All God’s Promises Will Come to Pass (The Death of Sarah and the Acquiring of Land)

Genesis 23 All God’s Promises Will Come to Pass (The Death of Sarah and the Acquiring of Land) Introduction: Though Genesis 22 is the highlight of the life of Abraham we cannot move onto the life of Isaac yet. There is still one major element of the Life of Abraham that needs to be tied up; one promise of God that has not yet been fulfilled. Interestingly enough I’ve never heard a significant teaching on chapter 23. But if we miss this we miss a huge part of God’s call and fulfillment on Abraham’s life. 1. The Death of Sarah. a. “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. 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.” i. When God first called Abraham, He said, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 1. The tension in this story rises when we realize that: a. Abraham is already an old man and that Sarai his wife is barren, unable to have children. b. The land that God has promised to give to Abraham as an inheritance is already occupied by the Canaanites. ii. As we follow the story we see that God is faithful to his promise to Abraham and Sarah to miraculously give them a son through Abraham’s old body and Sarah’s dead womb. But what of the promise of the land? Abraham at this time has dwelt in the land for roughly 52 years and still he has no plot of the land of promise to claim as his own, as Stephen says in Acts 7:5, “Yet he (God) gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him”. 1. This chapter of Genesis introduces us to the death of Sarah which is the occasion that God will use to bring about his promise of land to Abraham. 2. Acquiring of the Land a. 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.” 10 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, 11 “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.” 12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 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.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “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.” 16 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. 17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites. 3. Canaan as the Beachhead a. The acquiring of the land is important first of all because God promised it. b. It is important secondly because it is part of God’s plan to restore his good kingdom. c. The field of burial for Sarah is Abraham’s one claim on the Land, it is his property. This insignificant field with a cave that holds Sarah’s bones is the anchor, it is the beachhead, the germ or seed of the promise of Abraham’s possessing the whole land. From there the rest of the land of Canaan will be claimed as his children’s inheritance. d. So also, the land of Israel or the land of Canaan was God’s beachhead for reclaiming the world as his good kingdom. i. Jesus after rising from the dead, commission’s his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples starting in Jerusalem spreading out to Judea, then to Samaria, then to the ends of the earth. God has promised that one day he will reign on the earth and the earth will once again be his good kingdom, but at this time it is only in germ form or like a beachhead at this time, but one day, God has promised, “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9) ii. God’s plan from the beginning was to use the land of Canaan as a beachhead to reclaim the whole earth as his good kingdom. e. This claiming of the land comes in a peculiar occasion but it shows us two very important things about our God: i. Romans 8:28 “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” God takes evil and uses it for his divine purposes, for his glory and our joy! ii. God is faithful to fulfill his promises. 4. God’s Promises Never Fail a. All that God promised Abraham had come to pass. God promised to give him descendants, and that would now be fulfilled through Isaac. God also promised to give him the land of Canaan of which he was now a possessor of a very small portion. Both of God’s promises are in germ form and God will bring them fully to pass so that Abraham’s descendants will be more in number than the sand of the seashore, and they will be possessors of the land of Canaan! i. Joshua 23:14 “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.” 1. The same is true for us the Church. God has promised us great promises and so far not one of God’s promises has failed they have all come to pass. a. 2 peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature” b. What are some of the Promises of God? i. 1 John 2:25 “And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life” 1. We are saved, we are being saved and we will be saved. 2. We are living in the already and the not yet. ii. Genesis 3:15 - God’s promise to send a Savior to crush the head of our demonic enemy! iii. He sent a savior just as he said he would, he died for sin and rose from the dead for our justification just as he said he would, Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to us, to comfort, and sanctify us. iv. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, and he promises to return for us so that we might be with Him. If all God’s other promises have come to pass, and God truly has this perfect track record; Nothing that God has said or promised will fail but all will come to pass. 1. Isaiah 55:10-11 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” 2. Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Conclusion: With these things in mind: God’s ability to bring good out of evil and his faithfulness to us and his promises to us; what should our response be? Faith, Hope, and Love! Remember faith, hope and love are not just emotions they are actions; faith is trust; hope is an expectation or anticipation; and love is a commitment. If I claim to believe God, to love God, and have hope in God, shouldn’t my life look like it? Sadly so many of us know these things theologically or theoretically, but we fail to grasp and apply them practically. A close friend of mine just referred to the 18 inches between are head and our hearts as the longest road ever traveled; he is absolutely right! God help us! 1. What promises of God are you believing theoretically or theologically but aren’t applying practically? a. His Sovereignty over all things? His promise of eternal life? i. This should produce peace, and rest and no fear of death and the unknown. b. His promised provision for all that we need for life and godliness; his promised provision for every good work? i. This should produce generosity c. His ability to keep us from falling and to preserve us for his heavenly kingdom? i. This should produce holiness; a reliance on Christ ability in and through us to overcome sin! d. He has promised to never leave or forsake us! i. This should produce contentment in us and consistency! 1. You are completely known, and completely loved by God! ii. “Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text--"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." - Spurgeon e. Christ has promised to return. i. Are we living in expectation of that return? ii. Do our lives look like it? Are we holding lightly to the things of the world, remembering that they are temporal, are we pursuing eternal things and eternal reward? 2. What personal promises has the Lord made to you? a. Are you trusting him to be faithful to those promises? Does your life show it? 3. Peter’s application a. Peter goes on to say that in light of God’s precious and very great promises we should, “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”