Mar 1

Genesis 23:1-20, 49:29-32
Memorise Hebrews 11:9-10
“I am a stranger and a sojourner”

It has now been more than 60 years since Abraham stepped into the land of Canaan. Though he had become very rich in the years that passed, yet he never owned a single piece of land. God had promised the whole land to Abraham, but at that point of time, it was not yet his. In fact, he was just a tent dweller, sojourning in a foreign land. He never built a city, and never had a place to call his own.

Now with Sarah’s death, he had to find a place for her burial. He went through the customary negotiations to ensure that the whole transaction was done with integrity and beyond reproach. It is remarkable that after over 60 years, this would be the first place that he would buy. All this while, the commentary in Hebrews tells us that “by faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10). He had faith in the promises of God, to know that one day his descendants would inherit the entire land, and thus he would not have to do anything on his part to gain the land for himself.

Why then did he have to buy land to bury Sarah? Again, it was a matter of faith. He knew although this land of Canaan was not his at that point of time, it would be owned and occupied by his descendants one day. A whole nation would be born from him, and so he wanted to have a permanent burial ground for his family. It would serve as a place of remembrance, where he, his sons, and his descendants after him would be buried (Genesis 25:9, 35:27-29, 49:30-31, 50:13). It would be as a memorial to signify that this would be their land for ever, in accordance to God’s promise. It was for this same reason, that before Jacob his grandson died, he charged them to bury him in this same land that Abraham bought (Genesis 49:29-32). Likewise Joseph, before his death, made the children of Israel take an oath to promise that they would bring his bones back to the land of Canaan when God brings them out of Israel into the Promised Land.

When we die, we too die in faith, anticipating the promise of the resurrection that God has given to all who believe in His name.

Thought: Our ‘Promised Land’ is eternity in heaven with God!
Prayer: Lord, help me perceive life and death with the eyes of faith.