Sarah's Death and Burial (v. 1-20)
 |
| This seems about right (pic source) |
Sarah died and Abraham wanted to bury her in a place out of sight. He went to the Hittites and said he wanted to buy some land for a grave site, they wanted to give it to him for free. He insisted and bought a field with a cave for 400 pieces of silver.
That's it. If I'm really looking for something to comment on, I guess it is good that the Hittites were willing to give him the land for free, he was clearly grieving and would have probably been an easy mark, yet it would have been screwed up to take advantage of him that way. Also Abraham didn't want to take advantage of their kindness and paid them a fair price for their land.
Interesting comments from Guzik:
Sarah is the only woman in the bible whose age is recorded (127 years old).
Abraham came to mourn for Sarah: “That is, he set himself deliberately to all the functions of a mourner.” (Boice) Abraham wasn’t afraid to mourn, though he did not sorrow as those without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).This didn't even occur to me, but it is good to have strong male characters willing to show their emotions like this. Here's a weird one, in relation to Abraham saying he was a foreigner in their land
Abraham did not feel this way because he came from Ur of the Chaldeans. It was because he recognized his real home was heaven. Moses knew the same, and commanded Israel to know it (Leviticus 25:23). David also knew this truth (1 Chronicles 29:14 and Psalm 39:12).It seems strange to me to make this claim, he was a foreigner in this land, why wouldn't you assume the more obvious and clear meaning. If Abraham meant this less obvious interpretation of foreigner, you would think there would be some direct indication toward that.
Sarah is certainly one of the more important females in the bible, but interestingly enough, as you point out, she was hardly a "stand up" person...her entire character is basically deceitful.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, none of the men really seem to be stand up guys either :)
Delete"It was because he recognized his real home was heaven."
ReplyDeleteAll the fluff in the Bible was written to convince the flock that getting there was the only thing that mattered and if you didn't aspire to go there the Jews or Christian way, you would burn in hell for eternity. That fallacy shackled them to a wrathful dogma.
Yeah, it's a really screwed up idea that all that matters is where you go after you die, and in the grand scheme of things what we do here is meaningless (except that part of it that gets you into the right afterlife). It's an idea that definitely tortured me when I was a kid, I was told I was in the right religion and therefore going to heaven, but I always wondered...what if I'm wrong? Every time I did something bad, even just a stray thought, I wondered if I would go to hell for it. It's a really screwed up set of beliefs to teach a child.
Delete