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You know what is really hard for humans to do? Let God be God. We have a list of things that we think God isn't allowed to do, or at least a list of things that we would rather Him check with us first before He does them. He doesn't give us the reason for why He does things, and given all that we read in the Bible, you would think He should be trusted at this point. 

We saw last week that God has a plan for the unplanned. Here God was able to use the sin of Abraham to set things up for turnarounds thousands of years in the future. We've seen God work in all kinds of ways to ensure that the blessing is transmitted from one generation to another. He has planned from the very beginning of this book that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the snake. We've seen that there is a line of the woman and a line of the snake down through every list of names. We had Cain and Abel. The line was clear until Cain killed Abel! Doesn't sound like the seed crushing the head of the snake, does it? But then God brings Seth into the world who ultimately produces Noah. Noah has three sons one of whom (Ham) has a cursed family line that will end up serving the line of Shem. Eventually, we see the line of Shem produce Abraham. It is promised that he will have the seed! We see Ishmael born, but it will be Isaac, the technically second son, who will have the blessing of the seed. 

Up to this point, you could be confused as to how these lines are decided. Thus far, it looks like each person has chosen their own adventure. Abel was a right worshiper, and Cain was not. It wasn't until Cain became a murderer that it was crystal clear who was who. Ham didn't stand out until he mocked his father's nakedness. Ishmael stood out from the beginning, but that was because Hagar wasn't the woman of promise. It might look like that God has thus far been reacting to what humanity has been doing. Yes, the blessing has been safe thus far, but is that because God is simply the best at taking life's lemons and making lemonade? Or is God's control more comprehensive than we might imagine? 

The present story will make clear how it is that God runs the show. This is a passage that Paul makes reference to when talking about God's control of matters. As we will see today, and in weeks following that God sovereignly directs His plans beforehand, yet everyone is both dependent on God and responsible to God.

God sovereignly directs His plans beforehand

We begin with a mini genealogy to signal that we are starting a new episode as it were. This is to orient us to where this story is going next. 

Just like with the Abraham story, the one through whom we are to expect children is barren. We will see this theme pop up again and again in Scripture of the barren woman eventually giving birth. God loves to show Himself being God. Biology isn't a challenge for Him. He makes the barren give birth whenever He pleases, a point made clear as her eventual pregnancy is "granted" by God after Isaac prays. Now, we might think because this whole narrative happens in a single verse that maybe she was barren for a year or so until Isaac prays, and then, boom! Problem solved. But that is not how this story went. Verse 20 tells us that Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. When we get to verse 26, we find out that Isaac was sixty! This means that they have been waiting the better part of twenty years to have a child, just five years less than Abraham himself waited! Thankfully, Isaac didn't make the same mistake that Abraham did, and truly waited on God's time. There is simply no rushing God. 

Notice both of their commitments to prayer. Isaac must have been praying for the better part of twenty years, and one of the first things that Rebekah does when she feels this sensation of twins is to ask God! In a sweet detail, the Hebrew notes that Isaac prayed "in front of" or "toward" Rebekah (Phillips, 133). Nothing shows your belief that God controls and knows all things quite like prayer. When you are confused on something, you go to the smartest person in the room to ask, don't you? Well, what does prayer say? It says that God is the one you trust. And when we don't give God a thought at all and set out just to solve our problems all on our own, it says who we trust the most. 

Now, here in verse 23, we are told a number of remarkable things. One, we are given our first mention of twins in the Bible thus far, and two, we are told that these aren't just two people but two nations. This is a strong continuation of the promise that was given to Abraham, the father of many nations. 

That multitude is on its way, but there is a problem: they will be divided. One is going to be stronger than the other and will be served by the other. In this we hear echos of Noah's sons in which Canaan would serve the line of Shem. This is also an echo of Genesis 3 in which we are told that there will be two lines, the line of the woman and the line of the snake. This snake just keeps slithering through the story, no matter how close the family is. 

With this pregnancy announcement, we are reminded of a concept that has floated all through Genesis: God's choice. Just like with Isaac and Ishmael, while they were still in the womb, God had their lives all mapped out. Ishmael would have a multitude of sons, but Isaac is going to be the son of promise. One could say, though, that God had to do this because of the mother. Hagar wasn't Sarah, so God simply couldn't have Ishmael be the heir. But here, we learn that God has never been bound like that. God makes clear that He won't be bound by anything. 

