Genesis 22:20-23:20 | Are You Sure?

of Genesis, the book of Genesis. If you don't have a Bible, you can use the pew Bible that's in front of you. Genesis is the first book of the Bible. So, we'll be looking at chapter 22, verse 20, all the way through all of chapter 23. Now, if you don't own a Bible, we're very glad that you're here. We would love for you to just be able to keep that Bible. Consider that our gift from us to you. We would love for you to have a copy of God's Word that you could keep and read for yourself. Again, we'll be looking at chapter 22 starting in verse 20 all the way to the end of chapter 23. And it says this:

Now after these things Abraham was told, “Milcah also has borne sons to your brother Nahor: Uz his firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” And Bethuel fathered Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah. Now Sarah lived 127 years; these were all the years of her life. Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. When Abraham got up from beside his dead wife, he spoke to the Hethites: “I am an alien residing among you. Give me burial property among you so that I can bury my dead.” The Hethites replied to Abraham, “Listen to us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in our finest burial place. None of us will withhold from you his burial place for burying your dead.” Then Abraham rose and bowed down to the Hethites, the people of the land. He said to them, “If you are willing for me to bury my dead, listen to me and ask Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf to give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me in your presence, for the full price, as burial property.” Ephron was sitting among the Hethites. So in the hearing of all the Hethites who came to the gate of his city, Ephron the Hethite answered Abraham: “No, my lord. Listen to me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the sight of my people. Bury your dead.” Abraham bowed down to the people of the land and said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “Listen to me, if you please. Let me pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, and let me bury my dead there.” Ephron answered Abraham and said to him, “My lord, listen to me. Land worth four hundred shekels of silver—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” Abraham agreed with Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had agreed to in the hearing of the Hethites: four hundred standard shekels of silver. So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre—the field with its cave and all the trees anywhere within the boundaries of the field—became Abraham’s possession in the sight of all the Hethites who came to the gate of his city. After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. The field with its cave passed from the Hethites to Abraham as burial property.

— Genesis 22:20-23:20 (CSB)

Let's pray. We pray even with a text like this that you would demonstrate your good plan in our lives by speaking to us by your Spirit, because without you we would be utterly lost. So we are dependent on you and your Word this morning. And we ask that you would help us in Jesus' name. Amen.

Anybody bored by a passage like this? You read it, it almost reads like a courtroom transcript or some kind of narrative that's happening between two parties. It's like this weird negotiation happening with different details. It's almost something that you might be tempted to just skip in your devotions so you could get on to chapter 24 where more interesting stuff happens as Isaac finds a wife in Rebekah.

But I want to encourage you to not be so sure in brushing away such a massive portion of God's Word. If you're paying attention to everything that we've seen God do up until this point—all the details, all the activity that God's been doing in the life of Abraham and Sarah—you would find this transcript of conversation between Abraham and Ephron to be utterly riveting. Behind this negotiation and conversations about shekels and fields and people's children, you get to see the steady, invisible hand of an Almighty God who's working all things together for the good of those who love Him.

Moses writes this passage for us this morning to remind us that God is at work even when we don't get it. That God is at work even when we don't get it. And he does it by showing us two things: First, you're able to see God's work in the unseen; and second, you can see God's work even in death.

God's Work in the Unseen

Let's start with point number one: God's work in the unseen. Read with me from chapter 22, verse 20. It says this:

Now after these things Abraham was told, “Milcah also has borne sons to your brother Nahor: Uz his firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” And Bethuel fathered Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah. — Genesis 22:20-24 (CSB)

Now, you may be wondering, how do I know how to pronounce all of these names? And the answer is, I don't; I'm just saying it. I don't know if you know this, but Hebrew and Greek are extremely hard to pronounce. And we all say it wrong. Even the “right” way to say it is a wrong way to say it. I was talking with some guys yesterday, I mentioned casually that there was one guy in my undergraduate class who always pronounced