Gen #15

Northside Church

Gen #15 Gen 23

Jamey Mills

1/14/23

Good MORNING Northside, Happy first Sunday of 2024…

I hope you guys have had a great week. Being here with you guys is always a highlight for me. I appreciate how you all come each week ready to hear and engage in God’s Word… Don’t ever stop.

Last week we talked about one of the most difficult chapters in all the scripture. Genesis 22 where Abraham is tested by God… it's only a test… to sacrifice his son Isaac… They go to Mt Moriah… Abraham trusted God… even with what he cherished most… believed that God would make a way… God stopped Abraham and provided for himself a Lamb…

We talked about how this passage all the way back in Gen 22 preaches the Gospel of Jesus in such a clear way… God is pointing… with huge illuminated signs… to Jesus who is coming… Of God’s making a way…

Couple things I came across this week… from a friend and prep… about Gen 22…

The phrase used to describe Isaac in Gen 22 is… only begotten son… Hebrew equivalent of Jn 3:16… God is teaching them what to look for when Jesus comes down to the very words that are used…

The location… Mount Moriah… was expansive… But this location where Abraham was tested… and where the temple would eventually be built literally sits in the shadow of Golgotha where Jesus would die on the cross.

Gen clearly 22 preaches the Gospel… of hope… radical and eternal hope… of Jesus taking our place…

How interesting is it that the very next thing we wrestle with is death… And it feels intentional… like God wants us to look at death with the backdrop of what just happened in Gen 22… of Good intervening… providing lamb… securing his promise…and making a way.

You’ve heard this question… if you knew the # of your days, how would you live your life differently? How would your priorities change?

I’d work less and enjoy more. I’d hold my wife more. I’d plan more with my kids. I’d spend more time with my parents. I’d hold my granddaughter more.

It’s interesting… because even though that's who I want to be… on the day to day… it gets away from. The needs of now… what’s in my face… end up overtaking my days.

The bible talks about death openly… it doesn’t gloss it over… and here are a couple reasons I believe it does that…

Death is a fact of life.

Psalm 139:16 (NLT) is one of the most amazing declarations about who you are… vs. 16 says… You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Psalm 139:16 NLT

You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

We learn two things…

1. Your days are numbered

2. God knows them

So that question… if you knew you days were numbered… how would you live differently… they are. You’re days are numbered. And God knows not only the number of your days but what they contain.

The bible’s openness about death reminds us of the immense value, meaning, power, importance, and relevance of the Gospel.

1 Cor 15 talks about how if the gospel isn’t true we are the most miserable of all people… 1 Thes. talks about how in Christ not only do we have hope, but we don’t drive like those without hope… it doesn't say we don’t grieve… but that we grieve with hope because Jesus defeated death.

Genesis 23:1–2 (ESV)

23 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.

Chapter 23 is an obit of sorts… The death of God’s princes… changed her name from Sarai… which can mean contentious to Sarah, which means princes.

And it's important that we recognize Sarah. Both for who she was and what she represents…

She is the mother of the Abrahamic covenant and His people…

Sarah is the most mentioned woman in the Bible. Her role was not small.

Sarah is one of the only women in the Bible that ladies are told to emulate by name.

We don’t even see that with Mary the mother of Jesus.

Isaiah 51:1–2 (ESV)

51 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you…

Remember who you are… where you came from… what it means… and why it matters. Remember who you are! People of promise… people of faith…

1 Peter 3:3–5 (NLT)

1 Peter 3:3–5 NLT

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God and accepted the authority of their husbands.

3 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. 4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. 5 This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They put their trust in God and accepted the authority of their husbands.

It goes on to say… that's what Sarah did.

100% why I feel for my wife. She’s not perfect by any means, but this is her. Anyone that knows her knows it.

Sarah was 127 years old… when she died.

Abraham and Sarah were married at least 60 years, probably closer to 100.

Just based on what we know… its interesting to think about everything they’d done and faced together… the good and the hard… the successes and failures… No doubt they were deeply bonded… This was an imperfect but good marriage…

No doubt, when Sarah died a part of Abraham died too.

It says Abraham mourned and wept over Sarah…

Many scholars suggest its the first time we see weeping like this and that it will continue to the end when in Rev. 21 is says Jesus will wipe away every tear.

Several scholars suggested that it's the first time in scripture we see weeping like this… with tears… tears which will continue until the very end… when Rev 21 says Jesus will wipe away every tear…

Weeping and mourning is a part of life… we see that in the way God created the human body… Weeping and mourning are a part of life…

And my understanding is that if we don’t take the time to mourn well… it creates holes in the way that we think… emote… and process things… which eventually create significant challenges in our life and relationships.

If we don’t take time to mourn it creates holes in the ways we think, emote, and process which eventually creates significant challenges in our life and relationships.

Matt’s done a lot of studying on these things… he mentioned… Unprocessed emotions don’t go away.

Mourning is the facing of loss and grief and the willingness to be in the pain rather than ignore it. Unprocessed emotions that get buried always find a way to express themselves but often in unrecognized and negative ways. - Matt Kimmell

I’d bet the vast majority of us are carrying things like that this morning… unprocessed grief.