In this story, we see that God will isolate all other factors other than His choice to make crystal clear what His level of control is and will be. This time, the mother is the right mother. The father is the right father. They have twins in the same womb. And yet, God makes the choice of one over the other. It will be the younger that rules over the older (which, culturally, is not how that was supposed to work). God is making this choice not on the basis of anything that they have done or not. Paul makes this exact argument in Romans 9. There he is trying to prove that just because you have the right genetic lineage, that doesn't mean you are a child of God. You can descend from Abraham, be a very son of Isaac, sharing the womb of Rebekah, and yet God chooses Jacob and not Esau. 

Why does He do it that way? He simply doesn't tell us. Paul, in that passage we just read in Romans, gets all the way to getting close to answering that question yet the answer is "God will have mercy on whom He wills." In other words, God is God and He will act like God. When the question is posed, "then why does God find fault" Paul responds with, "who are you to answer back to God?" In yet other words, "If it is all down to God's choice, then why are people held responsible for not choosing Him?" If there was another answer that was true, this would have been the perfect time to say it (John Piper, *Providence*). If he could have said, "Well, the person was totally free to make another choice, so it was up to them," he would have. But there is no other answer. The answer simply is, this is how God set it up, and we are not even close to being in a moral place to judge the Almighty for it. 

That offends our senses, doesn't it? Of course it does! We're sinners! We are born in rebellion against God, why would this aspect of His character be any different? We can try to ignore it, but this is what I think this passage is clearly trying to tell us. 

"But Pastor," you may say, "this is something that is often divisive, why do we have to emphasize it?" Well, for one, this is what the passage itself is emphasizing. We have to look at what Scripture says when it says it. 

But the second reason, and the main reason, is that believing something that is untrue about God robs you of comfort. If you believe that God is a harsh father, crossed arms, waiting to zap you for a misstep, you are going to be a joyless, judgmental person, who is robbed of the comfort of a God who joyfully welcomes the prodigal home. If you believe that God is a laidback hippy who doesn't care how you live, you will be careening from one disaster after another because of your sin, being robbed of the comfort of knowing what the good life of obedience can bring. If you believe that God has no control over THE most important thing in your life, your eternal destiny, you will be constantly wondering if you are truly saved or if you have somehow messed up your salvation. 

I'm not sure why we would find comfort in God not being in control of our salvation. Either we actually do believe in God's control of salvation but just don't realize it, or it might be because we don't value our salvation like we should. Imagine if we genuinely thought that God didn't control political outcomes. Imagine if the ballot box was ENTIRELY up to your will and control or other's means of seizing control. Would that cause you more stress than you currently have? If it would, then why wouldn't you want God to control salvation? 

Maybe, perhaps, you think that if God is in control that maybe He won't choose certain people in your life. Perhaps you might even worry that He won't choose you. If that is something that you are concerned about, then there is a very good chance that God is already drawing you to Himself. Unregenerate people typically don't worry about their state before God. As to other people, the fact that God chooses and transforms should give you hope for even the furthest people from God in your life. 

Let's take an illustration from Rebekah's own barren womb. For 19 years, her womb was empty. Assuming that she started marriage to Isaac during child-bearing years (which is the case), after 19 years of trying, one might begin to think that with each passing year, this gets less and less likely. I mean, if one cannot get pregnant in this stage of life, what hope is there for pregnancy later? But what does Isaac do? He prays. I imagine that he prayed many times for this to occur. He knew that God was the one who granted children. Isaac himself was evidence of that. He knew where life comes from, so he kept entreating the source. 

The same goes for salvation. If there is someone in your life who has gone deaf to the gospel for decades, don't stop praying for them. Some people come to Christ twenty minutes before death. That actually happened at the hospital my dad works at. Even if you are in a place where they won't talk to you anymore, you can still talk to God about them. That's where hope comes from. No matter how far anyone has wandered, no matter how deep into evil people have fallen, God can still reach them and give them life just like He did in Rebekah's womb. Just like He did with the writer of Romans. Paul went from Osama Bin Laden to R.C. Sproul in one conversation with Jesus. 

