Genesis 23 Devotional

A Grave in the Promised Land

““I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.””Genesis 23:4 (BSB)

Sarah dies at Hebron at the age of 127, and Abraham mourns and weeps for her (23:1-2). Then he does something that fills the rest of the chapter: he negotiates, carefully and in public, to buy a place to bury her. He calls himself a foreigner and an outsider among the Hittites (23:4). Ephron offers the field as a gift, but Abraham insists on paying the full price of four hundred shekels of silver in front of witnesses, and he buries Sarah in the cave of Machpelah (23:16-19).

It is a quiet chapter, but it says something about faith. God had promised Abraham the whole land, and the only piece of it he ever owned was a grave. He bought it anyway, expecting God to keep his word. Hebrews says Abraham and Sarah died in faith without receiving what was promised, because they were looking for a better, heavenly country, and God is not ashamed to be called their God (Hebrews 11:13-16). Grief is real, but for those who trust God, the grave is not the last word.

To think about: How does the hope of a better country shape the way you grieve, or the way you think about your own death?