Returning to Genesis 23. Genesis
23, this chapter describes the purchase that Abraham made in
the land of Canaan for a burying place of his wife Sarah. Now Today, as we go through this,
we'll look at the promises. We'll be reminded of the promises
of God made unto Abraham as he and Sarah pilgrim, made their
pilgrimager sojourned in the land of Canaan. And we'll see
how they went back and forth, up and down, and eventually they
come to Hebron again, where Sarah dies, and a purchase is required
here. And in these promises, we see
the promises of the gospel, which our Lord made in Christ, were
fulfilled unto Abraham in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's
begin in verses 1 and 2, Genesis 23, 1 and 2. And Sarah was 107
and 20 years old. She was 127 years old. These were the years of the life
of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath Arba. And Kirjath always means the
city of. So the city of Arba, or Kirjath
Jairam, the city of Jairam, which is the forest, I believe. And
the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to
mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. When you read Genesis 23,
both these verses and as you read the formality that was followed
in purchasing the cave of Machpelah in which Sarah was buried, when
you look at that, you see that there's a protocol. There's a
formal way that things are done here. There's an etiquette that's
followed and understood and expected at this time. And so a protocol
means it's a form of ceremony, for example. There's a pattern. There's a form that was followed
by the people. You said certain things. You
did certain things in a certain way. And it's a very formal protocol
here. And Abraham knew the protocol. Abraham knew the protocol that
was expected here at this time and he followed it. Now keep
that in mind when we read what Abraham says next in verses 3
and 4. And Abraham stood up from before
his dead and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger
and a sojourner with you. Give me a possession of a burying
place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight." Now,
Abraham had been in Canaan for many decades, for a long time. When he was 75, that's when he
was called out of Ur of the Chaldees. That's when he was called out
of the city of his fathers, when he was 75. Sarah is 127, Abraham would be
about 137. So he's coming up close to having
spent as much time in Canaan as he did back in Ur of the Chaldees. But he knows this protocol. He knows what's expected of him
here. He knows what to do. And you
consider what he says of himself. I'm a stranger. I'm a sojourner
among you. And look at what they say back
to him in verses 5 and 6. And the children of Heth answered
Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord. Thou art a mighty
prince among us. And the choice of our sepulchre
is bury thy dead. None of us shall withhold from
thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. And you'll maybe recall that
the people of Mamre, which was there by Hebron where Abraham
was, they were in league with Abraham for many decades now.
They knew him very well. They trusted him. They traded
with him. They spoke with him. They knew the God he worshipped
and served. And he was a valued member of
their society so that they considered him a prince among them, a mighty
man among them, not a stranger, not a sojourner, but one with
them. So what did Abraham mean when
he said, I'm a stranger and a sojourner? Why would Abraham say that to
these people? Well, I bring this up because
you'll recall that Abraham is called the father of all them
that believe. You that believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, he in that sense is a father. He went before us and he believed
God and God counted it to him for righteousness. And we that
believe the Lord Jesus Christ, we are like Abraham. Abraham is a pattern for us. Abraham is a type of the believer
in many ways. He's a type of us, brethren. And so this is significant to
us. When we read of Abraham here,
when we look at all the promises of God made to Abraham throughout
his journey, throughout his pilgrimage in Canaan, this is speaking of
me. This is God speaking to me of
my case. This is his word to me. And so
from the time that God called Abraham, because it was God who
called Abraham out of his idolatry, out of that land of darkness,
since that time, Abraham became a stranger and a sojourner in
this world. And that's true of every one
of you that believe Christ. From the time the Lord calls
you in grace, you are a stranger in this world. You are but a
sojourner, a pilgrim in this world. And so we have a type
of what the Lord does for us in Abraham. And we see it when
he's first called out of the land of his fathers in Genesis
12. If you want to look there, verse
1, we're told that the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out
of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house unto a land that I will show thee. And then we know that
Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, and he went to a place that was
named Haran, likely after his brother who had died. In the
presence of his father, right before his dad's eyes, he died.
