INTRODUCTION:

1. After the great crisis recorded in Genesis 22, nothing is mentioned of the next twenty-five years or so of Abraham’s life.
2. The big event in Genesis 23 is the death and burial of Sarah.
3. The big event in Genesis 24 is the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah.

I. ABRAHAM’S SORROW (23:1, 2)

1. At the good old age of 127, Sarah died (23:1, 2).
2. Interestingly, Sarah is the only woman whose age at death is recorded in the Bible.
3. The poet Robert Frost said, “A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.”
4. The Bible says she “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off” (Hebrews 11:13).
5. First Peter 3:5, 6 says, “For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.”
6. “Lord” is a title of honor, expressing respect and reverence. Sadly, many wives do not respect their husbands.
7. Many modern wives have altered the traditional wedding vows: “I take thee to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part…”
8. They refuse to say, “obey,” but “Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord” (I Peter 3:6).
9. “Till death us do part…”
10. Sarah and Abraham had been married many years. They had lived together in Canaan for sixty years, and probably many years before that.
11. So when Sarah died, “Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her” (23:2). She was probably laid out in a tent.
12. Abraham mourned and wept for Sarah, and in the next chapter we are told that Isaac also mourned for his mother Sarah (cf. Genesis 24:67).
13. Sarah’s death caused a void which nothing else, or no one else could fill.
14. This is the first time we see a man weeping in the Bible (23:2). Back in Genesis 21:16, Hagar is seen weeping, but this is the first record of a man weeping.
15. They say the well of grief is fed by the springs of memory, and Abraham had many precious memories of his long marriage with Sarah.
16. Precious memories, how they linger,
    How they ever flood my soul.
    In the stillness of the midnight,
    Precious sacred scenes unfold.
17. Abraham wept when Sarah died. John 11:35 says, “Jesus wept” when Lazarus died.
18. When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews also weeping, the Bible says, Jesus groaned in the spirit, and He was troubled, and He wept.
19. Then said the Jews, “Behold how He loved him!” (John 11:36).

II. SARAH’S GRAVE (23:3-6)

1. Sarah’s is the first grave mentioned in the Bible.
2. Genesis 23:3 says, “And Abraham stood up from before his dead.” Abraham could stand up and go forward because of his faith.
3. Abraham believed in the resurrection of the dead. Abraham believed in heaven. Abraham believed he would see Sarah again.
4. I have seen men that could not stand up like Abraham because they were faithless. They had no hope.
5. The Bible says, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (I Thessalonians 4:13, 14).
6. Abraham stood up in order to make plans for Sarah’s burial.
7. In Scripture, there is a great emphasis on taking care of the body and giving it a proper burial.
8. Over the years, I have often been asked about cremation. It is a fact that cremation is a heathen practice. Historically, burial has been a testimony of faith in the resurrection of the body.
9. First Corinthians 15:13, 14 says, “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”
10. Therefore, the resurrection of the dead is a fundamental doctrine.
11. Historically, cremation has been practiced among those (such as the Hindus) who deny the bodily resurrection. Hindus and other pagans believe in reincarnation.
12. The increase in cremation in America is a result of the decline of Biblical Christianity. As the Bible is ignored or rejected, paganism increases, and then things like cremation become increasingly popular.
13. Some people choose cremation because it is less expensive. But I believe Christians ought to have our priorities right. God will provide the funds to have a decent burial for our loved ones.
14. Illustration: Navy veteran who got a free casket and burial at Calverton National Cemetery.
15. I have conducted many funerals, and it is a blessing to conduct a funeral service for a Christian because the Bible says, to be “absent from the body (is) to be present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8).
16. It is a blessing to stand by the graveside and sing hymns and read Scripture and pray.
17. But I have never heard of a funeral service next to an incinerator in a crematorium. It takes only a few minutes to bury a person, but it takes about three hours to cremate a body.
18. The entire three-hour process is done out of the view of family members and the public because it is not very pleasant.
19. They place the body in a brick-lined oven that looks like a big bread oven. Then they burn the body and grind it into small fragments.
20. The ovens are heated to about 1,700 degrees. And although usually called ashes, the remains are actually bone fragments.
21. Everything is ground to granule-sized pieces. The result is about six pounds of remains compact enough to fit into a shoe box (from USA Today, December 5, 1995; cited by David Cloud).
22. Cremation was not practiced by Jews or Christians in Biblical times. Burial was the common practice, and there are many references to burials in the Bible. Here are just a few examples.

