Links for today’s readings:
Read: Genesis 23 Listen: (2:34), Read: Mark 1 Listen: (5:05)
Scripture Focus: Genesis 23.3-4, 19-20
3 Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, 4 “I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.”
19 Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.
Reflection: Haggling for the Abrahamic Covenant
By Erin Newton
Genesis 23 holds tension between the depths of grief and the levity of a business deal. Abraham mourns at the side of his wife, likely rending his clothes and lamenting loudly.
He needs to bury Sarah; it is customary and cathartic. It would bring closure to this phase of his grief. But despite being affluent and well-respected in the community, Abraham declares that he is, in fact, a foreigner and a stranger. He had settled down in the area, raised his family (and caused some trouble), but he didn’t even own land to bury his wife.
Abraham could have chosen to go back to his ancestral land. He had roots in that old community. He might have had a choice of burial caves without any costs. But ancient burial sites meant generations would be laid to rest there. Although it marks the end of one life, it becomes the roots of their future. Can he go back to his old home, his old life now?
God promised seed, and Sarah bore a son. God promised land, and Sarah died. The two events seem unrelated, but it is her death that helps continue the story of the land.
As often happens in the aftermath of grief, a moment of laughter and levity breaks the heaviness around him. In comes the haggle.
Back and forth Abraham goes with the local leaders. Generous offers are made; polite refusals are returned. In the end the land is purchased without a second thought. After all, the seller proclaims, “What is that between you and me?”
With this price paid, Abraham secures a resting place for his family and generations to come. The downpayment on the promised land was made.
We often forget that Abraham was a foreigner in the land. He had been among the people for so long, they even respected him as a prince. (Genesis 23.6) We read the story as if the land was “all but a done deal” as soon as he stepped foot on the soil. But he knew differently.
God’s plan does not unfold without pain or complication or even a dose of adulting. (You know, all the mundane tasks to keep life going.) The land purchase is nothing more than an old-fashioned day in the office. Sure, there are some miraculous episodes like sea partings or wall toppling. But God works most often in everyday things, even in a business deal.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me understanding, according to your word.
Let my supplication come before you; deliver me, according to your promise. — Psalm 119.169-170
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
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