Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #5 of Genesis, chapter 23, and we are going to read Genesis 23:3-12:

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.

I will stop reading there. It continues, but we will stop there because I think this is enough for us to deal with in this study. We have been spending some time looking at this purchase that Abraham made, and it was the only land in the land of Canaan that he ever bought or owned. God is devoting this whole chapter to it because it has great importance. Spiritually, it has tremendous importance.

Last time we talked about verse 6 and how the children of Heth responded to Abraham, in Genesis 23:6:

Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us…

I pointed out that the Hebrew word translated as “mighty” is actually the Hebrew word “el-o-heem,” which is the word for God. It is the plural word that is translated as God many, many times, just as it says in Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

That sets Abraham up as a type and figure of God Himself. I also mentioned that the word “prince” identifies with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us just quickly turn there before we continue. It says in Ezekiel 37:25:

And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

Here, His servant David is pointing to Jesus because, obviously, David (the man) who was King over earthly Israel, would not be a prince forever ruling over the people of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is our eternal King and Prince. So Abraham was called an “el-o-heem” prince and, again, clearly this language is pointing to Jesus with the use of both words.

And Abraham is the one who is going to pay money to buy a field in which there is a cave in which to bury Sarah his wife. We spent some time talking about how Sarah is a picture of the elect, the people that God has saved. From before the foundation of the world, He chose them and at the point of the foundation of the world, He died for them and paid for their sins.

So we understand who Abraham represents, and we also understand that the field pictures the world, but who are these “children of Heth” that are mentioned eight times in this chapter? It says in Genesis 23:3:

And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth…

And it says in Genesis 23:5:

And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,

Then they called him a “mighty prince,” and then it refers several more times to the “children of Heth.” The man from whom the children of Heth descended is only found (as far as I could tell) in Genesis 10:15:

And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth,

So Heth was a son of Canaan, and Abraham was dwelling in the land of Canaan. And in the land of Canaan, God came to him and promised that he would receive the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, back in Genesis 17:7-8:

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

So Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees to enter into the land of Canaan, and as he sojourned and set up tents to dwell in during his travels, God came to him and told him he would receive the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.

We also spent some time discussing the fact that in the Bible the deeper spiritual meaning is always the more important meaning. The surface meaning can sometimes be impossible to fulfill, as is the case with the language God uses to describe the “circumcision” of the heart; no one can circumcise his heart and live. Likewise, to receive the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession is impossible to be fulfilled on the physical, literal level, because this world is going to be destroyed. Canaan is part of this world and, therefore, Canaan will be destroyed. Therefore, it cannot be an everlasting eternal possession because it will have an end. It will be destroyed.

But, you see, God’s Word is true and faithful. God always speaks the truth. He never lies. He always does what He says He will do, and He always fulfills His Word. And He will fulfill this promise on the spiritual level, so that is the dimension in which it was meant to be understood – He was speaking of the “new heaven and new earth,” which the land of Canaan represented. In the Bible, God uses types and figures. In this case, the land of Canaan is a type and figure, and it is pointing to the spiritual reality of the new heaven and new earth, the eternal dwelling place of the people of God. So that is the possession promised to Abraham.

But now Sarah has died, and Abraham is in the land of Canaan and he needed to bury her out of his sight, so he was trying to buy a piece of land from the children of Heth. Heth was a son of Canaan. He was an immediate son (from what we can understand) of Canaan, whom the land was named after, and the land of Canaan is really a representation of the whole earth or the entire world, representing the new earth that God will give to the elect, as the meek shall inherit the earth. The “meek” are God’s elect that are counted for the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will inherit not this earth that will be destroyed, but the new earth that God will create as an eternal dwelling place for His people, fulfilling the promise to Abraham’s seed of inheriting the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. That new earth will be our “land of Canaan.”

For a while, however, we all live in this world on this earth, so Abraham was going to purchase a piece of land. It was a field and there was a cave in it, and there he would bury Sarah. As he is bartering for the field belonging to Ephron, it says in Genesis 23:9:

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.

By the way, it says, “the end of his field,” and if we translate this into the spiritual language of “the end of the world,” someone might say it refers to the end of the world, and it could refer to that, but the word “end” here really identifies with a border or the uttermost part of the field. It is translated as “end” several times, but normally in these cases, it is the “edge” that is in mind, so I do not think it is pointing to the end of the world.

