At this point my ongoing series of blog posts on Genesis has definitely developed a sub-series on Abraham in Genesis. We started by identifying the story of Abraham as really that of Terah’s family, with Abraham as protagonist, a story that would bring hope into a declining world. We continued by noting that both instances of Abraham’s lies about Sarah had to do with God demonstrating fulfillment of his covenant to Abraham. In particular, we are assured of God giving Abraham the promised seed (Isaac) and we see examples of God blessing those who bless Abraham and cursing those who curse him. Last week we saw that Abraham’s name was made great through a military conquest as God allowed him to deliver Lot from captivity. Indeed, Melchizedek comes out and begins to illustrate how all the nations of the world may be blessed through Abraham: later allusions to Melchizedek remind us that the coming savior from Abraham is a priest like Melchizedek. We’ll fast-forward over the birth of Isaac and his near sacrifice by his father. At this point we now land at the end of Genesis 22 after a restatement of the promise to Abraham. One promise of God has not been fulfilled in anyway: the land promise.
Naturally, I’m going to suggest to you that the context suggests the purpose of the passages from Genesis 22:20–23:20 is to demonstrate that God is working to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant. The first section, Genesis 22:20–24, does this rather clearly–after we see God bless Abraham with Isaac, we see God bless Abraham’s (Terah’s) family. However, chapter 23 seems out of place. What does the death of Sarah and the negotiations of Abraham in buying a grave for her got to do with anything? Why is it in the Bible?
Let’s start with some plot analysis within Genesis 23. This is assisted by some comments I found in Reading Biblical Narratives: Literary Criticism and the Hebrew Bible by Yairah Amit. The setting for this story is tragic but simple: Sarah is old and her life is up. She dies, having lived a full life. This presents a problem. Abraham has been wandering around without a home on the promise of a land to be given him from God. However, only later will his descendants possess Canaan. So where will he bury Sarah?
Knowing Genesis 24, in which Abraham sends back to his hometown to find a wife for Isaac, I was for a while surprised Abraham didn’t send Sarah to be buried back in Haran. After all, we know he still has family there, and he calls it his country in Genesis 24:4. But this isn’t what Abraham does, because the problem of the story isn’t just that he needs to bury Sarah (the motivating problem of chapter 23), but that God hasn’t fulfilled the land promise. What Abraham does in moving toward resolving this problem is surprising: he gets up and tried to get land (v.v. 3–4).
Amit notes a number of things about this story. It occurs now in one continuous scene of negotiations between Abraham and the Hittites, likely from a literary perspective for dramatic effect. (After all, Moses could have said, “Abraham went and purchased a cave and buried Sarah there,” and then started chapter 24.) Now Abraham introduces himself as a sojourner and a foreigner, or better translated by Amit, a “resident alien.” So not only does Abraham not have land, he technically doesn’t have any rights to purchase land. There’s no reason for the Hittites to give in to his request. From a dramatic effect, how will this play out?
Amit notes some other details. Abraham requests that someone “give” him land (v. 4). Is this a free gift? Will it be sold? What’s going on here? Yet the response is unambiguous: the Hittites, recognizing God’s unique relationship with Abraham, offer Abraham the plot of his choice (v. 6). Abraham then requests that the community request a particular individual to do so (v. 8) and offers full price (v. 9). Ephron the Hittite offers to “give” (again vague) his field and cave to Abraham, but Abraham insists on paying the full price. Ephron quotes a price that everyone finds reasonable, and Abraham took possession of the cave (vv. 10–20).
Why does this matter? This is Abraham’s first purchased land in the promised land. He got this not as a direct favor of the Hittites–much as he wouldn’t except the wealth of the king of Sodom. The Hittites did not enrich Abraham. Rather, God providentially provided this land to Abraham. Abraham’s purchase of the land provides a lasting resolution to the problem of the land promise: Abraham now actually has a legal right to a portion of the promised land! He paid for it; it cannot be taken away.
And why did Abraham pursue this course of action? Wouldn’t it have been easier to take Sarah home to Haran? Perhaps, but this was an act of faith. Abraham expected his descendants to remain here for a long time. He believed God’s land promise! He wanted a grave for Sarah and later for himself in the land promised to him by God. So in Abraham’s character arc, Genesis 23 confirms that at this point of his life he now operates more as a man of faith than he formerly did as a man working in his own strength (consider the wife-sister tales).
Now what does all this have to do with you? Well, for one, Abraham is an example of faith in all of God’s promises, which is definitely something Christians need to see and follow. But more importantly, I think this reminds us yet again of God’s faithfulness. He fulfills every little detail of his promises, and he is always working to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant.
You see, as Christians, we benefit from the Abrahamic covenant. Salvation through Jesus Christ is a benefit of this covenant. God promises in Philippians that he will complete this salvation in our lives. He is the one at work in us (Phil 1:6; 2:12–13). To fulfill his promise of salvation associated with the Abrahamic covenant, God is always working on our sanctification, even it if seems slow or like he’s not doing it at all.
So take comfort, Christian! Even when it seems that you’re falling back toward old sins, even if your thought life struggles with perversion or darkness or depression, even if it seems far too easy and frequent for you to hold grudges, even if you just can’t seem to control your tongue consistently, if you are truly regenerated in Christ, you too are a child of Abraham. You too are a beneficiary of the covenant. God is at work in you to sanctify you, to make you practically holy. He will not give up. He is always faithful. And since he is always faithful to work in you, you can be motivated to fight those sins for his glory.
When you see progress, know that this is God’s faithfulness! Praise and thank him. He has given you a patch of promised Hittite land while waiting for the full reward yet to come.
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