Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 23, and we are going to read the first couple of verses to finish up, and then we will read a large part of the chapter after that, if all goes according to plan. It says in Genesis 23:1-2:

And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

We are at the point of the last part of verse 2: “…and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.”

We spent some time looking at Sarah’s death age, and the fact that she died in Kirjatharba and the significance of that being the land of the Anakims in the Promised Land of Canaan.

Here, Abraham will begin to negotiate in order to buy a piece of land as a burying place. We also read that he came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. Kirjatharba was the burying place for Sarah. It would be the burying place for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives.

In the last study, we saw in Acts 7:15-16 that when Jacob died, he was “translated” out of Egypt to this burying place. That is because it typifies with the translation or change of God’s people when they leave this world and enter into the next world, the kingdom of God, which the land of Canaan typifies. So I think that what God is doing is this: “This piece of land is going to signify the dwelling place of my people, the elect, in this hostile world.” We know that we have no certain home here. This is not our home. We have heavenly citizenship, and we look for a new heaven and a new earth. But, again, this is only a figure. This is where Sarah’s body was placed, and the bodies of the patriarchs were placed and, therefore, it will be the place from where their bodies will rise up and be translated as they receive new resurrected bodies on the last day and enter into the new heaven and new earth, with everlasting life in the presence of God. So this is an excellent spot for Abraham to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

“Of course, it is, “ you are probably thinking. “She died there, so where else is he going to mourn and weep?” Yes, historically, his mourning and weeping is very understandable and very appropriate. But, again, God always has the deeper spiritual meaning in view. And Abraham can represent God. He can represent the people of God, and, here, I think he is representing the people of God, as well as God, because the mourning and weeping relates to the sending forth of the Gospel. We can know this because it says in Ecclesiastes 3:1-4:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

These references have to do with various “times and seasons” in God’s program for things concerning His salvation program and His judgment program. The mourning and weeping identifies with the sowing of the seed of the Gospel and getting the Gospel out into the world. This is what we find in Psalm 126:5-6:

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

On one hand, Sarah’s death and burial is like the planting of the seed. The Word of God was in her, and her dead body went into the ground, and one day it will come up and it will be fruitful on the last day at the end of the world. But that is not what the mourning and weeping of Abraham was pointing to, but it was really a description of getting the Gospel out. At this point in time, it is as if God is saying that we can be sure that when an elect person dies, they will rise again. They were born again in their souls while they lived, but they will be born again in their bodies at a future time, and God did guarantee this. He did promise this and, therefore, it is a certainty. It is faithful and true, and it will happen, without any question. But in the meantime, we were to get the Gospel out, going forth with the seed weeping and sharing the Word of God. And we will come again at a future time, rejoicing and bringing in the sheaves. When that seed was planted in the ground, it was a dead thing, but it brought forth living fruit. It brought forth living things, and that points to the “life” of the people of God.

I think that is all we are going to get into as far as that is concerned. It is just sort of a passing reference that God is making.

So let us get into the rest of this chapter. Let us read Genesis 23:3-16:

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 buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you. And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

I will stop reading there. I think by this point…and I know I say this all the time because we have to keep this constantly in our minds. And I say it all the time because it is contradicted by the theologians, pastors and teachers in the churches and congregations. In fact, they teach against it, and they say we are not to “spiritualize,” but that is contrary to how God wrote the Bible, and it was said of the Lord Jesus, “…without a parable he did not speak.” And He was the Word made flesh and, therefore, the whole Bible is a parable. Of course, this is an historical event and true history that took place long ago in the year 2030 or 2031 B. C. Sarah died, and Abraham had this discussion with the sons of Heth concerning a piece of land to purchase for a burying place. Apparently, it was customary in that day to buy a piece of land in this manner when someone died. It is very respectful. A person has died, and you would not want to be seen “bargaining” and trying to get as much money as you could for a piece of land, so they developed a nice custom, and the man said, “I will give you the land.” That was very kind. But, obviously, it was not to be taken literally and did not mean he wanted to give the land away, but it was a customary way to go about purchasing the land in a grievous situation like death; and in this case it was the death of Sarah. So he said to take the land, but Abraham declined and said he would pay for it. Then he kindly mentioned a price in this back-and-forth exchange.