And he went to a place called Haran, or named Haran. And then
eventually his father died, Tira. And Abram went on further into
the land of Canaan, just like the Lord had called him to do. And so in that sense, he is a
literal stranger and pilgrim. But it's a type. I remember hearing
someone say that in Genesis, every doctrine of the Bible,
every doctrine of the gospel, everything the Lord teaches his
people is right here in Types. and pictures it's given to us
it's shown to us right here in Genesis and that's true you we
saw Christ in in all of Genesis so far and that's true here as
Abraham is a stranger in a pilgrim so you that believe are strangers
and pilgrims in this world that we see here in type And like
Abraham, we confess, it says in Hebrews chapter 11, we confess
that we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth. All of God's people
confess that. I'm a stranger here. I don't
fit in. This is just a transitory, temporary
place that I'm passing through till the Lord receives me, till
the Lord brings me home. And the Lord makes us to know
that we are strangers and pilgrims so that we would hear what the
Spirit says to His strangers and pilgrims in the earth as
we're going through. The Spirit says, be not conformed
to this world. But be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind in Christ Jesus. We're not of this world. We're not of this world. We are
of Christ. And we also hear what Peter says.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain,
put off, don't do those fleshly lusts. Why? Because they war
against the soul. They war against the soul. They
defile that peace. They trouble us and cause us
harm and grief. And so don't do those things
he's saying. Not because you're saved by the doing or not doing
of them. It's because you're the Lord's. He has saved you.
You're his. You're his purchased possession.
And those things war against the soul. So we are strangers
and pilgrims, brethren. And so Abraham came from that
region which was beyond, meaning, as I understand it, that's where
the term Hebrew came from. from one of Abram's descendants,
which was Eber. And Eber was one of the last
long-lifers, I call them, one of the last ones who lived for
hundreds and hundreds of years, right around the same time as
Nimrod. He was one of the last long-lifers, if I am calculating
correctly. But Eber came from beyond, beyond
the Euphrates and the Tigris River. That's where Abram's family
came from. And so then he came into Canaan
as a stranger. And that's supposedly where it's
believed that the term Hebrew came from. But he was a stranger
and a sojourner among them. And God led him into the land,
the promised land of Canaan. And so all believers, when you
think of it, every one of us at one time was a stranger and
a pilgrim, or a stranger and a sojourner, or not a fellow
citizen of the kingdom of God. We were alien to that. We didn't
know the true name of God. We were a stranger to the things
of God. But now in Christ, we are fellow
citizens with the saints and of the household of God. And
so when Abraham describes himself here as a stranger and a sojourner,
after living there for so long, it's because Abraham has been
given an eye of faith to look to the promise of God. He's not looking at carnal things.
He's not weighing things in a worldly manner. He's weighing them according
to the gift of faith. and according to the eye of faith,
which is the gift of God to his children. And God has taught
him this. God has made him to know that
he is a stranger and a pilgrim. God has fixed a true and living
hope in Abraham that is looking to Christ. God gave Abraham this
faith in the promise. What Abraham's faith was looking
to was the promise of an eternal inheritance obtained for him
and given in the promised sea. This is what I want to show you
this morning. God taught him this as he was
sojourning in the land of Canaan. This is where the Lord made this
known to Abraham. This is where he made him to
know the promises of God and revealed and grew the knowledge
that Abraham had. This is where the Lord grew that
knowledge and understanding that God had given him eternal life,
that God had made him righteous through the promise. This is
the work of God. And so as he sojourned in the
land of Canaan, he saw in the promised seed of Isaac that the
promised seed of Christ would come, that in him all nations
of the earth would be blessed through the seed that would come
through Isaac. That is the Lord Jesus Christ
who would come from that lineage of Abraham. Now, you just think
about that. Abraham had a hope in spiritual
things. And then you come to when Christ
came, when the promise he came, and he's declaring the kingdom
of God. He's declaring the kingdom of
salvation, that God had saved his people. As he went preaching
the gospel, what did the Jews hear? It was contrary to what
the Jews heard because everything to them was literal. It was carnal. They were looking for fleshly
promises, physical fleshly promises. Even the apostles, until Christ
taught them, they were looking for a carnal kingdom. They were
looking for a fleshly kingdom. But when they saw Christ, all
they saw was physical things. They heard physical things which
were contrary to their carnal expectation, and so by their
man-made reason they rejected Christ and missed the promises. So what did God mean by the promise
that he gave to Abraham? Let's look in Genesis 15, verses
7 and 8, because this is important. to see here. Genesis 15.7 And God said unto
Abraham, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees,
to give thee this land, to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby
