Abraham No.11 How to face death

and to weep over her. Then Abraham rose up from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. The next few verses, Abraham proceeded to purchase a burying place for Sarah.

And as you'll see, there's various bargaining, and the Hittites actually wanted to give the land totally free to Abraham as a gift, but he wouldn't actually have it, and he would only pay the fair asking price. And we rejoin the story at verse 16. Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, 400 shekels of silver according to the weight current among the merchants.

So Ephron's field in Machpelah, near Marma, both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field, was deeded. To Abraham, as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city, afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Marma, which is at Hebron, in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.

In chapter 25, verses 1 to 11. Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah. She bore him Simran, Jokchan, Midan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

Jokchan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The descendants of Dedans were the Asherites, the Letushites, and the Lamanites. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Ephah, Hanok, Abida, and Elida.

All these were descendants of Keturah. Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.

Altogether, Abraham lived 175 years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years, and he was gathered to his people. His sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, near Marma, in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar, the Hittite.

The field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Bealearoi.

Turn in the book of Genesis to the reading that you had a little earlier, at least to the second part of that reading, which is in Genesis 25. Or it was the last time I looked at it. Then Abraham, verse 8, Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years, and he was gathered to his people.

After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Bealearoi. A paper that I generally read simply because my wife buys it, has an article in its supplements two or three times a week, which puts the question amongst many to a group of celebrities that individually are asked to respond. How would you like to die? You know, it's an interesting question to reflect upon that.

How would you like to die? Where would you like to be? In what frame of mind will you be in? I have some very strange functions sometimes. As pastor, one of the pastors of the tab, sometimes invitations come my way to conduct services in circumstances that are not particularly Christian. Usually this has to deal with a funeral and someone has got some vague contact with the tab.

And the funeral director has got on to me and said, will you help out and generally speaking I do. The funeral directors know me and the style of service that we have and the type of hymns that are generally selected here at the tab or up at the crematorium as the case may be. And one day as I get to the crem, the funeral director who's sympathetic towards an evangelical position, he said, you'll never believe what the last hymn is.

So I said, go on, tell me. He said, they've selected, I'll gather lilacs in the spring again. So I said, you know something? He said, what? I said, you're on your own when you sing it.

Well, what would you like to sing? At least what would you like to have sung? When your time comes through and people are recognizing your departure from this world, what's going to commemorate the fact that you have gone? What would you like to be doing when you go? I personally would like to die in harness, I think. If it was within the grace of God toward me, I would like to die with my full faculties, still in some condition of being able to work, maybe out in some beautiful area, either here or in Eastern Europe, surveying the hills. Maybe I've just heard if this was possible with a little stereo Walkman, Garecki's Third Symphony.

And then somebody comes along and starts to sing, Jiju, lover of my soul, Plenteous grace in thee is found, Grace to cover all my sin. That's how I'd like to go. Full of faith, slipping into the presence of God, not some fanciful wish of gathering lilacs in the spring again, but going directly into the immediate presence of the Lord Jesus.

For my belief is that at the moment of departure, the first face I see when I arrive is that of the beloved Christ. Well, here is Abraham. We've been following his life for these last two or three months here at the tab, and he'll teach us a thing or two, not only about how to face life with its ups and downs, with its high points and with its low points.

He'll also teach you how to die. And I want to say this, that if your belief does not hold you in the time of death, then I wouldn't give you a fig for your belief. You measure a man, you measure a woman, not by what they said in middle years or earlier years.

You measure them by the way that they cope with the tremendous hour of passing from this world into the next. And if you want to sort of testimony check on the validity of Christianity, then I give you this challenge. And I really do mean this to any thinking person here.

Go across to the library when it's open on Tuesday. Take out a biography and read how the celebrated person whose life is there depicted died. Check how Charles Darwin died.

Check how Bertrand Russell died. Check how H.G. Wells died. Mind at the end of its tether was Wells' last book.

Did you know that? Then if you'll do me a favor, take out the little volume that I tried to write on the ministry of Lloyd-Jones. Go to the biographical chapter and see how he died. I listened to that man preach in London while I was a student, twenty-odd years or so ago.

I checked him on a sermon that he preached from 2 Peter which speaks about, within the verse that he was expounding, how a person dies. I thought, well, if that's what he preached, then let me check him at the point of him moving into the next world from this world. And his wife told how, in a condition that he could not communicate, though his brain was still clear, when they offered him further treatment, he pushed his hand up against his doctor and pointed just to heaven and gave an indication as he lifted his Bible that he was packed, stamped, with string around him, as one old Puritan would say, ready to go.

