Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #7 of Genesis, chapter 23, and we are going to read Genesis 23:8-16:

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.

We have been taking some time to discuss and think about the field Abraham purchased as a type and figure of the world. We went to Matthew 27, where Judas repented himself and cast down the thirty pieces of silver. The priests took that money and purchased the potter’s field to bury strangers in, and it was called “the field of blood.”

We want to get into as much as we can in discussing Matthew 27 and why God attributed the quote concerning the thirty pieces of silver to Jeremy (Jeremiah) the prophet, instead of Zechariah. We will look at that in a little while, but I am not saying I will be able to fully answer it.

But, for now, let us look at a couple of Scriptures before we get into that. Let us look at Matthew 13:44:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

I will also read the next couple of verses, even though they are not speaking of the field, but it helps us to understand verse 44. It says in Matthew 13:45-46:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

Going back to Matthew 13:44, it said, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field.” A little earlier in this same chapter, remember that the Lord Jesus defined the word “field” as the world, back in Matthew 13:38:

The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom…

Everything is a type and a figure. The field is the world. We have no reason to doubt this spiritual definition is continuing with this parable: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field.” The field represents the world, but what does the “treasure” point to? Turn to Psalm 135:4:

For JEHOVAH hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

In the first instance, we can understand this as pointing to Christ. The Lord Jesus is typified by Jacob and Israel, as Jacob is Israel and, of course, He is the “peculiar treasure” or the great treasure of God. But all those that are in Christ are the treasure, just as we are told that Christ is the “seed” (singular), but all those that are in Him are counted for the seed. And Israel is also used, along with Jacob, to describe the elect people of God, and the elect are “his peculiar treasure,” just as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, it says, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field.” The elect, the body of Christ, are born into the world in each successive generation since the beginning, and God had a program to save these elect people to make them His own. So we are His, but nobody knew for sure who was elect and who were not elect. Sometimes, God would not even bring salvation to one of His elect until the end of his life, like the thief on the cross. At any point earlier in his life when he was a young man that was doing so wickedly against God by stealing and thieving, who could have looked at him and said, “Well, there is one of God’s elect,”? No one could have known – it was hidden. And so, too, this was true for all of God’s people that were scattered among the nations as the few out of the many. So this parable has to do with the elect, a treasure hid in a field, “the which when a man hath found…”

Who would that “man” be who has found the treasure? (Again, the peculiar treasure points to Jacob or Israel, the elect people of God.) Of course, the “man” would be the Lord Jesus Christ. He finds the treasure.

This is all spoken against the backdrop of God’s election program. We know that He chose a people for Himself before the foundation of the world, and He saved them at the point of the foundation of the world. But as the Gospel went into the world, remember what Jesus told the Canaanite woman, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And since they were lost, they had to be found, just as it said of this treasure: “…the which when a man hath found…” So God, the Lord Jesus, has found His treasure, and He alone knows it, according to the parable. Yes – it is a one-verse parable, but it is still a parable. Again, it says in Matthew 13:44:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

We can see the earthly picture in this parable. A man was walking around in a field, and he found a box with gold and silver and precious stones, like a treasure chest. He looked around to the left and to the right, and nobody was there. And nobody owned the field in this wide-open area. So he took the treasure and hid it. Maybe he buried it and found a few rocks and covered it up, but he hid it and he was the only one who was aware of this tremendous treasure. And because the treasure was so valuable, that made the field extremely valuable, did it not? If there had not been a treasure in the field, it would just be a field and the price for that field would be the regular price, whatever it happened to be at that time. It would not have been of outstanding value. It was just dirt, rocks, trees and grass – it was just a field. But because there was a treasure in that field, the field itself became very valuable.

Keep in mind that we are looking at a parable that teaches us spiritual truth about the world. This world is extremely valuable to God because there is treasure hidden therein. Again, the treasure is “his peculiar treasure,” which had to do with all those He had determined to save, and they were in this world. There are a lot of bad things in this world as well. The world itself and this creation has been cursed. It has seen corruption, and all kinds of wicked deeds have been taking place in this world, but the world has a certain value due to the hidden treasure that only God knows about. Only He is aware of the treasure that would be found in this world.

So, “for joy thereof,” this man “goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” Now this reminds us (or, at least, it reminded me) of Hebrews 12. I will read the first couple of verses, in Hebrews 12:1-2:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

As it says here, “for the joy,” and what is the joy this man in the parable is experiencing? What was the reason? It was because of the treasure, and not the field. The field is necessary, and it served the purpose of hiding the treasure, once it was found, but his joy is not over the field, but it is over that which is hid in the field. And, again, God’s joy has to do with His elect chosen people, the people He decided to save according to His own good pleasure, which is the only reason the Bible ever gives for why God chose to love Jacob, but not Esau, and to love this one and not that one. It was all according to the good pleasure of God and, yet, it is His good pleasure; that is, it is something He delights in. It is something that brings joy to Him as He determined to save a people for Himself. These people were in the world and, therefore, He sent forth the Gospel to seek and to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel to recover this treasure that had been hidden. Let me read this passage before we continue on, as it says in Luke 15:3-7:

And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

We see the rejoicing of the man who has found his sheep, and God explains to us that it has to do with a sinner’s repentance, which points to the salvation of a soul. And there is joy in heaven. Salvation is a joyful thing to God, so this “man,” who is God, the Lord Jesus, hid the treasure in the field, and then it says: “…and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” This man who found the treasure in the field did not hold back. He realized the great value of the field now because of the treasure he found, so he gathered all the wealth and all the resources he could to buy that field. This would relate to the Lord Jesus Christ, as it says in Philippians 2:5-10:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

It continues, but the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal God who possesses all power, all might and all spiritual riches in their fulness, and He humbled Himself and emptied Himself of all His great glory to enter into the human race. He became a little baby that grew as other men grow and developed as other men develop, until He, in the form of a servant (a man), went to the cross, suffered and died to demonstrate what He had done at the foundation of the world. This was the purchase price. It was the price of God’s own blood. It was the price of God’s own life, because Jesus is God, and it was at the foundation of the world that He gave His life to pay the price that was due for the “field.” He had to buy the whole world in order to get the valuable treasure of “gold, silver, precious stones,” His elect people within the world. The requirement was blood. It was His own life, as it tells us in Leviticus that “the life is in the blood.” With the shedding of blood, He gave His life, and the Lord Jesus paid that price by shedding His own blood and giving up His own life. That is the reason for what it says in Matthew 27 about the thirty pieces of silver that Judas threw down in the temple and what they used it for, as it says in Matthew 27 of the money that Judas received for betraying the Lord, which led to the Lord’s crucifixion and death, so this was “blood money.” It says in Matthew 27:6-8:

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.

The money used to betray the Lord ended up representing His life blood, so the field was called “The field of blood,” to bury strangers in. And God typifies His people as strangers, in the Bible, and these strangers would be buried in the field, just like the elect live their lives, die and are buried in this earth, which the field represents. It is why Abraham purchased a field for the purpose of burying Sarah his wife, as she also typifies the elect chosen people of God.

This is really very interesting how God has arranged all these things, especially this idea of the Lord Jesus buying the world in order to obtain the treasure therein. Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will continue to look further into this.