Mourning in the Jewish culture involved a 30 day process… in Egypt it was 60…

In New testament times… it got to the point where they’d hire professional mourners to sort of set the tone of grief…

Not sure if you know someone so miserable that you could say.. I think I found your calling. As your pastor… I'd advise you not to make eye contact with that person at this moment… “But babe… you could be getting paid”.

Part of what makes this difficult, at least in my opinion, is that morning looks different for everybody… it’s hard to put a time limit on it… but we also need to understand that we aren’t intended to life in this state of perpetual mourning either.

We see that in Abraham…

Genesis 23:3–4 (ESV)

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.”

Scholars suggest that as Abraham rose, it signals like this change… the shift from morning and into a time to move on to move forward.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 (ESV) reminds us that there is

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…

That doesn’t mean we forget… or that we don’t struggle sometimes… Charlie Brown was right… there is such a thing as good grief.

And its something the American culture in my view does poorly… that, many of us don't really have the tools to know how to mourn well. I’m probably one of them.

I do think that sitting down with good/trained counselors that can help process grief can be an incredibly valuable and healthy thing…

I asked Matt on advice for mourning and grief and he pointed to Jesus and David.

Jesus was willing to stop and weep. It was inefficient and he knew “the good” he would make from it. Often Christians will skip the weeping and just immediately tell someone to remember “He works all things together for the good…” and yet

Jesus himself, knowing he would raise lazurus, was willing to stop and weep because our mourning is the souls cry that what we had was good.

It is the acknowledgment in the deepest part of us of the goodness of who that person was.

David was honest with God. He was willing to say he was angry and confused but also to acknowledge the power and goodness of God. Because of our society that is so fixated on everything being clean and black/white we think that contradictory emotions cannot exist in the same space. And yet they do and David shows us how to acknowledge them and share them.

Abraham rose up and met the Hitities at the city gate… this is the place business was done… and he starts by saying

I am a foreigner… a sojourner…

For 62 years… Abraham lived this semi nomadic life… with no location or land to call home… while living in the land that God promised to him and his line….

Foreigner and sojourner has to do with being an outsider. Someone from a different location or culture who has significantly less rights in this land.

Hebrews 11:8–10 (NLT) tells us something interesting…

Hebrews 11:8–10 NLT

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

This is another thing that God is pointing at… that we as readers are supposed to connect….

There are all kinds of passages in the Bible that talk about how this… is not our permanent home… That even now, Jesus is preparing a place for us…

Philippians 3:20 (NLT) Says

Philippians 3:20 NLT

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

20 We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

1 Peter 2:11 (NLT)

1 Peter 2:11 NLT

Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.

11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents (sojourners) and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.

Abraham himself knew this. Our ultimate home is heaven. We are foreigners, aliens…

And learning to embrace that truth changes the way we see life, the way we do relationships, what we invest in and the way we invest in it, how we spend our moments and days…

I do think it's the heart behind Jesus’s sermon in Matt 6 when he talks about storing up treasure in heaven… at home… where you belong… where it lasts far longer than the number of our days… Jesus reminds us that where we invest… where our treasure is… is where our heart is.

Genesis 23:5-9 ESV

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. 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.

As a foreigner, Abraham had less rights and one of them was right here… it was frowned upon to sell off your land to outsiders…

And you see the respect they had for Abraham… These people who were far from God… acknowledge God in Abraham… saying bury your wife wherever you want… there isn’t anyone here that would deny you that.

And it set off this really interesting… very cultural… conversation where Ephron pretended he was willing to give it… Abraham refused… Ephron insisted… giving a crazy inflated value as if to say… if you want it that's what it will cost… and usually there would be some negotiation… but as an outsider… there was none of that… Abraham paid it…

One author said it like this… Where people were buried is important. Burial was done in their native land. By faith, Abraham buying this land at such a high price… was like planting his flag… there was no going back…

Its incredibly interesting that the only part of the Promised Land that Abraham himself ever received… he bought… as a place to burry the mother of the Abrahamic Covenant…

This is what Hebrews 11:13–16 (NLT) says about it…

Hebrews 11:13–16 NLT

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Even today… the cave of Machpelah… this land that Abraham bought to burry his bride is a land of contention and controversy. Today it’s called the cave of the patriarchs… This place where not only Sarah but also Abraham (25:9), Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah (49:29–31; 50:13)...

And for me… all of this is a reminder of a few things…

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God’s timing on delivering his promises is almost always different than ours.

But Abraham saw it… welcomed it… and I believed he died a man of great faith because of it.

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God’s promises do not mean life is easy.

Very little of what I see in Abraham and Sarah looked “easy” or comfortable... but there was no regret. God was preparing them… forming them… teaching them to trust him…

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God is incredible painstakingly… intentional and faithful.

One author said it like this…

The promise of the land is one of the major themes in Genesis. But so is death. Death entered by sin and ruined the race. The deaths of patriarchs and saints are brutal reminders that people are sinners. Death brings out mourning. But death in this passage was also a basis for hope. In life the patriarchs were sojourners; in death they were heirs of the promise and “occupied” the land.

In Jesus… that’s you. Heirs to the promise of God.

Is 51

Conc…

Mourning is important… but we don’t mourn like those without hope.

Maybe put advice down here…

Is 51…. Remembering who you are… where you came from and why it matters.

Remember your days are numbered… that life is a mist… here on gone… that you are a foreigner… and alien… that your home is somewhere else… Live like it… invest like it…