If you read yesterday's link you will see that the rabbis
had to fill in the blanks here. The
death of Sarah follows immediately upon the story of the binding of Isaac in
which she is not mentioned. The rabbis
then saw a connection between the binding and Sarah's death. They believe that she died in some way as a
result of chapter 22 and come up with a variety of answers to that
question. Abraham seeks a place to bury
Sarah but, again, will not receive anything from anyone so that no one could
say they enriched him in any way. The back
and forth in this passage is all negotiation and is an interesting peek into
Abraham's world and how things were done in that place at that time. The elders are first asked to intercede for
him with the owner of the cave he seeks for burial but the man with whom they
are asked to intercede is sitting among them.
Abraham would ordinarily have taken Sarah back to whence they came, to
their ancestral land, but the Lord had promised this land to his descendants, a
new ancestral land. Again, the rabbis
see something special in this particular cave that Abraham chose. They conclude that this was actually the cave
in which Adam was buried and Abraham had seen this truth and so was cagey in
his acquisition of this particular cave, giving no indication that it was
special in any way. In this way, the
rabbis get all the patriarchs buried in the same place and the Land connected
with the original garden.
It would be interesting to know why Jesus didn't clear up
the misunderstanding with respect to eating His flesh and drinking His blood
and simply tell them He was speaking metaphorically. Instead, He allowed something over 5000
people to walk away from Him that day. We
have to come in faith and we have to remain in faith. The woman at the well stayed with Him in
spite of the fact that she soon realized that He wasn't promising her literal
water welling up in her so that she wouldn't have to come to the well any
longer. She wanted whatever it was that
He was promising. These people wanted
bread. If all you want from Him is
material He will allow you to walk away empty.
The disciples know that whatever it is that He is offering, and they
don't seem to fully comprehend it, the only place they can get it is from
Him. They, like Abraham, can't go back
home if they want to receive the promise.
Abraham's burial of Sarah in Canaan was an act of
faith. He believed that God would
deliver on His promise of this land to his descendants. He believed it enough to bury Sarah
there. He did not see the fulfillment of
the promise in his eyes but he had no doubt that the Lord would do as He had
promised. He had seen the faithfulness
and greatness of the Lord in allowing he and Sarah to have their own child, the
child of the promise, at advanced ages. We
know that Jesus has risen from the dead, we know that the promise is our own resurrection
if we believe in Him, what holds us back from risking everything? What keeps us anchored and looking back?
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