The same can be true of the person you are praying for. So don't stop. Does that person need to express faith in Christ? Yes. There aren't going to be people getting dragged into heaven kicking and screaming, and neither are there going to be people who genuinely desire a relationship with Jesus who will be left at the closed gates. Jesus is not going to miss any one of His no matter how remote or hardened. 

Trust Him. He died on the cross to make salvation possible. He isn't begrudging in His salvation. We don't have to understand every move He makes. We just have to trust that He rules this world in wisdom and love. 

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One thing I love about a good story is a conclusion where everything is wrapped up cleanly. No threads are left bare, trajectories have reached their destination. This chapter begins feeling that way. We are given the final years of Abraham's life in a rapid fire succession of children's names, activities, and final destinations. He has lived well, scattered his seed into the world, and is now coming to the end of his days, old and full of years. There is something satisfying about this. He made it. He saw the three promises made to him fulfilled. Yes, it took him his full life to see them realized, but it was done. Yes, he made many mistakes and sinned a bunch throughout his life, but here it is all laid out for us, so clean, so complete. 

What do you want the end of your life to look like? We are spared the ugly details like what and how much was hurting in Abraham's body, but what do you want this part of your life to look like? Do you want those days of your life marked by gratitude of how God has worked even in the hard times? How does one even achieve a life like this? 

Do you think about it, or does the very thought terrify you? I think that there is a shared fear amongst parents and children, leaders and their followers: what life is going to look like without them. Parents can look at their children and wonder how on earth God is going to do something with them. Children can easily look at parents and wonder what will life be like without their guidance, even the guidance that they resent at the moment. When we get used to God working through certain people, certain channels, it becomes harder to remember that God is the one actually making all of this work. 

We are in the middle of yet another intense election cycle. Part of the angst comes from the real question of how is God going to bring good out of what is happening today. Once agin, buried in a pile of names, is a story of God's faithfulness and redemption for a truly unexpected people. Our two points today will be God has a plan for the unplanned and God's plan is more impressive than you can imagine.  

God has a plan for the unplanned 

As we saw two weeks ago, Sarah has died, yet Abraham's family continued to grow. Life continued for a few more decades after that, and we discover in chapter 25 that he has gotten remarried and had six more sons. Two of those sons also had sons. Abraham's family continued to grow. However, lest we think that God's promise to Isaac was thus threatened, verse 5 tells us that Abraham still gave everything to Isaac. He was good to his other sons by giving them gifts, yet he was still faithful to God's instructions that there would only be one heir of Abraham's full blessing. 

The growth of Abraham's family could have ended poorly for Isaac. After all, look at the worry that Sarah had when Ishmael was still at home. She recognized that even one of these competitors to the promise of Isaac was too much to risk. God also backed her up on this and told Abraham to send Ishmael away even while promising to take care of him. It would seem that this same pattern worked out amongst Abraham's other sons. I can't imagine that this was much easier for Abraham to do than it was when he had to do it for Ishmael. But Abraham has learned a lot. He has learned to trust in what God promised him and is now living that out. 

Having now given the rest of the acts of Abraham, Moses records Abraham's death. He lived 175 years, an old man and full of years. Don't you love that? Long life was considered a blessing at that time, and it should be today. A good and long life is one that is spent in watching God work. Will there be many sinful things that you will see and experience? Yes, but getting a front row seat to what God is doing, to watch and learn, is an immense privilege. Imagine what it must have been like to sit down with Abraham having witnessed 175 years of God's work. If God has granted you a long life, use that gift to bless others. Things hurt, life is hard, yes, but could you tell us of the faithfulness of God? Could you walk us through your life in all the hardships and ups and downs with an eye towards how God has preserved you through it all? 

The final phrase in verse 8 is one that I love: gathered to his people. There is some debate as to what exactly that tells us about their concept of the afterlife. The word itself is a term for harvest and was used as a euphemism of death. Whether this means they had a concept of heaven where dead people who believed in God went or not is up for debate. Nevertheless, since we do know that there is a heaven, this is a good word picture to capture that. A plant grows and flowers producing fruit before it is harvested. It gives to me at least a sense of purpose in our growth and output. It also helps remind me that in being gathered up, I'm being transported to more life. 