shall I know that I shall inherit it? How will I know this? And
the Lord gave him a seed in it. Now, what the Lord teaches us
here in the gospel is to understand the promise that God makes to
all his children, like Abraham, who are of faith. It must be
answered according to the blessings he gives us in Christ. If we're
going to understand what God is saying to Abraham, we're going
to understand them in Christ. And what he shows us is that
the promise of the land, don't look at it carnally as the Jews
looked at it, look at it in Christ. Because it speaks of, that land
speaks of the promise of eternal life and inheritance of eternal
life given to us in the promised seed, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what he's teaching us here. And so then, in chapter
15, after he gave him the promise of the land, which pictures our
eternal inheritance, what did he do? He instructed Abraham
to sacrifice three animals that were three years old. One was
a heifer. I think a ram or a lamb, but
it was picturing Christ. The sacrifice pictured Christ,
and Abraham understood the promise of God in Christ. That was the
picture there, that he understood and was taught Christ, that we
see and are taught by the Lord, it's in Christ. Every spiritual
blessing is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1.3, God hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. It's all, all the blessings we
have are in Christ. And so Abraham was taught of
God as he's sojourning around in Cain and he's being taught
of God, don't look to the flesh Abraham. Don't look to the flesh,
look to the promise fulfilled to you in Christ. And Romans
4.3 says, In what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. That's actually in Genesis 15,
I think, verse 6. Abraham believed God, and God
counted it to him for righteousness. And God gave him the promise
in Christ. And so focusing on the physical
land. And this is a word to us. Don't look to this world. Don't
set your heart and affection and love on this world because
it's passing away. It's passing away. And the love
of this world is not the love of the Father. And if you're
taken up with this world and this is your possession and your
inheritance and your life, You have no life in Christ except
God be gracious and deliver you from them. Take you out of it
just like he does for all of his people. And so focusing on
that physical land of Canaan given to Abram's descendants
is exalting the physical above the spiritual, the blessings
in Christ which He speaks of. This is what our Lord teaches
us and it leads only to a fleshly, carnal understanding of the promises. It takes the eyes off of Christ
and puts them on fleshly things that are passing away. that have
no lasting effect or anything for us. And that was that same
physical focus that caused the Jews to reject Christ and crucify
the Lord of glory. Because everything to them was
physical and carnal. And so our blessings are in Christ.
Now, Abram was told Well, let me just even add this.
This is why Christ said to the Jews, to show you that this is
all speaking of Christ, he said in John 5, 39, ye search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they
are they which testify of me. And when the heart is set on
carnal things, he said, and ye will not come to me that ye might
have life. And so we don't want to have
the focus on the carnal things. Our focus is to be on Christ.
and by his grace it is. That's why he teaches us this
same truth as he taught Abram in our pilgrimage. And he keeps
repeating it and showing it to us and bringing us out of that
carnal and to see by faith all the promises of God in Christ.
Now Abraham was told back in Genesis 13, verse 17 and 18,
he said, arise, this is about the pilgrimage here, arise, walk
through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of
it, for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent,
and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron,
and built there an altar unto the Lord." So this is long before
where we are in Genesis 23. Abraham did that very thing.
He began going up and down and all around in Canaan at that
time. Just to give you a quick, brief
outline, when he left Haran, came out of Ur to Haran. Well,
it's over this way for you. And then he came into Canaan
there. He arrived around Bethel. And
if you are ever looking in your maps of the Bible, and you go
to like the 12 tribes of Israel, you could see that Bethel is
in Benjamin, right, and it's the house of God there, and it's
in Benjamin where he first set up a, I'm sorry, an altar there
and worshiped the Lord. Then the famine came, he briefly
goes down into Egypt, they go back up, they arrive around the
plains of the cities around Sodom and Gomorrah, which seems to
be around the Dead Sea which is probably covering all those
cities right now over the Dead Sea and Lot goes towards Sodom
and he pulls back towards Hebron. There it is where Abraham came
to Hebron the first time and then eventually when God destroyed
Sodom he withdraws even further away from there to Gerar, which
is going to be west, a little west, southwest. Yeah, I think
southwest of that area, or southeast. No, southwest of that area. And
then, or north, I don't know, one of those. It's west. And
then he comes back. He starts going to Beersheba.
And Beersheba was a little southeast of Gerar. That's down in Simeon.
And so really, all the places that are detailed for us are
really around Judea. He gets Benjamin, Judah, and
Simeon. Those are all the southern tribes
known as Judea there. And that's pretty much where
he walked, or at least we're told that's where he walked.
