The place of her death
is designated first by its Canaanite name, Kirjath-arba city of four; and then
by its Hebrew name, Hebron communion. The two-fold description of the place of her death confirms that
she is a type of Israel and of grace, for Kirjath-arba declares the truth that the
unbelieving mass of the nation was spiritually no different from the ungodly
Canaanites; but Hebron reminds us that the believing remnant within the apostate
mass, enjoyed communion with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
While it may have appeared to the natural eye that there was only one Israel
in A.D.70, there were, as always, two: the
unbelieving mass, and the believing remnant.
At this point we must
note also that, contrary to what is generally taught, Israel’s autonomy did not end
with the rending of the veil at the instant of the Lord’s death in A.D.32.
For the next 38 years the Gospel continued to be preached first to
Israel, and only when she rejected it, to the Gentiles.
And it must not be forgotten that the offer of the millennial kingdom did not
cease until A.D.70. Israel as a nation
was cut off, not for crucifying Christ, but for refusing to believe in His
resurrection, see Ac 3:17-26. The 38
years from A.D.32 till A.D.70 correspond to the 38 years of wandering that followed
Israel’s refusal to enter Canaan (Nu 13, 14).
The first 2 years in the wilderness were not years of wandering, but
Israel’s refusal to enter the land at that time caused those first 2 years then
to be invested with the same character as the following 38, so that the whole 40
years became years of wandering.
The 38 years between
A.D.32 and A.D.70 are foreshadowed in the 38 years of wilderness wandering when the
unbelieving generation died out, and their children, a new generation, grew up and
inherited the blessings forfeited by their faithless fathers.
In the first 38 years of the Apostolic age, the unbelieving generation of Jews
died out, and a new generation, believing Jews and Gentiles, grew up to
inherit better spiritual blessings than the millennial blessings forfeited by their
unbelieving contemporaries.
Those 38 years were a
testing time for Israel, and they ended in judgment and death.
For her as a nation, the grace which Sarah represents, “died” that day
when God’s patience came to an end, and he brought Titus into Jerusalem at the head
of the Roman legions as His instrument of destruction.
During those 38 years
Jerusalem was spiritually Kirjath-arba, a “Canaanite” city, for Canaanite means trafficker,
and the Jewish leaders were nothing but spiritual “Canaanites” trafficking in
spiritual things.
But Kirjath-arba was
also Hebron communion. In every
age there has been a small godly remnant in the midst of the rebellious nation, and
the 38 years of the early Apostolic age were no exception.
The first preachers of that era were Jews, as were also the first converts to
Christianity. The Church in its beginning was a called out company of believing
Jews. Like their unbelieving countrymen,
they also dwelt literally in Jerusalem, but spiritually they dwelt in “Hebron” -
they enjoyed communion with God.
Many of them also
died, not only by the sword of the Roman, but also at the hand of their fellow Jews.
But for those martyrs, the result was vastly different.
The stroke that terminated their earthly sojourn in spiritual “Hebron”
began their eternal dwelling in the “Hebron” which is God’s dwelling place,
heaven.
In Abraham’s coming
to lament the death of Sarah we have a symbolic picture of God’s sorrow at the
“death” of Israel, and of His having to cut grace off from them.
We see that divine sorrow expressed by the Lord Jesus Christ as He surveyed
Jerusalem, and declared, “O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not! Behold, your house is left unto you
desolate” (Mt 23:37-38). Desolate
indeed is the house that must mourn the death of grace.
Again in Lk 19:41-42 we read “And when He was come nigh, He beheld the city,
and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day,
the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”
In this, as in
everything, however, Israel is the mirror in which God bids us see ourselves.
He is no less grieved at the death of one unrepentant sinner than at the death
of the unrepentant nation of Israel, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live:
turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
Faith always weeps to see grace “buried,” that is, to see salvation
refused so long that God finally withdraws His offer.
Abraham’s weeping
reminds us that when faith becomes separated from grace, weeping is always the
result: it causes God to “weep,” but it will cause the unbeliever also to weep
eternally.
23:3.
“And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth,
saying,”
23:4.
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying
place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
There is good reason
why it should have been Heth, rather than one of the other Canaanites, who must
supply the burying place for Sarah. Heth
means terror, and in Job 18:14 death is identified as the king of terrors.
Sarah’s burying place was bought out from under the control of “terror,”
and she was buried in ground that belonged to Abraham, the representative of faith.
The believer’s burying place is no longer the possession of the king of
terrors. Christ has bought the
“field” (the world) at Calvary.