Being gathered isn't the just the end of something; it is the beginning of something new.  That is what I think we see in verses 9 and following. Isaac and Ishmael burry Abraham in the cave that he purchased, fully cementing Abraham's place in the Promised land. This also shows that the sons have taken the same view of the Promised land that Abraham has. Unlike Abraham's servant that thought bringing Isaac back to the former homeland would be a good idea, Abraham's sons realize that the promise is here. Abraham is no longer another son of Ur. He is the father of Israel. This is an act of faith. 

Verse 11 gives us the final confirmation, however, of Isaac's blessing being received. Abraham can pass on property, but it is up to God to send His blessing on it. He has chosen Isaac, and that promise will be fulfilled. 

But what of Ishmael? After all, he was promised good things as well even if they were not the same as Isaac. We see all of this wrapped up in verses 12-18. Now, what we will see here is another list of names and the aside that he had indeed the 12 princes that God had promised him. Though, to be thorough, the final line of verse 18 tells us that he also lived up to the prediction that he was going to be a wild man against everyone. All that God commanded, good and bad, was carried out. 

Now, most of us would be satisfied here. God promised that Isaac would get the main blessing, and Ishmael would have something of his own. God has done that. God is faithful. Sermon done, let's go home. 

God's plan is more impressive than you can imagine.  

But God has something more for us. 

This is not the last time that these names are mentioned. A couple of these names will pop up again in 1 Chronicles 5:19. It's a blink and you'll miss it moment, but this verse contains the fight with the descendants of Ishmael. Isaac's sons are ultimately victorious in this conflict, but it is impressive to notice that both of these lines are active in this point in history. But then that shouldn't be too deep of a surprise for us as their descendants are still shaping world politics to this day with the conflict in the middle East. 

But this is not the last time that these names will show up. Prepare yourselves for Isaiah 60:1-7. Do not those names sound familiar? These are the descendants of Abraham's second wife and the descendants of Ishmael. They, having been sent away to protect Isaac's inheritance, return to become his inheritance. They come to bring gifts to Israel. You remember what was said on the news. Are you telling me that these people are one day going to get along? Yes. How about that? How does that grab you? How's that for a plan on God's part? Did you see that coming? I didn't. 

Abraham didn't bring all of these things together. He has been dead for a very long time. This is God executing on His plan to bless those who bless Isaac. But how does God pull this off? He does so through the gospel, news that a man has gone into the grave and come out. Because of that you can go to heaven when you die, and one day it will lead to even peace in the Middle East, a place that has been a war zone for the better part of four thousand years. 

That's your God at work. He thinks way bigger than you. For Abraham, yes, sin cost him more than he could have ever imagined. His sin with Hagar in chapter 16 brought lasting consequences that are felt to this day, yet his faithfulness in this chapter 25 will bring in a glorious future where the bows and spears are broken finally. 

So what does this mean for you? What do we takeaway? Does this mean that God will always work things out the way that you want? No. But he is going to work things out in a way that is glorious. That includes the sins that you have committed, too. It can be easy to think that once you have done a certain sin there is no closing pandora's box. In one sense you are right. When you commit sins like Abraham commits, you can cause lasting suffering. But that doesn't mean God can't still work in and through that for His glory. You don't have to live with the constant shame or assume that your Christian life is over. Might things be forever different in this life? Yes, but different doesn't mean done. 

This is even more critical to remember when you have been sinned against. When you are the offended party, it is hard to remember that God can work good things out of what has offended you. But you have to remember this if you are going to have any hope of moving forward. This doesn't mean we treat sin lightly. We need to approach sin like we approach a funeral. As Christians, yes, we have the hope of heaven. We will see them again. One day we will be gathered to our people, too. But the meantime is still sad. It is the same way with sin. Every sin committed is a death of what once was. Sometimes, Jesus resurrects it, and other times He redeems it. Those are the only two options for the Christian. 

