Genesis 23
Into the holiest and happiest households death will come, but faith learns how to make him welcome.
Dear as our beloved ones maybe in life, we cannot endure to look upon their dead bodies, but affection itself demands that we hide them in the dust. What an instructive expression is that,—”the possession of a burial place;” it is often the only landed estate the godly possess.
But this would not be after Abraham’s mind. He would not wish to sleep in the same grave with those from whom he was separated in life. He would maintain his separateness unto God even to the end.
Courtesy is due even to the ungodly. A believer should not be any the less gentle in manners because gracious in heart.
This is a second time mentioned. The truly noble are conciliatory and courteous. A believer is not a bear.
Abraham would not put himself under obligation to idolaters. True faith produces an independent spirit.
This is as precise as a legal document. Faith does not make a man less business-like in his transactions.
In firm faith that the land would one day be all his own he laid down the bones of his beloved spouse in the promised soil, and so, as it were, took possession of the country till the set time should come for entering upon it.
What though this goodly mortal frame
Sink to the dust, from whence it came;
Though buried in the silent tomb,
Worms shall my skin and flesh consume;
Yet on that happy rising morn,
New life this body shall adorn;
These active powers refined shall be,
And God my Saviour, I shall see.
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