that so that's who the Canaanites are and from the Canaanites here We have the sons of heth and this is who Abraham is addressing and he's addressing them very Humbly right and we're going to get into this biblical concept of humility in a little bit, but he's addressing them very humbly and He's saying he's a stranger. He's a foreigner, right? He's not he's not one of them Okay, and he by the way knows this so in the very next chapter Abraham asks his his most senior servant to go and and and and find a wife for Isaac among his own people Right and so he knows that these aren't his own people He understands that his brothers had kids and their kids have had kids and so forth He understands that his family line is important and and prevalent in God's plan rather than These people so he's saying I'm a stranger. I'm so I'm not one of you, right? I'm not one of you and you could take it even a step back when like Abraham Was dwelling in the plains and lot was there pitching his tent towards Sodom and then ends up living in Sodom at the end He's at the gate of Sodom when the angels come to burn it down and so forth. Abraham was different. He was living for God He was doing God's will and part of God's will was not to be Co-mingling or calling himself one of them or I'm one of you guys and so forth That's not happening and we do see that happen in the Bible in the book of Ruth, right? We see that Naomi is traveling back to the homeland with Ruth and the other daughter-in-law and Ruth says your God shall be my God and all of these things and Ruth was adopting the culture saying I am turning to your God and Abraham's not doing that here. He's saying I'm a foreigner. I'm a I'm a sojner and I need to buy Give me a possession. I need to buy a burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight and The children of hath answered Abraham saying unto him hear us my Lord thou art a mighty prince among us now remember It was just a few chapters ago when a bimileth King of Garar Was coming to Abraham looking for a treaty a peace treaty and so Abraham. I believe at this time was in a great A great matter of strength, right? Like he had a lot of power and so the Canaanites The the sons of hath the children of hath if you will they certainly understood this and they were like hey Whatever you want you got it, you know, they don't want a problem with Abraham, right? He had a lot of power. I believe at that time God's hands of blessing was certainly upon him and so he goes forth And he makes things sure by buying this property Not taking it not seizing it right not using his power reputation For anything evil, but actually paying for the given price that was named to him by the rightful owner Purchasing this that the cave of McPillia the cave of the patriarchs that we can even see today That's still here today. He purchased it here in Genesis 23. We'll get deeper into this passage in the next episode Thank you for listening. Take care. God bless and amen Thanks for listening to KJV Cafe, and we'll see you at the Cafe tomorrow.