As we close, consider these words from Charles Spurgeon: 

“Thou hast been a backslider, perhaps thou art so now, but God, even the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, can purge thee with hyssop, and thou shalt be clean. Thy leprosy shall depart, and thy flesh shall become fresh as a little child. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins.” Oh, the blessedness of this! If sin returns upon you, child of God, that fountain filled with blood, which washed him once, has by no means lost its power. You may wash again, backslider. The mercy seat is not removed, nor is the permission to approach it revoked. My heart delights to think I may go to Jesus as a sinner, if I cannot as a saint. I want a Saviour now as much as ever I did; I want new pardon for new sin. I thank the Master for having taught us to say every day, “Forgiven us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Even those who can say, “Our Father which art in heaven,” with a full assurance begotten in them by the filial spirit of grace, yet have need to ask that sin may be forgiven. We want daily pardon, and we shall have it. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

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​Have you heard the refrain, "I just worry about what it is going to be like for you kids in the future." It's a lament that flows from my own mouth now that the weight of parenthood sits on my shoulders. We just want the next generation to be ok, and if you happen to be in that generation, you just want things to be ok, too! 

In this chapter, we have such a beautiful slice of life in Abraham's family. So far in Genesis, we have only seen Abraham go through these supernatural problems and triumphs. Abraham was sent on this unknown journey into the wild, hundreds of miles away from anything he knew. In the next chapter, his lying is bringing down and entire country with sickness. The next chapter has him taking his personal army to go rescue his nephew from a coalition of pagan kings. After that, God Himself comes down and makes a covenant right in front of him. After THAT Abraham finds himself in the middle of a squabble between his two wives, and then after THAT Abraham has lunch face to face with God, and then after, after THAT God supernaturally gives Him as son whom he asks Him to sacrifice and then stops him last minute. 

Could we get a normal-sized problem to see how to faithfully work through that? 

Have you ever worried about the next generation? Have you ever worried about your own future? Well, Abraham has gone through that, too. So let's take a look at how Abraham (but mostly God) works through passing the torch. 

Obedience is practical yet not presumptuous.  

Let's look at this first section of nine verses. Abraham is coming to the end of his life. He has enjoyed, land, seed, and blessing, but he isn't the only one prophesied to enjoy these blessings. He is going to pass them down to his son, but his son is going to need a wife. As much as possible, Abraham is going to set the stage for this promise to continue. Summoning his best servant, Abraham relates his most important assignment yet: go back to the homeland and find a wife for Isaac. 

Imagine the pressure on that servant! Put yourself in his shoes. The future of Abraham's legacy (and the blessing for the rest of the world!) is now in your hands. Would you not start to think through what might go wrong? The servant does exactly this, and offers practical solutions like bringing Isaac with him. However, Abraham is going to take the trusting route. Leaving the land isn't an option. God has assured Abraham in some way that the servant's way is going to be provided for. 

While Abraham is obedient, he is not presumptuous (Matthews, 328). Maybe by the angel going before the servant, God means for the search to go on for some time. Perhaps God is going to do something that Abraham couldn't possibly plan for (it has happened before!), so in that case, as long as Isaac stays in the land, the servant will have done faithfully. The servant swears to this arrangement by placing his hand under Abraham's thigh (a symbol of Abraham's position of procreative "source of the family" as pointed out by Matthews, 326). 

The servant sets off on his journey and comes to a well. The servant is being strategic here, as this is the place where the ladies gather. Just because we have an assurance that God is going to prosper the mission, doesn't mean that we can go about it sloppy and careless. He is looking for a woman of character. He begins to pray, and I want you to notice how he goes about praying for who to choose amongst this sea of ladies. He asks the Lord that the woman of character would show herself by having her act like a woman of character (Ross, 419). 

You will notice that he doesn't pray that she would wear a certain color, or that she would walk up and say, "The Lord caused me to dream about you, and yes, I'll be Isaac's wife." Those sorts of things happen very rarely even in the Bible! God has given to us what we need in the wise application of His Word. Prayer is not meant to turn God into a Magic Eightball. He has given to us the guidance we need—He wrote it down! We don't have to be airy-fairy mystics wandering around waiting for writing in the sky while the writing sits in the book in our lap. As Dr. Ross put it, "God's will cannot be divined but may be discerned by those who prayerfully and righteously fulfill their covenantal obligations." (422). In other words, use what God gave you, a Bible and a brain. 

