from Genesis chapter 25 and verse
1. We'll read through to verse 11. Then again Abraham took a wife
and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and
Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuha. And Jokshan begat Sheba, and
Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Ashurim,
and Letushim, and Leomim. And the sons of Midian, Ephah,
and Epher, and Hanokh, and Abedah and Eldahah, and these were the
children of Keturah. And Abraham gave all that he
had unto Isaac, but unto the sons of the concubines which
Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac
his son, while he yet lived eastward unto the east country. And these
are the days of the years of Abraham's life, which he lived,
a hundred, threescore, and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the
ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years,
and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael
buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son
of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre. The field which
Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth, there was Abraham buried,
and Sarah his wife. And it came to pass after the
death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac dwelt
by the well Lahairoi. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Abraham is now a very old man,
and his wife, Sarah, is dead. Isaac, the son of promises, married
to Rebekah. And perhaps Abraham began to
feel lonely. Perhaps it was that he was seeking
companionship and comfort in his old age. Whatever the reason,
he took a wife called Keturah and she gave birth to six sons
whose genealogy we have and from whom many different nations arose. Now it is likely that this Keturah
was not a full wife because Elsewhere in scripture, she is called a
concubine, and indeed, in this passage that we have before us,
there is a reference to concubines. Well, we know about Hagar, and
here it would seem Keturah was the second which made that word
concubines in the plural. It may be, and I don't want to
insinuate something that might be wrong here, but it may be
that like Hagar, Keturah had been a concubine for many years. and that it wasn't simply that
Abraham took her at the end of his life here, but that she had
been a concubine to him for a longer period of time. Either way, Abraham
was careful not to dilute the inheritance of Isaac, because
as God had promised, He, Abraham, saw Isaac as the one through
whom the divine promises would come. God's covenants would be
fulfilled both as far as the possession of the land of Canaan
and the spiritual seed, which was the Lord Jesus Christ, through
this one Isaac. And so Abraham was careful to
send away these other boys that had been born. And this confidence
that God had in the promises, this confidence that Abraham
had, I'm sorry, in the promises of God show Abraham to have been
a man of faith. a man who believed the word of
God. And for that reason, the New
Testament looks back on the life of this man Abraham with great
esteem and veneration. James calls him the friend of
God. And Paul in Galatians chapter
3 says that he was faithful Abraham and in Romans chapter 4 the father
of us all, that is the father of all who believe. But it was coming to the end
of Abraham's life. And at 175 years of age, an extraordinary
age in our terms these days, but you will remember that in
days gone by, men and women did live much longer. But at 175
years of age, Abraham died. And the Holy Spirit uses this time to give us a phrase which
I think is interesting. We're told concerning the death
of Abraham that he was gathered to his people. Now men and women
might use that phrase today to mean that he was joined to his
ancestors in his death. But might we not say a little
more about this rather lovely phrase? Because it's not necessarily
Abraham's people that he is joined to, but rather God's people that
are in view here, and that Abraham was gathered to his people. Abraham was one of God's people,
as all are who are the children of God by faith, so that all
the people of God can say with regard to their own death, as
they anticipate it and as they consider it, that they believe
that they will be gathered to his people. Galatians tells us
in chapter 3 verse 26, For ye are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. And to be gathered to his people
is to be brought by death into the company of that great congregation,
the redeemed of the Lord, the children of God, the children
of the resurrection. Isaac and Ishmael buried their
father in a cave where Sarah was buried. And there, in death,
Abraham and Sarah, at least their bodies and their bones, are reunited
once again. And from that little phrase,
it would seem that Ishmael was not altogether separated from
either Abraham or his brother, his half-brother at least, Isaac. And even if they were, it seems
that death, as it often does, is an occasion that brings reconciliation
in a family. We note just in passing that
Abraham was not burned in his death, but buried. And this is
the biblical pattern as we have seen before. As Abraham ends
his life, we are reminded that it is appointed unto all ones
to die. And Abraham made preparation
for dying when he got Isaac a wife and gave Isaac all of his inheritance. Indeed, even as he sent away
the other boys of his household far away from Isaac, that they
be not a snare to him. He made preparation for dying. And we all ought to make preparation
for dying, for we all will die. And even if we are younger, there
will come a time in this life, if the Lord Jesus Christ does
not come back beforehand, when we will all die. What is the
best preparation that we can make for death? What is it that
we can do in order to know that we have peace with God and that
we will be gathered to his people. The Word of God tells us in Hebrews
chapter 10, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. But then again, it also tells
us in Proverbs chapter 14, that the righteous, that is those
who trust in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as their
saviour, as their Lord, have hope in death. John, the apostle, writes in
Revelation chapter 14 and verse 13, I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the spirit that they
may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. It is to be our prayer and our
desire that we die in the Lord. We die having faith in the Lord. We die trusting in the sacrifice
and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse us from our
sins. Abraham was blessed in life.
and he was blessed in death. And all who trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ as their Saviour, they are too. May the Lord give
us grace to believe and hope for eternal life. that we, like
Abraham, might know the blessings of the Lord when it comes to
the day of our own death and our own passing into eternity. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.