“I am a stranger and
a sojourner ....” Christ was also a
stranger and a sojourner here on earth, as is also the man of faith: he is a stranger
and a sojourner on the earth, passing through on his way home to heaven.
”... give me a
possession of a burying place.” Though
all of Canaan had been promised to him, Abraham knew that the promise would be made
good in resurrection. Sarah’s burial
plot was the only part of Canaan he ever actually possessed, as far as the Scriptural
record is concerned. But that field was
more than just a burying place. It was
the earnest (surety or pledge) that one day, not just that field, but the whole land
would be his. It was the OT
foreshadowing of what the believer has today. “Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Ep
1:13-14).
It is instructive to
note that according to Strong’s Concordance “possession” is derived from a word
meaning to seize. Christ not only
bought “the field” with His blood, He seized it from Satan’s grasp, the
adversary having been defeated in that mighty battle fought at Calvary.
Abraham’s committal
of Sarah’s body to the grave was in anticipation of a resurrection; and it is the
same today for the believer, “But I would not have you ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as other which have no
hope” (1 Th 4:13). The believer’s
body is committed to the grave in anticipation of resurrection.
23:5.
“And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,”
23:6.
“Hear us my Lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our
sepulchres bury thy dead: none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that
thou mayest bury thy dead.”
Those children of Heth
terror addressed Abraham as one who was their superior.
They called him lord, and acknowledged that he was a mighty prince,
literally a prince of God. Those
Hittites were themselves the representatives of the king of terrors, Death, but as
they stood in the presence of the man who is the type of Christ and of faith, they
were made to confess that they stood in the presence of one who was greater than
they.
This is but the OT
illustration of the believer’s position in relation to death.
We stand in association with the Christ Who has vanquished him that had the
power of death, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb 2:14-15).
That same Christ
assured John, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever
more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Re 1:18).
Those Hittites might well acknowledge the superiority of the man of faith.
“In the choice of
our sepulchres bury thy dead.” The
believer always has the best sepulchre. It
will open at the resurrection of life, a thousand years before that of the
unbeliever, and it will open to let the body rise, glorious, powerful, spiritual, to
enter heaven. When the sepulchre of the
unbeliever opens at the resurrection of death it will be to send the body into the
eternal torment of the lake of fire, which is the second death (Re 20).
23:7.
“And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to
the children of Heth.”
The typical details of
this section will be better understood if we realize that God is presenting us with a
picture of Calvary. Abraham’s purchase
of the field of Machpelah, as well as the cave that lay at the end of it, is the
typical revelation of Christ’s purchase of this world.
In Abraham’s bowing
himself to these children of Heth terror, we are being given a glimpse of the
Lord’s humility in submitting Himself to death, “... being found in fashion as a
man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross” (Php 2:8). God would have us
see in this “mighty prince” who “bowed himself to the children of Heth” the
Mighty Prince of Peace, submitting Himself to death, so that we might be delivered
from the dominion of the king of terrors.
23:8.
“And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my
dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zoar.”
Several things would
seem to mark Ephron as a type of Satan. He
was the owner of the field, and in Scripture, the field represents the world (Mt
13:38). Satan is the prince of this
world, and as has been noted in earlier studies, this world appears to have been
given him as his kingdom in a remote past age, and has not yet been take away from
him.
The name Ephron means he
of dust, but dust is Scripturally connected with death, “Dust thou art, and
unto dust shalt thou return” (Ge 3:19); “Thou hast brought me into the dust of
death” (Ps 22:15). The evil prince of
this world will yet be brought into the “dust of death.”
He was the son of
Zohar whitening, and in the context of the purchase of a sepulchre, we recall
the Lord’s words relative to the “whited sepulchers” of His day (Mt 23:27).
The beautiful white exterior distracted the mind of the observer from the
corruption that was inside. Satan always
seeks to distract men from the contemplation of the true nature of death.
23:9.
“That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the
end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a
possession of a burying place amongst you.”
Clearly the word give
is to be construed here in the sense of sell, as is made clear in the verses
that follow.
In Scripture the cave
is connected with death and burial, and the fact that this cave is described as being
“in the end of his field” would remind us that man’s journey through the
“field” of this world ends in a “cave” i.e., the grave.
Machpelah has two
meanings doubling and he brought low the set apart.
Several thoughts connect themselves with both meanings.
The first doubling certainly evokes the thought of the double aspect of
death. There is first the death of the
body, but for the unbeliever there is also “the second death” (Re 20:14-15).
