Abraham Buries his Heart

The entire time he lived in the land promised to his descendants, Abraham never owned so much as an acre. Nor would he until he bought the field near Machpelah for his beloved Sarah.

If the defining moments in Abraham’s life were captured as stills on canvas, each picture would be of a place miles away from the one before and from the one to follow. They would depict a journey with ever-changing geography, faces, and definition. Yet there was one constant for Abraham in every memory and moment: Sarah, lovely and dignified, filled with passion and imagination. She bore her husband’s burdens as though they were her own. This journey was her story too, and Abraham loved her for it.

But now the mother of his son, Isaac, this woman the Lord had renamed “Princess” and then made into a queen, had died.

So Abraham went to some of the wealthy rulers in the land, the Hittites, to buy a place to bury his wife. (Gen 23:3–4) Knowing Abraham had become very wealthy in his own right, the Hittites said, “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.” (Gen 23:6)

Of course no tomb would really be free. It would be a loan that would become leverage for future favors. Abraham didn’t want to borrow. He wanted to own. He didn’t want to become beholden to the Hittites over the ownership of his beloved’s grave. So when Ephron, the owner of the cave Abraham wanted, offered to loan it to him indefinitely, Abraham declined.

Instead, he asked Ephron to name the price he wanted. If Ephron got his initial asking price without having to haggle, this would publicly verify that Abraham acquired the cave honestly and fairly. Ephron wanted four hundred shekels of silver, and Abraham paid it. (Gen 23:14) The tomb, the field the tomb was in, and the fence around it were all deeded to Abraham.

And so it was, at last, that the Father of Nations took his first possession of the land the Lord swore to his descendants. (Gen 23:17–20) It wasn’t a fertile valley or a palace or a vineyard. It was a burial site. And there he buried the wife of his youth, his queen, his beloved Sarah.

About the Post: This post is an excerpt of chapter 6 of my 2015 release Behold the Lamb of God: An Advent Narrative, Rabbit Room Press, 2011.

About the Art: Giovanni Muzzioli (1854-1894), Abraham and Sarah in the Court of Pharaoh, Museo Civico, Modena, Italy, Dagli Orti, 1875.

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