Genesis 23:1-20: Your End is Not the End

Introduction

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/10/1000842832/welcome-to-froggyland-the-croatian-taxidermy-museum-that-may-soon-come-to-the-u- Get your tickets! Poor frogs… They didn’t know their end was not their end.

Your end is not your end. Followers of Jesus know that and praise God! Our hope is a resurrected life! To forever live in the presence of God free from the pain and suffering of this world.

One day you will be gone, but don’t forget that the effects of your life will be felt for generations to come.

An interesting story that we might want to gloss over because at first glance it’s kind of a dry story: A funeral and the purchase of a piece of land. Seems like a boring story, but it’s part of God’s story - in our Bible for our good. You’re going to go home and someone’s going to ask you, “What did your preacher talk about today?” You’re going to say, “Abraham buying a piece of property.” Wow. Inspirational. BUT… when we dig into the story, it’s a powerful reminder that your end is not your end.

Three powerful truths from this story to help you focus on the future that God has for you while living faithfully in the present.

Story:

Sarah lived 127 years. Only woman in Bible we’re told how long she lived (because you don’t ask a woman her age.)

She died in land of Canaan. Abraham weeps for her. It’s over. Decades earlier this woman left everything she knew to follow her husband who had heard the voice of God.

A blessed life but a painful life. Pain as she was passed off as Abe’s sister twice. Pain as she saw Hagar raise a son under her roof. Pain as a barren woman… Then the joy. Hearing the voice of God for herself and holding a baby boy that she gave birth to at 90 years old.

Then, after raising her one and only son, she died. She died in a land that was not her home - lived in tents for decades roaming the land of Canaan - a land that one day would be the land of her descendants but she died in the land of Canaan as a stranger.

Abraham doesn’t have a place to bury her. God promised him the land, but the land isn’t his yet. It won’t be his during his lifetime. In a few years he’ll die like Sarah did, as a stranger far from home.

Abe could have taken Sarah’s body back to Haran and bury her in her homeland. Certainly back in Haran there was a family tomb.

But… Haran wasn’t Abe’s home anymore. God called him out of Haran. Abe wanted his wife’s body buried in the land that would be the home of his descendants.

To the Hethites: “Give me burial property...” Abraham’s reputation has gone before him: “You are a prince of God.” The Hethites seem very generous: “Bury your dead in our finest burial place.”

The problem: “Bury Sarah in our finest burial place.” They weren’t giving Abe a tomb of his own. It would be a borrowed tomb. It wouldn’t belong to Abraham. Sarah’s body wouldn’t be the only body that laid in this tomb. The Hethites would continue to use the tomb for their own purposes.

That’s not good enough for Abraham. He wants a tomb for Sarah. He wants a tomb that will be his and his alone - a tomb in the land of Canaan that he owns - that he can bury Sarah in and one day a tomb where his body would lay.

Abraham has a proposal for Ephron: “Give me the cave at the end of your field...” A business transaction in the presence of people. Abe doesn’t want a handout. He wants to buy the cave - at full price. He wants to own it.

Ephron seems really generous: “I’ll not only give you the cave and the field...” NOT going to give Abe something for free. Middle eastern negotiations. Ephron not going to give away land to a wealthy foreigner like Abe. Ephron sees opportunity. He doesn’t want to sell just the cave but the whole field. (You’ve seen conversations like this: “Let me buy your dinner for you, I insist… No, I’m paying…)

Abe: “Let me pay the price of the field...”

Ephron seizes the opportunity: “This land is worth 400 shekels of silver… what is that between you and me?” Truth is, it was a lot… Later on, when David purchased the piece of property that the temple would be built on, he didn’t pay nearly as much as Abe did for a burial spot for her wife.

If you’ve bought a car before, the sticker price is where you begin negotiations. It’s time to negotiate. No way you’d pay 400 shekels for a piece of land especially when all you need is a cave. How about $100 for just cave? BUT… Abe doesn’t negotiate. He pays the asking price. Abe’s not the guy you want to take with you to buy a car.

Why does Abe buy the cave and a piece of land he doesn’t need? Why doesn’t he negotiate? HUGE: Abe knows that someday all of the land is going to belong to his descendants. In a sense, Abe making a downpayment on what’s eventually going to belong to the great nation that God is going to build through his descendants.

As he grieves for his dead wife, his eyes are on the promise. His eyes are still on what’s to come. Abe has no wife now. He has only one child. But he’s believing that through this one child - all that he now has - God is going to make good on His promise.