You'll notice also the restraint of the servant. Here comes Rebekah, and she says the line! She is ready to water the camels—all ten of them! He watches and waits. There is still the matter of her needing to be a relative of Abraham's. He doesn't know if she will fit this requirement or not. One scholar put it this way, "He is hopeful but not presumptuous, not outpacing God's timing." (Matthews, 335).

However, when the will of the Lord is revealed, the servant is exuberant, and he responds in worship. He praises God for His steadfast love, His always and forever, never-giving-up kind of love. It is clear that God is playing the long game. God's love is not a here today gone tomorrow sort of love. It is going to extend even unto the next generation. 

The same is true for you. God isn't just building the kingdom in your life. God's steadfast love is going to extend to the next generation, too. What will that look like? I don't know. Isaac's life was not exactly the same as Abraham's life, and Jacob's life was not the same as Isaac's life, and Joseph and Judah had very different lives than Jacob, yet God advanced His kingdom through them all. Even "In this story the Lord achieves his purposes through the loyal but cagey servant, the ambitious Laban, and the respectful but independently minded Rebekah." (Matthews, 322). The key in all of this is that the servant is trusting God to work through all these things. 

God will guide to His ends 

What is funny, though, is that God is firmly in the background on this whole story, yet His handiwork is unmistakable (Ross, 415). And that is what the servant attempts to convey as he takes on the second hurdle of his mission: convince the family to let Rebekah go. 

Convincing the family to let their daughter go doesn't seem to be any easier back then than it is now. They love their daughter, and she is obviously a very capable and willing help around the house. It is going to need to be clear that God is the one calling Rebekah, hence this long report in the middle of our chapter. The servant needs to make this very clear that God is the one behind this (Matthews, 339). 

He isn't only convincing the family; he is also convincing us. We have just read all that God has done to lead things just so, and the way that Jewish writing emphasizes something is by repeating it. We are meant to walk away from this story saying, "Ok, ok! God is obviously moving in this situation!" The covenant is advancing! It is going to beyond Abraham. It is so clear that even her family sees it. 

We have the advantage of being on this side of the story, knowing that it all will work out just as promised. But can you imagine the tension in the room with that servant? This is THE ONE for Isaac, but if the family or Rebekah herself doesn't agree, what happens next? This servant cares a lot about Abraham and Isaac. This isn't a business negotiation. This is a fight for the future. The same goes for the family of Rebekah. Do we trust this guy? Even after the initial yes, the family ALMOST stopped it by delaying things for ten days (verse 55). Rebekah comes in at the last moment and decides to leave, closing the matter. All that is left to do is meet Isaac and become his wife, which she does. 

This is only the beginning of her story. We have come to the halfway point of Genesis. We will only see Rebekah and Isaac for just a couple of chapters, yet they will provide the pivot point for the rest of the book. Rebekah is going to be a critical link for the next several chapters as her brother, Laban, will provide Jacob's wives, the mothers of the twelve tribes of Israel, in the times to come. (Matthews, 322-323). We will be wide eyed at all that is going to flow in the second half of this wonderful book. And as if that weren't enough, we will see that God will carry his promises all the way to the true offspring of Abraham, the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ Himself. 

God has overcome every obstacle. His covenant shall continue. So what are we to draw from this? Is this chapter meant to be an object lesson that as long as you think through things carefully enough and pray sufficiently that God will guide you towards what you want? No. There were at least three different points at which this trip could have failed. Rebekah could have needed to get home and not acknowledged the servant. The family could have said no. Rebekah could have said no, and none of that was in the control of the servant. He did what he could, but there was a reason that he fell to the ground to worship God when it all worked out. God is the one who gets the credit! 

So when things work out in your life, don't pat yourself on the back. Instead, fall to your knees. We have so much to worship God for in our lives. So many details have to go just so in order for our lives to turn out the way that they do. No one is able to even imagine, much less plan, for every setback or obstacle. Instead, don't settle to just be practical or pragmatic. Be practically obedient. Do what God says in wise ways, trusting and worshiping Him with the results.  

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How are you faithful to God when it seems like God is not being faithful to you? All the back in chapter 12, Abraham was promised by God to have a land, seed, and a blessing. Despite Abraham's foibles, God consistently worked out His promises, even though they were often at the last minute! There was, however, one promise that hadn't been fulfilled yet: the land. All of the other promises were fulfilled with Abraham and Sarah together, and I could imagine that he might have thought that the land would come through while she was still alive. 