And then eventually, he goes back up to Hebron here in chapter
23, and this is where Sarah dies. And so he traveled through much
of that land, and yet all that time, none of it was given to
him for a possession. All right, and this is important.
None of this land was given to him for a possession. But what
did God give Abraham? He gave him the promised seed.
In his pilgrimage all around that he went, God gave him the
promised seed, which was Isaac, who was a picture of Christ,
the promised seed. This is what the Lord did for
Abraham and for Sarah. And so the whole time, he had
the promise of the land, i.e. a picture of the eternal inheritance,
and God fulfilled it unto him in giving him the seed. So he
had the hope of eternal life, the picture of the land, and
what God gave him in his pilgrimage was the seed. And the picture
there is what the Lord does for us, brethren. We have the promise
and the hope of eternal life. And we don't receive that eternal
life here, so to speak. We receive it by faith. And what does the Lord give you?
He gives you the seed of Christ. He gives you Christ. He reveals
Christ to you. That's what we're given in this
life. And that's our hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is what the Lord is showing
us here. So Abraham's taken out of Ur,
the Chaldees, out of that kingdom of darkness. Nimrod was probably
alive still at that time. Ur was a fortified city made
of baked bricks, just like the Tower of Babel. It was all that
idolatry was going on over there. And the Lord took him out of
that darkness and brought him into a type of the kingdom of
light. And while Abraham's going up
and down and all around in Canaan there, God keeps repeating to
him, every chapter we see, he's repeating to him the promise
over and over and over and over again. God keeps repeating to
him the promise, and Abraham is being taught. He's taking
my eyes off of physical things and putting them on the promise.
fulfilled unto me in Christ." And so what Abraham was given,
that's the promise we are given, brethren. That's the promise
and the hope that we receive ourselves in Jesus Christ. Like Abraham, we've been brought
out of the kingdom of darkness. Turn over to Colossians chapter
1. Colossians 1 and we've been brought into the kingdom of Christ.
So Colossians 1 verses 12 through 14 and then just stay here for
a few moments with me in the New Testament. Colossians 1 verse
12 giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light." We have an inheritance with the saints
of God. Verse 13, who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And so that picture of
Abram being taken out of Ur, that dark place, into Canaan. That's what the Lord has done
for us. He took us out of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of light of Christ. And then Abram never received
the promise of land because it pictured eternal life. Turn over
to Hebrews chapter 11 and just stay there for a moment. Hebrews
11 verse 8. Hebrews 11.8 By faith Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place which he should
after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing
whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac, or like tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He was looking
for that promise of eternal life that God had promised him. And
so what Abraham was looking for, that's what we are looking for
this day. This isn't our kingdom. This world is wrecked. And the
Lord keeps showing us just how wrecked and awful and ruined
this place is in sin. But we have a better hope. We
have an eternal inheritance in Christ, in Him. And so we understand,
we have the promises of God, but not in this life, not in
that sense, not that physical presence of them. But as we go
through this land, having that promise, the Lord is graciously
teaching us. He keeps teaching us and showing
us Christ more and more by His grace, because that's what He
tells us. It's written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of the Lord. The Lord teaches
His children, and He teaches us Christ. He teaches us all
the promises fulfilled to us in Christ. Now what did Abraham
receive here? The promise of the Son. The promised
seed was fulfilled unto him in Christ. He had the promise of
eternal life and he was given the seed and he was given that
down payment of an inheritance there. Look at Hebrews 11.11
now. And so we've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. And because we are His purchased
possession, He finds us. We're lost sinners in darkness,
knowing nothing of God, strangers to the things of God. But He
finds us. He gives His Spirit. He gives
the Word. the spirit takes the things of
Christ and blesses them to our heart making them effectual to
us and gives us that same promise that Abraham received and he
makes it effectual to the hearts of his people and as we go through
this world as strangers and pilgrims he keeps repeating it to us over
and over and over and over through the preaching of the gospel and
he keeps reminding us and showing us the things of Christ that
they're all given in him. And he delivers us from the trouble
just like we saw Abraham fell. A couple of his falls were recorded
for us. And we know the many falls we
have and the many lessons we need and all the humblings and
strippings that the Lord keeps showing us Christ and keeps confirming
