Abraham's Life Journey (4): Beersheba and Hebron
Abraham's Life Journey • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Scripture reading: Gen. 21:22-24
Scripture reading: Gen. 21:22-24
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
This is the final installment of our four-part series on Abraham’s life journey. And Abraham’s been through a lot ever since God called him. He’s left behind his father. He’s left behind his nephew. He’s made mistakes which his wife may or may not use against him. And now he’s separated from his 17 year old son Ishmael.
Today we will look at the last two places where he lived: Beersheba and Hebron.
Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the 9th place where Abraham lived. It’s at the southernmost part of Canaan, and two key events take place here. First, Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech, the king of Gerar. Second, God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac while he was living in Beersheba.
Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech
Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech
So first, Abraham’s makes a covenant with Abimelech. What happening is that Abraham’s done so well for himself in the land of Canaan that the king of a country comes to him and tries to establish diplomatic relations.
Can you imagine that? Abraham’s this sojourning nomad, a pilgrim living in tents, but Abimelech sees this guy and says, ‘We better get on his good side.’
That’s how well respected Abraham was in the community. And this is what he does. He gets the commander of his army to come with him, and both of them approach Abraham.
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
Abimelech confesses that God is with Abraham in all that he does. Abraham’s life brought glory to God by doing well in everything that he did. We are followers of Christ, so the world is predisposed to look at us as fools who give their time, money, and effort to worship God. But God wants to use the fools to shame the wise of this world. And we can glorify God through our weakness.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
So through his dependence on God, Abraham was able to do well in all things. Supernaturally well, in fact. So much so that God was glorified. The word for ‘glory’ in Hebrew is kabod, and it means ‘to make heavy.’ It means to change people’s attitudes toward God. Where a person once took God lightly, now God is a heavy and serious topic. Through Abraham’s life, Abimelech took God seriously. I pray that through our lives, through our weakness, and through our dependence on God, the people around us will start to take God seriously. When people ask us ‘What was the key to your success?’ We can echo the words of Charles Spurgeon.
My own weakness makes me shrink, but God’s promise makes me brave.
Charles Spurgeon
Now, before things could proceed with the covenant, Abraham confronts Abimelech about an issue. Abraham had dug a well, but Abimelech’s servants seized it for themselves. So Abimelech says he knew nothing about it. And this issue of the well seems insignificant until we realize that the name Beersheba is made of two words: be’er, and sheba.
Be’er is the Hebrew word for ‘well.’ Sheba is the Hebrew word for seven, and it also came to mean ‘oath.’ So Beersheba means ‘well of sevens,’ or ‘well of oath.’
And the place was named accordingly because of the seven ewe lambs that Abraham gave to Abimelech in the covenant ratification.
Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines.
What’s the significance of this covenant? This was the first time in Abraham’s years of sojourning that Abraham has been formally acknowledged as the owner of a piece of property in the land of Canaan. And by no one less than a king of a country. That’s a big deal because it shows God fulfilling His promise of the land.
Abraham offers Isaac on Mt. Moriah
Abraham offers Isaac on Mt. Moriah
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
We don’t know how told Abraham was when he went up to Mt. Moriah, but we do know that Abraham’s faith was perfected there.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
The Greek word for ‘completed’ or some translations say ‘perfected’ is teleio, which means ‘to bring something to its end.’ So when James writes that Abraham’s faith was perfected, what he means is that the trust that Abraham had in God had reached its peak, the highest point.
So what kind of faith did Abraham demonstrate at Moriah?
Abraham had a faith that feared the Lord.
Abraham had a faith that feared the Lord.
He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
The Hebrew word for ‘fear’ is yare and it means ‘to be afraid’ or ‘to revere.’ Now what’s the difference between the two? It’s the difference between Adam and Abraham.
And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
Adam feared the Lord, but his relationship with God was based on the law. God had given him the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge, and he disobeyed. So his fear of the Lord led to him to hide from the Lord.
Abraham feared the Lord too, but his relationship with God was based on the promise. It’s a different foundation. And so even though he feared the Lord, he knew that God was for him and not against him. He knew and trusted in what God had promised him. That’s the fear of the Lord that doesn’t make us hide from God, but instead brings us closer to Him in awe and wonder.
Abraham had a faith that knew God as Jehovah Jireh
Abraham had a faith that knew God as Jehovah Jireh
When God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac at Moriah, God put Abraham’s faith through the test of logic.
God promised Abraham as many descendants as the stars in the sky, and that these descendants would not come through Ishmael, but Isaac.
Now God’s telling Abraham to kill Isaac on Mt. Moriah. So if Isaac dies, how could God’s promise of descendants be fulfilled through Isaac? Isaac was still single, unmarried, and probably had not done the deed with any girls yet. Now he’s about to die without any children to fulfill God’s promise.
But even when things didn’t make sense, Abraham still trusted in God. Even when the situation was impossible, Abraham knew God could do impossible things.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Abraham’s faith isn’t about blindly trusting in God. After the birth of Isaac, Abraham believed in Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, and believed that God would provide whatever is needed to fulfill His covenant promise, even if that means raising Isaac from the dead. That’s how much he trusted God’s promise. It’s about God’s faithfulness to His promise, not to your own desires okay? So please don’t shout Jehovah Jireh and then go sky diving without a parachute.
So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
So what about us? How can we have that faith? We need to know what God has done before, in order to believe that God will do it again. That means we need to study the Bible and the history of redemption, and then put our faith into practice by praying daring prayers that invites God to fulfill His covenant promise in and through our lives. And may we also be able to know God as Jehovah Jireh, the God from whom all blessings flow.
And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
Finally, Abraham goes back to Hebron with his family, and Sarah dies there.
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.
And in order to give his wife a proper burial, Abraham buys the cave of Machpelah from the Hittites in the land of Canaan. He’s such a respected person that they offer him the land for free, but Abraham refuses to pay nothing less than the full price.
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.
At the end of his life, Abraham dies at the age of 175, and he’s buried with his wife in the cave of Machpelah.
These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.
Abraham’s life journey ends with this final verse.
After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.
We said it before, but this bears repeating. God will bless the sons of Abraham. With what blessing? With the blessing of Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. And does that mean God’s going to provide us with everything we ask for? No. But it does mean that God’s going to provide everything in order to fulfil His covenant promise to Abraham and to us. So let us believe and live in light of God’s promise. Let us pray daring prayers for the fulfillment of God’s covenant. And let us hold onto God in times when we are weak, believing that the God of Abraham, Jehovah Jireh, will help us.
For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.