Dealing during heartbreak
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Q: For those who have experienced the loss of someone that they love.
1. How difficult is it to cope when you are dealing with heartbreak?
Recap-
Last time we spoke about God testing Abraham. God commanded that Abraham sacrifice Isaac. Abraham obeyed every step of the way.
He did not linger, did not say no, did not give excuses. He believed that God was going to keep his promise.
And God did, he stopped Abraham from bringing down the knife on Isaac.
Abraham was about to experience loss, but God prevented in.
Now we will see the trial of Abraham actually losing his wife Sarah.
Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 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 was blessed to live until 127 years.
She lived to see her son Isaac to grow up.
For Abraham
Sarah was there with him when God told them to leave the land of his fathers.She helped with packing and moving everything to the promised land of Canaan.
She was there through the waiting of the promise of their offspring.
She was there when the servants of Abraham and Lot were arguing and had to split.
She was there when Abraham had to round up his servants to go after the armies that took Lot and rescue him.
When God mad the covenant with Abraham and put him in a deep sleep.
She tried he best to advise Abraham but ended up quarreling with Hagar.
When the three visitors came she was there and when Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, she was there.
She was there when Abraham lead her and their family well and she was there when he didnt and made mistakes with Abimelech.
She was there to hear that Abraham came back and did not sacrifice their son.
The spent a lot of time together. Next to God she was the closest person to Abraham.
Notice: The man of God will not be free of pain or suffering.
The man of God will experience great loss.
As someone who God loves, have you thought about what kind of loss you expect in your own life?
Do you anticipate to have a family member be ill
or die? Are you ready for it?
A wife to emulate
A wife to emulate
For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
Abraham all in on the promise
Abraham all in on the promise
Abraham was in the land of Hebron when she died.
It is customary that when family members die that they get buried in the family tomb.
For Abraham that is in the land of Haran.
So technically he should be going back there to bury Sarah. Let see what happens.
And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, “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.”
Q: How does Abraham refer to himself to the Hittites?
A sojourner. He is a foreigner.
But wait. Did God not promise the land to him?
Abraham is now, 137 years old, 10 years older than Sarah. He still does now possess the land.
He is asking to buy the property from the Hittites the land that should belong to him.
Abraham will not go back to Haran to bury her. Why?
He is committed to the promise that God made to him. Even if he does not have it right now.
How can he be so sure after so long?
Like we said before, He has experienced God’s keeping His promise over and over and over again. He know better than to doubt God.
The Hittites Answer
The Hittites Answer
The Hittites answered Abraham, “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.” Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. 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, 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.” 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, “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.”
They go back and forth on the land.
Notice the two parties in the discussion.
Abraham, 1 single individual on one side
The Hittities, a large group of people. The entire nation perhaps? On the other.
Lesson - The man of God will be exalted to high places.
Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 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.” Ephron answered Abraham, “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.” 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.
They keep going. Abraham knows the exact tomb he wants and who owns it.
They keep offering it to him and he does not budge.
Abraham does not feel a sense of entitlement, even for the land that God promised him.