We will see as we go through this that it is very repetitive, as I mentioned earlier. For example, the name “Heth” or the sons of Heth or the children of Heth are mentioned eight times. The word “field” is mentioned eight times. The name “Ephron” is mentioned eight times. The word “bury” is mentioned seven times, and the word “buryingplace” is mentioned three times, so ten times in total. The word “cave” is mentioned five times. So it is very repetitive, back and forth, and that is because God is illustrating a very important truth with this purchase of a cave. I think we will be able to see some things as we go through this. I just want to look at some of these places now and sort of lay out all the material that we will be looking at more closely.

It is like when you first start a job. You make sure you have all the tools and you lay it out. Then when you have everything laid out, then you are ready to go to work. So that is what we want to do now.

Let us go to Matthew 27, and I think we will find the spiritual teaching of Genesis 23 is related to this. It says in Matthew 27:3-10:

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.

We see this historical information concerning the money that Judas received for betraying the Lord. He cast it down in the temple and the priests took the money and they purchased a field called the potter’s field in which they would bury strangers. The word “potter” leads us to Jeremiah 18:2-6:

Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of JEHOVAH came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith JEHOVAH. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

Jeremiah 18 tells us that God is the potter, and in Matthew 27 the money that betrayed innocent blood was used to purchase a field called “the potter’s field.” If we just look at the words, the word “potter” would identify with God; the word “field,” according to the parable Jesus gave in Matthew 13, is the world. So God bought the field or the world with the money that had to do with innocent blood. It was also said that the potter’s field was bought to bury strangers in, and when we check out the word “stranger” in the Bible, it often identifies with God’s elect; we are foreigners, pilgrims and strangers in the earth.

It is very similar to what is going on in Genesis 23 where Abraham, a sojourner and a stranger, wants to buy a field, and in that field he wants to bury Sarah who is also a sojourner and a stranger in that land, so there is relationship with the potter’s field we read about in Matthew 27.

What is really interesting (and I do not know if I can fully explain it) is that Matthew 27 told us that these things were spoken about in Jeremy the prophet and, yet, we do not find those specifics in the book of Jeremiah. It seems to be more related to what we read in Zechariah 11:10-13:

And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of JEHOVAH. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And JEHOVAH said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of JEHOVAH.

So that does seem to relate more to Matthew 27 than things we can find in Jeremiah, but we are going to look at that. It is something that has been unclear, and it may continue to be unclear to a degree. It is sort of becoming a little clearer to me. You can “Google” this and you will see some historical stumbling blocks and problems, but this is how God wrote the Bible with seemingly contradictory things, but we know both are true and we just have to harmonize them. But that is one thing we will try to look at. We will also look at the parable that speaks of a man that bought a field because there was treasure in it. We will try to look at all those things and then relate it back to what we are reading in Genesis 23.

One last thing I want to say before we close this study is that we read in Genesis 23:5-6:

And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.

What is interesting here is the Hebrew word translated as “mighty,” where it says, “Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us.” It is the Hebrew word, Strong’s #430, and that is the word “el-o-heem,” and it is the word used many times in the Bible, especially in the creation account in Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

It is also used in verses 2, 3, and 4 where God is referred to as “el-o-heem,” and it is found throughout that chapter and throughout the Bible. It is only translated as “mighty” a couple of times, so it is very odd that these children of Heth spoke to Abraham saying, “Thou art a mighty prince among us,” or “You are a ‘el-o-heem’ prince among us.” Of course, the word “el-o-heem” is a plural word for God, which makes it even more strange and unusual since they are speaking to a one man. It is only understandable on a spiritual level because Abraham is a picture of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “prince” is used in reference to the Lord Jesus elsewhere. When we get together, Lord willing, in our next study, we will look at that. It just confirms that this whole historical parable has to do with the purchase price for the land that, ultimately, was made by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself at the foundation of the world.