Do we not do the same thing? Do you have ideas of not only what God has promised you but how He is going to fulfill them? Do we not sometimes feel betrayed when things don't go exactly as we imagine them? 

I can only imagine the despair that such a seeming betrayal contains, yet in this passage, we get to see Abraham reach this point. This chapter is about burying his wife, Sarah, the matriarch of Israel. She was the only woman who could bring in the promised son. Abraham's seed could be delivered only from her womb, a woman blessed with favor from God even if she did laugh at Him! She has been at Abraham's side ever since he left the homeland of Ur. She has seen the delivery of the promise of blessing and of a descendant, but she has not seen a land to call her own. She dies a sojourner. 

How does Abraham react to this new test of faith in God, and what can we learn from it? That will be our focus as we look at our two points today: Death comes for all in the end, but death isn’t always the end.

Death comes for all in the end

The first two verses of this chapter are very matter of a fact. Sarah dies. Sarah is said to have lived 127 years in her life, and interestingly, she is the only woman who's age is recorded (Waltke, 317). Since she had Isaac when she was 90, that makes him 37 years old, and Abraham will soldier on for another 38 years after her death (Waltke, 317). After this Abraham goes in to mourn for her. They have likely been together for nearly a hundred years. 

While we all know that death comes to us all, it isn't like we think about that every day. If I could do a little sanctified speculation here, I could imagine that Abraham might not have been expecting this to happen in just this way. After all, God has granted every promise to them right when it seemed like it wasn't going to happen. All those miles walked before finally even showing them the land. All those decades of waiting for a son to arrive and only when it seems totally impossible does God send them Isaac. All those close calls of kings stealing his wife only for God to intervene and rescue her. Everything has happened at the last minute! 

There is one promise that is still outstanding: a land. Yes, they have seen the land. Yes, Abraham has permission to journey around in it, but there isn't any parcel of land that is well and truly his. I could imagine that he was likely assuming that since the other two promises have been achieved together, that this one would as well. But it isn't. Sarah dies 62 years after they first arrived at Canaan (Matthews, 314). 

Death never comes at the perfect time, does it? We wish for one more conversation, one more project. Just another moment. That deathbed realization can be so painful. It is a cold comfort that we should expect this. It seems heartless to tell someone in that position that death is a part of life, and it is out of our hands now. 

So what are we supposed to do? How do we respond to a death not just in our family, but when that death takes the dreams for our family, when death takes from us not just who should have been but what should have been?  

But death isn't always the end 

Here we witness Abraham's reaction. First, I think we should just take a moment to see Abraham's grief. A right response to death isn't the absence of tears or emotion. See Jesus' reaction to Lazarus. Crying when someone dies isn't a lack of faith. It is a recognition of the horrible consequences of sin in our world and our longing for a world without it. But, secondly, godly grief doesn't stay there in despair. 

Abraham rises to speak with the Hittites, whom verse 7 calls, the people of the land. Abraham, a non-landowner in the Land that God Himself promised him, has to approach the people of the land for a place to bury Sarah.  

The beginning of negotiations goes very well. He is looking for a burial place, and the people seem very willing to let him have basically whatever tomb he would like! He is given great titles and treated very respectfully. However, without tone and vision, it is hard to know what their motivations are. Do they genuinely respect Abraham and are truly honored to give him a piece of their property? Or are they merely offering him something that isn't in writing? In other words, without payment, there would be nothing official about Abraham's claim to the grave, and it could be taken from him at any time, much less future generations (Matthews, 318). 

In either case, Abraham has already found the specific tomb he would like, and he asks to speak with the owner in order to buy it for full price. Once again, the owner is gracious and offers him not only the cave for a tomb, but he even offers the field that goes with it! Once again, scholars differ on possible motivations for this, but the bottom line is that those motivations don't matter much. What matters is Abraham's reaction to the offer. He insists on buying it for full price. Ephron offers it to him for 400 shekels of silver. Again, we don't know for sure if this is a reasonable price or inflated. They didn't have Zillow back then. What actually is surprising is the lack of back and forth. Haggling would have been expected in that culture, and the fact that Abraham doesn't even put forward a counter offer would be surprising. What that does, however, is guarantee that Abraham has that land (Waltke, 321). After all, Abraham accepted the very first offer! He came in at asking price. No one would be able to say that Abraham cheated Ephron or wore him down to sell it below market value. He bought that land fair and square. 