But Abraham wanted to buy the field, which is pointing to the whole world, in order to bury his dead, so Sarah would be put in the cave. It will become her tomb. Of course, her spirit went to be with the Lord in the instant she died, but her body will lie in the cave in the field of Machpelah. Again, Abraham is a type of God (el-o-heem) and God possesses the field. He owns it, and one day God will raise up Sarah, as well as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all that were buried in that tomb in order to give them the fulness of their inheritance, the new earth, for an everlasting possession. So they will dwell in lot of land that God has purchased, so to speak. It is similar to the idea of a “down payment” that God will return and complete everything necessary in order to fulfill the promise to Abraham to give the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. This was just one field within the land of Canaan, but it includes all that the land of Canaan represents.

So this is one way we can understand the reference to the children of Heth. They are really a figure of Canaan, who represents man that was given the world. God originally created the world and God gave Adam dominion over the earth and Adam was to till the garden. Yes – we know that Satan entered in, and by right of conquest, he won man’s obedience to him wherein mankind began to serve Satan rather than God.

But, here, God is dealing with the children of Heth and He is about to purchase the world, as the field in the parable in Matthew 13:37-39 is said to be the world. That is one thing we can see here, but let us turn to Exodus 6 and we can find this kind of verse in a few places. It says in Exodus 6:4:

And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.

And that is how Abraham addressed the children of Heth in verse 4: “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.” By the way, when we read “out of my sight,” the Hebrew word translated as “out of” is translated as “before” in verse 3, where it said, “And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth…” So he is really saying, “…that I may bury my dead before my sight.” It does not have the negative connotation of getting the dead “out of my sight.”

So the children of Heth represent mankind that are willing to sell their field, but it turns out that the person who owns the field is a Hittite, as it says in Genesis 23:8-10:

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…

After saying all that about the children of Heth being the descendants of Canaan and representing man, it turns out that Abraham is not going to purchase the field directly from them, but he is going to purchase it from Ephron, the son of Zohar, who is a Hittite. So we wonder why God is referring to him. And I think Ephron is also mentioned eight times in this chapter, so he has a key role that the Lord has assigned him, and it would certainly have some spiritual meaning. Abraham is going to purchase the field from him to bury Sarah.

The name “Ephron” is a Hebrew word, Strong’s #6085, which is derived from Strong’s #6081, and Strong’s #6083 is a related word and has the same consonants as #6081. I think Strong’s #6083 is more helpful to help us understand who Ephron is representing. Strong’s #6083 is often translated as “dust.” For example, it says in Genesis 2:7:

And JEHOVAH God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Also, it says in Genesis 3:19:

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

We might as well read a few more. Let us turn to Genesis 26:15:

For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

The word “earth” is the same word translated as “dust.”

It says in Psalm 103:14:

For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

And it says in Ecclesiastes 3:19-20:

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

In all those places, it is the Hebrew word that is closely related to the name “Ephron.” Remember that Ephron is related to Strong’s #6081 and #6081 is the name “Epher,” and it is said to be derived from Strong’s #6082, which is translated as “young roe” or “young hart,” but that makes no sense for Ephron to represent a young roe or young hart. At least I cannot understand that, but #6083 is said to come from “6080,” which is translated as “cast dust,” and is a word translated as “ashes,” “earth,” “dust,” “ground,” and so forth. If you look in the concordance (and I hope you check me out), Strong’s #6085 is “Ephron,” and its first three letters are the same as #6081 and #6083. Do not look at the vowel pointing because that was added later. Normally, if the first three consonants are the same, they are related words, so I am pretty sure this is a related word. And then we understand that it has to do with “dust” and man has to do with “dust,” and God says that when man dies, he returns to the dust. We read in Daniel 12:1-2:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

So God’s people sleep in the dust or ground when we are put in the earth when we die and, yet, God has not forgotten. He will return (and He has already returned in judgment), and on the last day He will fulfill all promises concerning the resurrection of the dead, and we will rise out of the dust.

So Ephron, the Hittite, is a man whose name is related to “dust,” and he is selling a field. What is the field made of? It is made of the dust of the ground – it is earth. And God is going to purchase this “dust” or this earth, and He is going to buy the cave within it for a burying place in order to give us assurance, and we will see that later on when we look at the book of Jeremiah where there is a purchase of a field to guarantee that there would be a return to the land, despite the fact that God was judging Judah. Likewise, we can see that same principal here, and that is going to follow another principal that we will look at concerning the purchase price, Lord willing, in our next Bible study.