I would like to die like that, ready to go. One old Puritan says, when you come to die, ensure that there is nothing more for you to do than just die. What did he mean? He meant to ensure that you live your life so that there are no strings left untied, no ragged edges, no things that you ought to have done that you didn't do.

And here is a man, I say from the Old Testament, who will give you, whether you're a young person and find this subject matter fairly somber, a middle-aged person, and you are therefore looking a little closer towards the point when you make your departure, or whether you're in your seventies or eighties and you're doing a crash course for your finals. He will teach you a great deal. When you get to the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis, you've got the account of his death.

If you go to the twenty-third chapter, you've got the account of his wife's death. Between the twenty-second chapter and the twenty-third chapter, the twenty-second describing Abraham being tested in the business of offering his son Isaac before the Lord, some twenty-five years elapse. There is no record of what happened.

Presumably that was a balmy, sunshiny period in Abraham's life. And then his dear wife Sarah dies. Twenty-five years after that, as recorded in the opening verses of chapter twenty-five, you get the death of Abraham.

So how does he cope? How does he cope with Sarah's death? Well, one of the things that Abraham does is he secures a grave. Now, you remember that he's been for some time in the land that God has promised him, but legally speaking, at the human level, there's not one inch that he owns. And his beloved Sarah she dies.

Now, why would you think that Abraham ought to bury his wife? I mean, in those days, it was the custom to take your remains back to the place where you were born, the place where you were brought up. Well, his father and his grandfather, they'd been buried in Haran. But that was outside of the promised land.

That was hundreds of miles away. And Abraham, because he's a man of faith, when he selects a grave for Sarah, he deliberately does so in the promised land because he believes that God has bequeathed to him, ultimately, at least to his descendants, all this territory which we now refer to as Israel or Palestine. But Abraham, at that point, he doesn't own an inch.

But he's concerned that the bones of his wife they are to lie a-mouldering in the ground that God will give to his posterity. So here in this 23rd chapter, you get this interesting, almost semi-humorous story of Abraham trying to buy the place, Machpelah, where there is a cave. And this is owned by some people called Hittites and one man in particular, Ephron.

Now, Abraham's a great man. You see, he's already won quite a splendid war that you read of in the 14th chapter or so. He's known from Dan to Beersheba, as far away as Damascus.

And these Hittites, they feel, well, it's good that Abraham's amongst us. He represents great wealth. He's got his own household and so on and so forth.

Abraham, you don't need to to buy. We'll give it you. Now, there's something about Abraham that you should know.

The spiritual level, there's something about a Christian you should know. Abraham will never be enriched by someone giving to him what actually God alone can give. With Abraham, it's a land.

And this little tract of land that he wants for his wife, there is no way that he's going to allow Ephron or any one of the Hittites to give it to him. And so he buys it. Now, Abraham knows a thing or two about selling and buying.

That's why the Jewish race is so clever. And yet, he's taken to the cleaners. He really is.

I mean, they ask him 400 shekels. I ask you, for a couple of caves at the back of some dingy city. Why does Abraham pay so much? Because he wants it to be known.

As people laugh at the price that Abraham is given. And as the news percolates around the whole of this area, that this cave, that these caves, that this tract of land, which can be seen from Mamre, where Abraham has pitched his tent and has been living for so many years, does belong to Abraham. And not just to Abraham.

It will belong to his descendants. The finest cemetery in the promised land comes into the possession of Abraham. And there he buries his beloved Sarah.

And he weeps. The only time that you read of Abraham weeping. He doesn't weep when he leaves his home of Haran.

He doesn't weep when his father or his grandfather dies. At least, there is no record. He doesn't weep when Lot departs from him.

There is no instance when he climbed the hill in the 22nd chapter where the story is, where the attempted death of Isaac. There is no indication there that Abraham wept. But when he entombs his beloved Sarah, he cries.

It's not unmanly to cry. Sarah, you see, was the last point of reference that he had with the home country. Sarah, he'd known her as a beautiful girl recognized to be in the Middle East, ancient world, one of the most beautiful women of all time.

He remembered Sarah in those early years. Sarah, whose own reputation he'd placed in jeopardy when he'd behaved unseemly down in Egypt. Sarah, who'd had such poisonous venom towards Hagar, whose child she had born for Abraham.

Sarah, who had grown young in old age when miraculously Isaac had been born. Sarah, dead. And Abraham weeps.

It's not wrong to weep when someone you love dies. The blessed Christ wept by Lazarus' tomb. When the Ephesian Christians thought they would see Paul no more, they wept.

Your tears are what God gives at times in order to make the emotion and the stress through which you're passing more easy for your body to be able to cope with. Sarah dies. Abraham weeps.