• Sarah was buried (Genesis 23:1-4)
• Abraham was buried (Genesis 25:8-10)
• Rachel was buried (Genesis 35:19-20)
• Isaac was buried (Genesis 35:29)
• Jacob was buried (Genesis 49:33; 50:1-13)
• Joseph was buried (Genesis 50:26; Josh. 24:32)
• Joshua was buried (Joshua 24:29, 30)
• Samuel was buried (I Samuel 25:1)
• David was buried (I Kings 2:10)
• John the Baptist was buried (Matthew 14:10-12)
• Our Lord was buried (Matthew 27:60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53; John 19:38-42)

23. The most unusual burial recorded in Scripture is the burial of Moses. I say it is unusual because God Himself buried Moses. "So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (Deuteronomy 34:5, 6).
24. Abraham buried his wife Sarah. After she died, he went and spoke to the sons of Heth (Hittites) about a good place to bury her (Genesis 23:3-7).
25. Abraham said to the sons of Heth, “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you” (23:4). Right to the end, Abraham maintained his testimony as a pilgrim.
26. According to Scripture, we Christians are strangers and pilgrims passing through this world on our way to heaven. The Christian is a transient in this world, just traveling through.
27. Our main purpose in life is not to accumulate wealth and property. Our main purpose in life is to do the will of God while we are passing through this earthly scene.
28. Referring to Abraham and the other Old Testament patriarchs, Hebrews 11:13 says they, "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
29. First Peter 2:11 says, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul."
30. This world is not my home I'm just a-passing through
    My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
    The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
    And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. -- Albert E. Brumley
31. Abraham was well-respected by his neighbors. “Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us” (Genesis 23:6).
32. Abraham was also very polite, courteous, and respectful (23:7, 8). The Bible says we are to “walk in wisdom toward them that are without” (Colossians 4:5).

III. EPHRON’S LAND

1. Even though God had promised Abraham the entire land of Canaan, after living many years in the promised land, Abraham was still without enough land to dig a grave (cf. Genesis 13:14-18).
2. He was “a stranger and a sojourner” among them, looking to buy a burying place to bury Sarah.
3. At first, the property was offered to Abraham as a gift from Ephron the Hittite (23:7-12). Whether or not Ephron was sincere in offering him the land for free is hard to tell.
4. What we have recorded here in Genesis 23 could be a picture of the way men bargained and haggled in that part of the world.
5. Since God had already promised Abraham the entire land of Canaan, Abraham knew that all of the Hittites would someday be dispossessed.
6. It seems that Abraham did not want to be a debtor to those who would be dispossessed and so he insisted on paying Ephron for the field (Genesis 23:13).
7. Abraham insisted on paying, and the sale was agreed upon for four hundred shekels of silver (23:13-16).
8. Therefore, Abraham's first actual possession in the Promised Land was a grave. Soon, it would be Abraham’s time to die, and his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him alongside Sarah in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 25:7-10).

CONCLUSION:

1. Abraham wept when Sarah died (23:2). We often cry over the death of our loved ones, but do we cry over the multitudes of lost souls slipping off into hell each and every day?
2. The Bible says, “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” (Psalm 126:5, 6).
3. Once when the great evangelist D.L. Moody was preaching in London, he was with a few friends in a hotel room that overlooked a park. Moody looked out the window, and saw the busy street below, and he saw many people strolling in the park across the street.
4. His friends noticed he had tears rolling down his cheeks.
5. “What do you see, Mr. Moody?” asked one of his friends.
6. Moody answered, “I see countless thousands of souls that will one day spend eternity in hell if they do not find the Savior.”
7. They said Moody would not preach about hell without tears in his eyes.