him to our hearts that we are his. And by grace, by grace and
mercy, And then, like Sarah, we see in that picture there,
we who were dead in trespasses and sins, like the deadness of
her womb, through faith, which is given to us, received. the
grace of God, strength to conceive the seed, not that we bring it
forth of this flesh, but the Holy Spirit comes upon us and
forms Christ and is the seed of Christ in us, just like we
see in Mary, right? But she brought him forth physically,
but it's a picture of what the Lord does for every one of us
spiritually, forms Christ in our hearts by faith. And so we
see this, what the Lord did. Now, let me just show you here,
What really drew me to this passage was this dying of Sarah, this
burying place that Abraham had to purchase for, that he wanted
to purchase for, that he purchased for her, I should say. All of
us who are strangers and pilgrims in this world, like Abraham,
we desire a better country. Hebrews 11 16 a better country
that is in heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called
our God for he hath prepared for us who believe a city a city
made by him now Abraham required one thing he had no possession
he never received any possession physically in the land of Canaan
but in that land he purchased possession to bury Sarah right
he said give me a possession in verse 4 a possession of a
burying place with you that I may bury my dead out of my sight
and this speaks of what Christ did for his bride this is a picture
of what our Lord did for his bride here Abram followed the
protocol perfectly he said well if you're gonna you know let
me have a place I'd like the cave of Machpelah And Ephron,
the son of Zohar's field, at the bottom of his field there,
I'd like that. Ephron said, sure, I'll give
it to you. And he said, well, if you give it to me, I'll pay
you for it. I'll buy it from you. And they
kind of go back and forth there. There's an etiquette. There's
a form that's followed. And in the process of it, Ephron
tells him, well, it's 400 pieces of silver. And Abraham says,
OK. And he weighed it out. in full,
400 pieces, before all the sons of Heth. So that they all saw
he paid the demanded price. The whole price that was required,
that's what he paid for that burying place. And we're told
in verse 20, back in Genesis 23, 20, and the field and the
cave that is therein were made sure unto Abraham for a possession
of a burying place by the sons of Heth. And what the Lord is
showing us here is that Everything required, everything that was
necessary was followed perfectly. In perfect righteousness, Abraham
bought that field. He paid the price demanded in
full before them all. And that's a picture of what
Christ did for his people. The price demanded for our salvation
was paid in full. The price demanded Christ our
Savior paid it in full. And if we're going to receive
that inheritance, we need the redemption of Christ. And Christ
did that. He did exactly what was necessary
for us to receive that heavenly, that promised heavenly possession. And so And what He did in that
purchase, when He shed His own blood, when He laid down His
life, He purchased for us a burying place in Him. In Him. He secured for us that possession
in His death and in His resurrection. And all that believe Christ have
died in Christ, were buried in Christ with Him. in a burying
place purchased in full by the Lord Jesus Christ. And as he
was raised from the dead, brethren, so we too shall be raised from
the dead unto newness of life in our Lord." Now, our physical
places here in the earth, where we are buried in the ground or
what have you, they vary. They vary, and they'll be different. Meaningless that has no bearing
on our hope in Christ. This place is just a temporary
thing but our life and our hope and everything we have is Fixed
in Christ and it's given in Christ. It's received in the Lord Jesus
Christ and he's made this known to us in this this pilgrimage
and so by He's purchased this bearing place now, let me just
read Romans 6 verses 4 and 5 and Therefore, it says, we are buried
with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. And so we died with Christ, we
were crucified with him, and we were buried with him. All
through that purchased burying place by our Lord, who paid it
in full, who did everything in perfect righteousness. It was
all fulfilled in Him. And so let me just close with
this, something that I was thinking of as I was finishing up this
message, and just reminding me of something that our Lord said
concerning this purchase that our Lord made. He said, and it's
from Matthew 13, verse 44, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in
a field. The witch, when a man hath found,
he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he
hath, and buyeth that field." And brethren, we can't explain
it, but we are the treasure that the Lord has chosen for himself. And he hid us in that field.
Christ went and paid the price he gave everything he gave his
life and shed his blood for that field which he's Put you in placed
you in as his treasure and we are his secured in him. And so
what a blessing What a blessing that we are Secured in Christ
because we're so blind and ignorant so often to these precious truths,
but they're all fulfilled gloriously and wonderfully in Christ Jesus,
our Lord and Savior, our Husband, our Husband who did everything
for us, everything for us. Amen.