Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

DEATH OF A PRINCESS

This entry was posted on 02-24-2010 and is filed under STUDIES IN GENESIS.

An entire chapter (Genesis 24) is devoted to the death and burial of Sarah. No other woman in the Bible commands that much coverage. I find it instructive that Moses devotes twenty verses to this account. Sarai ("my princess"), later called Sarah ("princess") meant the world to Abraham. Look at how this chapter starts. "Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her" (Gen. 24:1, 2 NIV). Evidently Abraham was not with Sarah when she died for the record says that he went to Hebron to mourn for her. He wept over her body, that familiar face, those hands clasped in death. Those of you who have lost a mate know exactly what Abraham was experiencing when he saw her prepared for burial. Hot tears may have streamed down his weathered cheeks. Memories must have flooded his soul like the constant tidal waves of the ocean. She had been by his side through good times and bad for many years. According to Genesis 12:11-14, Sarah was a beautiful woman. Even at 127 she may have retained her beauty. All this without anti-aging face cream! After all, was she not a princess?

It is to Abraham's credit that he mourned and wept over Sarah. And that he went to such great lengths to make sure that she had a proper and fitting burial place. Money made no difference. He bought not just a cave but an entire field at the price of 400 shekels of silver. Later we learn that not only Sarah but Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob were buried in the cave of Macpelah (Gen. 25:9; 49:31; 50:13). "The site of the cave has been identified with two caves, one above the other, beneath the great mosque in the center of modern Hebron" (Ryrie Study Bible). I would like to visit this place some day. What do we learn from this story? Than Abraham truly loved Sarah. That he mourned her passing. That money did not matter when it came to burying his beloved wife. That a family burial plot is a good and comforting idea.

Hymn: "When we asunder part, It gives us inward pain; But we shall still be joined in heart, And hope to meet again" (John Fawcett).