Encouragement to Hebrews in the wilderness. Fearful to go into the land of Canaan, and then Moses reminds them of this story. Abe bought a piece of land in Canaan as a stranger believing that one day the Hebrews would go in and get the entire land.

So what? Abe and Sarah would both die - when they died all they had was a promise. They didn’t have a land. They didn’t have a great nation. They had nothing but a son and a promise, and that was enough. Their lives ended but their faith lived - the Hebrews would hear their story and be reminded that they were a fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham.

From an outsiders perspective, Abe and Sarah’s life seem so insignificant. An elderly couple wandering as strangers in a land that wasn’t their home with their only child in tote. BUT… there lives were so significant in the eyes of God. They were a part of God’s story.

Your life is significant.

Tendency to think too little of ourselves. Either lead to sin… If you think too little of yourself, your life doesn’t matter so you live how you want to live. “I’m just a… single mother, housewife, blue collar worker with no college degree, middle aged, middle class dad trying to get through the week, etc…

Lack of significance leads to depression, despair, and for some, a desire to even end your life.

Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy! Listen to the heart of God - He loves you so much that He gave His Son for you.

Nobody knows your name outside your circle of family and friends… But God does. He’s at work in your life to accomplish His plan. You are loved by Him, made in His image for His glory and His purpose. Your life is far more significant that you think it is.

Taco Bell Chicken Sandwich - Everyone trying to get a piece of the pie - Trying to establish relevance… You don’t have to do that. You’ve found significance!

Your life is not ultimate.

Don’t think too much of yourself… “I’m God’s gift to this earth...”

You’re just a small part of God’s story.

Life is not about you. You know that. You’ve heard that, yet you and I live that way.

Life is about Jesus - His story.

Genesis isn’t a book that’s teaching us about great people. It’s a book teaching us about a great God. We look at Abe’s life and say, “Wow! Look at what God was doing in Abe’s life to fulfill the promise He made in Gen. 3:15.”

Repent of pride! Repent of an attitude that says, “Look at me.” Ask God to help you live your life in such a way that you say, “Look at God!”

This is a STRESS RELIEF! “I have to make my life matter…” I want people to think well of me, to see that I’m successful, to see that I’ve done well...

You don’t have to live to make your life matter. Instead you are called to live in such a way that your life demonstrates that God matters.

A life of simple faith where you love Him with all your heart, and you live to bless others for the sake of the Gospel is beautiful in the eyes of God.

Your life affects future generations.

Be honest: little fruit in Abe and Sarah’s lives. They die as strangers in Canaan. All Abe owns is a field and a cave. All they have is one child - not a great nation. BUT think of the fruit that would grow out of Abraham’s faith after his death.

Here we are thousands of years later in part because Abraham believed, Isaac believed, Jacob believed, Joseph believed, Moses believed, King David believed, the prophets believe, because those who’ve gone before us believed and labored for the Lord.

Believed that God would be faithful to His promise, and He was.

Abe’s story much bigger than a piece of land. Abe’s story is about God working in human history to ultimately send His Son. “A blessing to all nations.”

Abe’s faith points to the greatest act of faith of all time. “Not my will but your will be done.” Jesus trusted the will of His Father and went to a cross to die the death you deserve, who rose again from the dead, to give us life abundant and eternal.

Abe and Sarah died, but their faith lived on for future generations. Some day your life will come to an end, but your end it not the end. Your life may end like Abe and Sarah’s lives… not much to show for your life… BUT… how your life might affect future generations.

Think bigger. The end goal is not for you to have a good life and one day enter heaven. The end goal is God being glorified in the lives of people - and that happens as you live by faith pointing people to Jesus. It happens in your home as you teach your children to follow Jesus. It happens at work as you live with integrity. It happens at school as you build relationships with lost people with the goal of sharing the Gospel.

Live simple. Trust and obey. Grow in Jesus. Do His will. Leave everything else in God’s hands. He might pave the way for you to be a Fortune 500 business owner, or He may pave the way for you to be a middle-class dad trying your best to put your kids through school. That’s up to God. What’s up to you is how you live before Him. You don’t have to make your life matter, but you do have to live as if God matters.

Stay hopeful. No reason to be discouraged if you are walking by faith. Every reason to be hopeful because you know God is using you as He fulfills His plan for His glory.

(Billy Graham Sunday School teacher illustration?)