Doubling however, bears also the thought of doubling back in the
sense of returning, and having regard to the fact that since Sarah’s burial had
resurrection in view, this may well be the lesson God would teach us in Abraham’s
burying her in the cave of Machpelah. The body which faith commits to the grave will
return (double back) to fullness of life in resurrection.
The second meaning he
brought low the set apart is less easy to interpret just because of its
ambiguity. Does the he refer to
God or to Satan? Is the set apart
the believer, set apart for God, or is the reference to those who are “set apart”
for destruction? One thing certainly
seems clear: the grave “brings low” believer and unbeliever alike.
For the former, however, it is only for a moment: that body will rise again to
the enjoyment of eternal life, but for the unbeliever, the grave is but the beginning
of a still more terrible descent, for at the resurrection of death (Jn 5:29), body,
soul and spirit will be cast into the unfathomable depths of the lake of fire (Re
20:14-15).
”... for as much
money as it is worth.” The full price
must be paid for the field and cave where faith would bury its dead, for God will not
have faith debtor to the enemy. Faith’s
dead are not to await resurrection in a place that belongs to the king of terrors.
They are to “sleep” in the place that belongs to the Lord of life.
He has purchased “the field” with His own life at Calvary.
“... for a burying
place amongst you.” This clause is
invested with deep significance. Sarah’s
burying place would be “amongst” the “sons of terror,” but it wouldn’t
belong to them. They would have no
control over it. God is careful to
remind His own that while death may seem to rule everywhere, there is one part over
which it has no control: the burying place of the believer may be “amongst” the
sons of “Heth,” but it belongs to Christ, having been purchased for the full
price at Calvary.
23:10.
“And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite
answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at
the gate of his city, saying,”
As Ephron dwelt among
the children of Heth, so does Satan, the one Ephron typifies, dwell still amongst
men. Man can’t escape from the king of
terrors: where man is, there also is death. As if to emphasize the character of the evil prince portrayed by
Ephron, God describes him as the Hittite terror.
As the transaction
between Abraham and Ephron was carried out publicly “in the audience of ... all
that went in at the gate of his city” so was it when the type was fulfilled and the
Lord Jesus Christ bought “the field” (the world) out from under Satan’s power.
23:11.
“Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein,
I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy
dead.”
This seeming
generous offer anticipates the day when Satan offered “the field” to Christ,
“And the devil, taking Him up into a high mountain, showed unto Him all the
kingdoms of the world ... and the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give
thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me.... If thou therefore wilt
worship me, all shall be thine” (Lk 4:5-7). The
world itself, as well as the men upon it, lay under the thraldom of Satan.
Both alike needed to be redeemed. The
earth, blighted by the sin brought in by Adam, must be delivered from that
corruption, but as is written in Scripture, “Without shedding of blood is no
remission” (Heb 9:22). The Lord will
reign only over an earth which He has redeemed with His own precious blood.
In offering Christ the world, Satan’s ulterior motive was to prevent the
redemption of that world.
But Abraham would
accept no gift from the Hittite prince, nor would Christ from Satan.
God alone must have the glory for everything faith possesses.
The principle is declared in Ge 14:23 when Abraham refused to accept anything
from the king of Sodom “I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet ...
lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abraham rich.”
”Bury thy dead.”
To have received the field and cave as a gift from the hand of Ephron would
have been to limit Abraham’s use of it. Ephron’s
intention was that it should be used only as a burying place.
And Satan’s offer to Christ would have limited the world to the same use.
Apart from payment of the price, there would have been no redemption, either
of the earth or of those dwelling upon it: it would have been for ever a vast
sepulchre in which men would be entombed while awaiting the resurrection of
damnation, Jn 5:29.
But God meant that
field to be more than a burying place where Sarah’s body would lie for ever.
He was looking to the day when the cave would be opened, as was the cave in
which Lazarus lay, and as was also the one in which the body of Christ lay.
God had resurrection in view. When
He instructed Abraham to buy the field, He was looking to that day when He Himself
would be glorified in Sarah’s resurrection. (That
He did instruct His servant seems obvious. How
else would Abraham have known to insist upon paying the full price?).
Nor did God intend to allow the earth to be only a vast tomb to receive the
bodies of men doomed to eternal death. Calvary’s
work had in view the glory of God in the resurrection of men out of death, physical
as well as spiritual.
But in regard to the
field of Machpelah, God had even more in mind. It must become Abraham’s possession, and as such it was not only
the place where he buried Sarah’s body in hope of resurrection, it was also the
earnest (surety or pledge) that one day the whole land would be his, also in
resurrection.
