{"id":15869,"date":"2021-05-28T22:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T05:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_22_13-24-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-05-23T16:01:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T23:01:01","slug":"genesis_23_1-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_23_1-20\/","title":{"rendered":"What Death Can\u2019t Separate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 23:1-20\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 23:1-20.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 23:1-2 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0\u00a0For some reason the first time a person in the Bible is recorded as weeping, it\u2019s in a situation where Abraham lost his wife Sarah.\u00a0\u00a0The two had been together for many decades.\u00a0\u00a0Together they had moved to and lived in many different places, experienced so many ups and downs, trusted in God\u2019s promises and saw God work powerfully in their lives.\u00a0\u00a0Other than the presence of God, there was no one whose presence was more constant in Abraham\u2019s life than Sarah\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0And now Abraham and Sarah were saying goodbye.\u00a0\u00a0No doubt even in their old age, this was a very difficult thing to do.<\/p>\n

To me in part it\u2019s a reminder that God sees us as His bride.\u00a0\u00a0Because He never wanted to lose us to death, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, so that we could be with Him forever.<\/p>\n

Genesis 23:3-20 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said,
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.”
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Hittites replied to Abraham,
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He said to them, “If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.”
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“No, my lord,” he said. “Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.”
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.”
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Ephron answered Abraham,
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between me and you? Bury your dead.”
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre–both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field–was deeded
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 3-20:\u00a0\u00a0Even though Abraham called himself \u201can alien and a stranger\u201d (v4) among the Hittites living in the land of Canaan, Abraham believed God\u2019s promise that one day His own descendants would take possession of the land of Canaan.\u00a0\u00a0So in faith Abraham makes arrangements to bury Sarah in the land of Canaan, specifically in Hebron (which centuries later would become the capital of Judah under David\u2019s reign \u2013 2 Samuel 2:11).<\/p>\n

Sarah was in many ways the seed that gave rise to the nation of Israel, so it was appropriate that she be the first in Abraham and Sarah\u2019s family to be buried in Canaan.\u00a0\u00a0The process by which Abraham negotiated to buy Ephron\u2019s field was apparently the customary way that people in that culture would negotiate for property.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Even as we go about the logistics of life, such as finding property to bury our deceased loved ones, may we do so with faith, making decisions that are in line with God\u2019s vision and promises for our lives.<\/p>\n

Jesus, thank You for the life of Sarah, for the faith she exhibited, and how through her life and faith all of us today are blessed.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that just as Sarah was Abraham\u2019s bride, we the church are Your bride and You made a way so that not even death will ever need to separate us from Your presence.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 23:1-20.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 23:1-2 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0\u00a0For some reason the first time a person in the Bible is recorded as weeping, it\u2019s in a situation where Abraham lost his wife Sarah.\u00a0\u00a0The two had been together for many decades.\u00a0\u00a0Together they had moved to and lived in many different places, experienced so many ups and downs, trusted in God\u2019s promises and saw God work powerfully in their lives.\u00a0\u00a0Other than the presence of God, there was no one whose presence was more constant in Abraham\u2019s life than Sarah\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0And now Abraham and Sarah were saying goodbye.\u00a0\u00a0No doubt even in their old age, this was a very difficult thing to do.<\/p>\n

To me in part it\u2019s a reminder that God sees us as His bride.\u00a0\u00a0Because He never wanted to lose us to death, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, so that we could be with Him forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15869"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15870,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15869\/revisions\/15870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}