Now, he is a land owner. A wanderer no more. He buries his wife in the promised land. 

Now, to us that might not seem like a huge exercise in faith. We are a very mobile and practical people. We can live hundreds or even thousands of miles from where we are born, and only the more sentimental ones might have preferences on where our body is buried after we die. It is more likely that we will determine where we are buried in terms of costs and convenience. That is not so with Abraham or people like him in this age. As one scholar mentioned, Abraham burying outside of his native land was to cut ties with ancestors (Belcher, 163). This is honestly the final step in leaving the country of his fathers all the way back in chapter 12. He is now saying that the future of his family, his descendants, is right in this place. 

By the time we get to the end of Genesis, we will find that two more generations of Abraham's descendants will be buried there. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and finally Leah and Jacob. One source interestingly points out that Jacob died in Egypt, and Joseph had his father embalmed (Gen. 50:2), so Jacob's body could actually still be there in this cave these many thousands of years later (Easton Bible Dictionary)! 

So what does all that mean for us? What Abraham is doing in this practical way is not turning his back on God. He could have said that God didn't come through on this promise and go back to the homeland (Ross, 409). Do we not feel that pull sometimes when something really hard strikes us? Maybe God isn't worth following after all? This kind of despair often does come around a death, but it doesn't have to. Some can feel this way after a ministry implodes or a child walks away from Jesus. Abraham holds on even tighter. He places, in a very literal sense, his money where his faith is. He buys this land because he actually believes that there is a future here (Waltke, 320). 

Abraham believes that God works beyond his lifetime. My seminary prof Dr. Ross put it this way, "The point for biblical theology is that Abraham and Sarah had not exhausted God's promises in their lifetime. ... God would do far more for them than he had done in this life —which is the hope of all who die in the faith" (411). Did you notice what he said there? "God would do more for *them.*" Whose them? Abraham and Sarah! Wait a minute, those people are dead! How is God going to do more for them? Don't you mean, "God will do more for their descendants"? No. God brings Abraham and Sarah to a heavenly dwelling. A place to call their own is beyond a piece of real estate, though it is not less than that, as we can see here. 

God promises to give them Himself in heaven. And there is not promise greater than that. Death can't touch that promise. There is no plan that you can make, no hope that you can have for your life that is greater than that. 

However, that is only true if you are in Christ. That is why I put in the outline that death isn't *always* the end. If you are not in Christ this morning, then death truly is the end. This is as good as life will ever be. But if you are in Christ, then this is as bad as it will ever get. Heaven will be more than adequate compensation. 

What about family who died without Christ as near as we can tell? This is one of the blessings of the Lord knowing the heart and not us. My father heard a story in the hospital of a man who didn't know Jesus who went from cursing out his mom to repenting of his sins, trusting in Christ, reconciling with his mother, and then died all in the space of 20 minutes. You never know what goes through a person's mind. Let me be clear, no one goes to heaven without trusting in Christ. Jesus said quite clearly that He is the only way. You can't trust in some other god our yourself, but you never know for sure if God didn't get a hold of their heart in the final moments of life. Trust that the Judge of all the earth will do right. 

And, as a side note, this grave that Abraham purchased is still there. There's a Muslim mosque there now, so visiting of the grave site is heavily restricted. I came across one article that asked the question of why God allows a mosque, a monument to a false religion, to remain on a place as sacred as the location of the Temple mount? Why allow such a thing to rest on this grave, this symbol of hope and faith that endures beyond death? 

The article answers that perhaps God allows these things to happen to keep us from going back to them. Instead, He wants us to focus not on Abraham's grave, but Christ's. His grave is empty! And that gives us far more hope than Abraham's grave could ever dream of giving us! 

So what do we take away from this passage? Continue to cling to God's program. You have a hope that exists beyond the literal grave. God isn't done with you just because you're dead. Honestly, He's just getting started.