The same is true of
the earth. No matter how much a man may
acquire here on earth, all except his grave will become the possession of another
when he dies. But if that man is a
believer, that burying place is for him also the earnest of his inheritance in
resurrection, “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to promise” (Ga 3:29), “For all things are yours: whether Paul, or
Appolos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death ... all are yours: and ye are
Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1 Co 3:21-23).
23:12.
“And Abraham bowed himself before the people of the land.”
In the repetition of
the fact that Abraham bowed down to these Canaanites, we have God’s emphasis upon
Christ’s humbling Himself. The value
the Father has set upon that humiliation may be learned from the corresponding
exaltation He has bestowed, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Php 2:7-11).
23:13.
“And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying,
But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field:
take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.”
Since Ephron is
clearly a type of Satan, it isn’t difficult to understand Abraham’s refusal to
bury Sarah in ground belonging to the Hittite, or even given by him as a gift.
The children of faith must not be buried where there is even the semblance of
the enemy’s control. Faith in Christ
has delivered them from that control, and God would have even the believer’s
sepulchre bear testimony to that truth.
“I will give thee
money for the field.” The field
represents the world, and in Ephron’s ownership of it we have the declaration of
the truth that Satan is the prince of this world. But the question may be asked, How did the field come into his
possession?”
It would appear that
it was given him by God while he was Lucifer, that is, when he was in his unfallen
state. Whether he lost it at the time of
his rebellion, and then recovered it at the time of Adam’s rebellion, is
conjectural and unimportant for our present study.
The fact remains that the kingdoms of this world are his today, and will
remain his until the soon-coming day when the scepter of earth will be placed in the
hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. It should
be noted that when Satan made that claim (by implication) in Lk 4:6, the Lord
didn’t contradict him.
Abraham, no matter
what the cost, would buy the field, so that Sarah would be buried, not in a place
that belonged to the sons of terror, but to the representative of faith.
At Calvary Christ bought the “field” so that His own would be buried where
He, not Death, reigns.
23:14.
“And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him,”
23:15.
“My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver;
what is that betwixt me and thee? Bury
therefore thy dead.”
Abraham’s
superiority continues to be emphasized in Ephron’s addressing him as “my lord.”
It isn’t important to the spiritual lesson to know whether the price was
exorbitant, as many allege. What is
important is that the amount was four hundred shekels, and that they were shekels of silver.
Four
is the number of earth in connection with testing.
It confirms that this transaction is a picture of Calvary where Christ paid
the redemption price, not only for men’s souls, but for the “field” - the earth
itself. Since silver is the
Biblical emblem of redemption, we are being taught the redemptive character of
Christ’s sacrifice. Godward, that
sacrifice was for the Father’s glory; manward, it was for our redemption.
That sacrifice was the crowning act of an obedience that had been tested
throughout the Lord’s more than thirty years of life as a man amongst men here on
earth.
Ephron’s language
would imply that the price was insignificant, and in the view of men as rich as
Abraham and he, it may well have been, but we may perhaps detect in this the OT
foreshadowing of Satan’s continuous attempt to minimize the value of the price the
Lord paid at Calvary. God, however,
reminds us of the inestimable worth of that sacrifice, “... ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, as silver and gold ... but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot ....” (1 Pe 1:18-19).
23:16.
“And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron: and Abraham weighed to Ephron the
silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels
of silver, current money with the merchant.”
Everything emphasizes
that nothing was left undone that would ever enable Ephron or anyone else to raise a
question as to Abraham’s ownership of both field and cave.
It was Ephron who set the price. It
was he who received the four hundred shekels of silver, and it was “in the audience
of the sons of Heth.” There was no
lack of witnesses. And the quality of
the silver was beyond dispute: it was “current money with the merchant.”
The type was fulfilled
at Calvary. No one in heaven, earth or
hell can question Christ’s title to the “field.”
The price was fully paid “in the audience of the sons of Heth.”
There too the “silver” was pure. The
blood (the redemption price) was not that of a sin-tainted mortal.
It was the blood of God’s spotless Lamb.
23:17.
“And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre,
the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field,
that were in all the borders round about, were made sure.”
“... which was
before Mamre” is literally “east of Mamre.”
As we have learned already, the east is always connected with sin and
departure from God, and certainly no one will question that the world, here
represented by the field, is spiritually in the “east.”
It is far off from God, and sin of course is the reason.
