Genesis 23:20
In my reading of Genesis, I have come to chapter 23 ~ the death of Abraham's wife, Sarah. Sarah is portrayed in such an interesting way in the Bible. The stories of her are often negative ~ her disbelief at the idea of becoming a mother at such a late age; her idea to circumvent God's plan and give Abraham a son through her maidservant, Hagar; and her subsequent treatment of Hagar and Ishmael. But I get a favorable overall impression of her. It was not an easy life to which God had called her. When God told Abraham to move, leaving behind family, friends and home, Sarah obeyed, too. She was barren until she was 90 years old, which in that culture probably meant she was mocked or whispered about, for her inability to have children. And it's clear that both Abraham and Isaac loved her dearly.
But what's intriguing me today, in chapter 23, is Abraham. When God had made His covenant with Abraham, He had promised him land. Yet all these miles and years later, Abraham did not own any land. He had to purchase some, in order to bury Sarah. And I thought to myself, now look. Let's have a little foresight here, Abe. You knew it was going to come to this. You knew you were going to need a burial spot at some point! What were you waiting for?
But, really, I like how "ready" Abraham was. When God had called him to leave Ur all those many years ago, he did. And he had done a lot of traveling in that time. I like the idea that he was ready to up and leave again, if God called him to. It's another way of realizing how devoted to God ~ how faithful Abraham was.
God wants us to have a loose hold on the things of earth. Our homes, our cars, all those things we "own" ~ how many of them are truly valuable over the course of our lives? I can recall how much trouble we had years ago, trying to get rid of an old sofa... it was still in good condition, but no charity seemed to want it. We'd have kept using it, but we'd gotten a "newer" used sofa. When someone finally took it off our hands, I was relieved, and I found it ironic that at one point, I had been thrilled to get that sofa. Now I was thrilled to get rid of it. Such is the way with material things. Maybe Abraham knew something I didn't. Maybe he didn't want to be "tied down" by owning land, especially when God hadn't told him to.
There's nothing wrong with having "stuff". Abraham was the owner of a whole lotta cows & sheep & such. In fact, he was quite wealthy by the standards of his day. But there's nothing to be gained, spiritually, from owning for the sake of owning. Perhaps if we did more praying about acquiring, we'd do less acquiring. Not just "do I want it?", but "does He want me to want it?" And we need to trust, as Abraham did, that if God does want us to want it, He will let us know when the time is right.
~ "And so Abraham buried his wife Sarah
in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron)
in the land of Canaan." ~
Genesis 23:19
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