And significantly he buries his wife in the land of promise. 25 years elapses and the scene is virtually the same. But this time it's not Sarah's death that we're attending, it's Abraham's own death.

This remarkable man who according to verse 7 of chapter 25 has lived 175 years. He breathes his last and dies at a good old age. And what happens to Abraham? Well, we're told significantly he was gathered to his people.

Now, that expression requires your consideration. What can it mean? What does it not mean? Let's try a negative. It cannot logically refer to the fact that Abraham is being placed alongside Sarah for it clearly states he was gathered to his people.

Now, that would be a very strange expression if all they were trying to convey that the writer of this narrative is that you've got one body placed against another body. There is a lovely term which alas is moving out at least I think of regular practice, regular use in our English language which talks about when someone dies as passing away. At a more humorous level, there was an Ellen Pentecostal man who had a church in Hove and his name was Way.

Well, when you put his religious title and the surname together it gives you a fairly good combination, passed away. But that aside, using it in the more literal popular sense when you pass away, to where do you go? Some people tell you that the Old Testament has got no evidence whatsoever for belief in a life after death. Well, if that's the case how do you explain this expression? Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age an old man and full of years and he was gathered to his people.

The Bible teaches by anticipation in the Old Testament and by clear declaration in the New Testament that when death comes it is your body that ceases to sustain life as you have now known it. But it says nothing about the cessation or the annihilation of the spirit. Gathered to his people.

Now here's our Lord. He's engaged in ministry. You find him being questioned by his opponents and there's a lovely little theological argument that is going on and I don't want to go into the minutiae, the details of it apart from bringing out this point.

Our Lord is discussing with the Pharisees about who he, the Lord, is and what his purposes are in life. And the Lord Jesus makes reference to Abraham and he says, speaking on behalf of God and teaching about the resurrection. Verse 32 of chapter 22 of Matthew I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

He is not the God of the dead but of the living. I beg your pardon. I said earlier that our Lord was speaking to the Pharisees.

It was the earlier argument in the middle of the chapter. He's speaking to the Sadducees. They don't believe in the resurrection.

All right, says Jesus. You don't believe in the life after death yet you do believe in the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. Here is Abraham.

Here is God saying when Abraham has passed from this scene of time I am the God of Abraham. Why does he not say I was the God of Abraham? I was the God of Isaac. I was the God of the patriarchs.

You see, our Lord is clearly here arguing that in the Old Testament there is sufficient evidence to shatter the Sadducee argument that when a man dies that is the end. No, says our Lord. When Abraham died and his body was placed alongside that of Sarah he went on.

To where did Abraham go? Well, if you read in Hebrews in chapter 11 you get the answer. Abraham, this man of faith who moved into the promised land and yet apart from the barter that we've just gone into and the acquisition by payment of that tract of land where the grave is he never owned the promised land. He never lived to see the day when the promised land was occupied by his descendants.

So what was Abraham's mindset during his earthly life? Well, verse 9 of chapter 11 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise. Here's the punchline.

For he was looking forward to the city without foundations whose architect and builder is God. What kept Abraham going during all those days? The promise. Not only the promise that his descendants would one day literally own the land into which he and Sarah had gone but even more wonderfully that on death he would enter into the immediate presence of God to a city the builder and the architect of whom is God himself.

So here is this wizened elderly 175 year old man and he's come towards the end of his life. How does he die? Full of faith. How does he die? With blessed anticipation.

Of what? That he is going to be gathered to his people Look when you come to the point of death be it tomorrow or next week or next month or next year if you are going to be gathered into the company of God's people in heaven you will have to have been gathered into the company of God's people first of all on earth. You might fondly sing we'll gather lilacs in the spring again well if it's good poetry that's about all that it is. The only way to die is to die full of faith.

