(Genesis) Genesis 23:7-9

Verse 7, And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 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 among you. Now, the cave of Machpelah was the place Abraham wanted, but he wanted to buy it.

He wanted nothing given to him. In other words, until God gave him that land, he'll buy what he needed and what he wanted. And now he actually buys a burying place.

Now again, I ask the question, why didn't he take Sarah somewhere else and bury her? Well, he buried her there because it's the land and the hope of the future is there. Now you are going to find, as you go through the Bible, that there are two great hopes and two great purposes God has. He has an earthly purpose and he has a heavenly purpose.

Now he has an earthly purpose, that is, with this earth on which you and I live, it's going into eternity. Now it's going to be traded in on a new model. There'll be a new heaven and a new earth, but there's going to be an earth and it's going to be inhabited throughout eternity.

Now that's the promise that God gave to Abraham and those after him. You see this earth on which you and I live, God's not going to put it in the garbage can. It's not going to be put out in one of these lots where you have all these wrecked cars.

God's not going to get rid of it. He intends to trade it in on a new model and the new heavens, the new earth, will go into eternity and there'll be people to inhabit it. Now that was the hope of Abraham.

Abraham wanted to be buried in that land so that when the resurrection came, he and Sarah would be raised in that land. And he never knew how many was coming after him, but there are literally going to be millions going to be raised from the dead. And that's their hope.

It's an earthly hope and it'll be realized. Now, when our Lord, yonder in the upper room, said to these disciples who were schooled in the Old Testament, and they had the Old Testament hope, when he said to them, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many abiding places. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.

Now that is the new Jerusalem. That is something that he's preparing today. And that's the place where the church is going.

That will be the eternal abode of the church. Now that was brand new to these disciples, and I'm afraid it's brand new to a great many Christians today. God never told Abraham he's going to take him away from this earth to heaven.

He kept telling him, I'm going to give you this land. Now Abraham believed God, and that's the reason now that he wants to be buried, wants Sarah buried in that land, and it's a place for him to bury his dead. He intends to be buried there, and he is buried there.

Now that's down at Hebron. We made a trip there, and over that spot today, they have a mosque. It's a Mohammedan mosque.

Frankly, in that entire land, when I was there, I never felt uncomfortable or just a little afraid, except at Hebron. We'd been warned to be very careful in Hebron, that there was a great deal of antagonism to the tourists and a great deal of antagonism to practically everyone. Now, of course, they let you in the mosque because it meant tourist dollars, and we went in and looked down through a little hole in the floor down into the cave, and whether Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are buried there, Abraham and Sarah are supposed to be there, Isaac and Rebecca are supposed to be there, and Jacob is supposed to be there, Rachel is buried on up at Bethlehem.

Now, these men, all buried in that land. Why? They've got a hope of being raised from the dead in that land. That's their hope someday.

They have an earthly hope. Now, our hope is a heavenly hope, and I hope that that is made clear to you today, and you can see the importance of why Abraham's dwelling on this so much here at this particular time.