You see Abraham's got this mausoleum he's got this natural cave in which his body is going to be placed alongside that of Sarah but if you were to take a chisel and if you were to take Abraham's achievements and there were many oh yes there were many failures we've looked at that there were many many times when Abraham let himself down and let God down but that applies to every man of God. There was no man ever perfect apart from our blessed Lord but if you were to take the chisel and to write an epitaph in honor of Abraham what would you chisel out on that cave? Abraham believed God and because he believed God he was declared righteous by God and because he was declared righteous by God he could die full of faith and the belief that he exercised in God was that God would always keep his word and when God said Abraham I'll make you a great nation even though Abraham was married and childless to Sarah he believed when God said to Abraham Abraham look and see the stars in the skies look and see the pebbles on the beach can you number the stars? can you number the grains of sand? no says Abraham says God I will make your seed as numerous as that and Abraham believed when Abraham is told by God to take his son his only son the son who you love and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah Abraham believed God you see God had promised he's going to be a great nation how will he be a great nation if Isaac's dead? there's only one way that God can get out of this conundrum what is it? by raising Isaac from the dead fantastic naked faith without faith it's impossible to please God and without faith it is impossible to die bravely that's why my favorite hymn is going to be sung hopefully just the minute that I'm going through thou oh Christ art all I want all my need in thee is found safe into the haven guide oh receive my soul at last you see it's all there I mean here is this old man you say the Old Testament scripture is not worth looking at you don't know what you're missing this old man this old couple Abraham, Sarah at the beginning of time so to speak they can teach you so much when Abraham dies he's got nothing else to do but die as for his inheritance he's seen that his sons are well looked after and the son by Sarah he will inherit the majority of Abraham's wealth but have you noticed this? when Abraham dies Isaac comes to the funeral and Ishmael Abraham's son by Hagar Ishmael perhaps the one who is historically though not by personal commitment to the faith the one to which the Muslim community traces its own ancestry as well as they believe to Abraham but you get Isaac and you get Ishmael and they're together isn't it interesting how relatives come to funerals? have you noticed that? I mean you haven't seen them in 10 years they have to introduce themselves to you because well you know it's the typical British family breakup scene you don't find this in the Middle East you don't find this in Asia or Africa you just find it in the United Kingdom relatives come together at a funeral well here's the exception to the rule Ishmael and Isaac they've gone their own way but at the funeral of Abraham they're there and they follow the cortege or whatever they had in those days down to those caves where Sarah's body also is that tract of land that Abraham knowing what he did paid well over the odds for and there Abraham is buried and we're told that God blessed Isaac as Abraham had also prayed for Ishmael and later on into that the greatest cemetery, the greatest grave in the cemetery of the Middle East would one day be placed the remains of Isaac and Jacob and Esau aye and out of Egypt as he expires comes the request from Joseph don't bury me in Egypt take me back place me in the grave bought by great great grandfather Abraham what's the significance? well you see it's all got to do with this belief in God belief in the covenant belief that as they are gathered together with their people so the purposes of God for Israel will continue and eventually that tract of land will be occupied by the Jews and through the Jews into this world will come our Lord Jesus with a gospel that's directed towards them and to Gentile people who in response will exercise you guessed it the same faith as Abraham exercised for there is a sense in which Abraham is a Christian before time he responds by faith to what he knows of God in those days and as a result he can die in full confidence someone has said take care of your life and the Lord will take care of your death a saint who was once dying had a visitor who sat by him and said farewell brother I shall never see you again in the land of the living oh said the dying man I shall see you again it is the land of the living to where I am going where I am leaving is the land of the dying a little boy on one occasion was looking at some eggs he was waiting for the eggs to hatch and the eggs were particularly beautiful one day he comes and he looks in the nest and those beautiful eggs are now just little bits of disconnected shell and he says mum look at the destruction how sad and mum said without the destruction of those eggshells the bird could never have escaped and flown away sometimes I have visited dear folk from the tab I have been here long enough to see some in fullness of health deteriorate visited them in their malignant condition hardly a shadow of what they were I helped so many people to die I say that not boastfully it's an honour and I leave that crumpled body thinking of what they used to be and I ask lord what's it all about and he says what you see is just the little bit of shell that's left it had to be like this so the spirit could come and be with me absent from the body present with the lord conscious able to recognize that I believe is what the new testament teaches about the moment after you die as far as your earthly pilgrimage here is concerned so you can learn a lot from Abraham how did he die? he died an old man he died with many failures and many successes he died full of faith he died with all the ends tied together, nothing left loose he died and his sons came to witness his memorial service and when he died he was gathered to his people and when Jesus speaks in the name of god about Abraham he says I am the god of the patriarch and the implication is Abraham who lived to see the day of Jesus spiritually but not physically was in the heavenlies is there now and one day when we are gathered together with the people of god we'll have company with him and many another of these great historical characters the old and new testament re-fellowship with folks that we loved from our family who've gone on before but you will never be gathered together unto him there unless you've been gathered together by faith with his people now let's pray father father we thank you for the certainties of the christian gospel sometimes we find ourselves in the same dilemma as paul having a desire to be with you away from all the problems and the pressures of this world but we ask that you'll keep us during the years perchance that we have left faithful to you forgive us our sins help us to live our lives within the thought that one day we shall stand before your throne in heaven keep us clean through the blood of our lord jesus help us to live significantly as abraham did lord if you could take an unknown man from a little known spot in the world bring him a few thousand miles and achieve something wonderful and you did that four or five thousand years ago lord you can do it now move amongst people here bring all to a confession of faith in jesus christ and teach us to be ready to die well in his name amen music music music music music music music music music music