Book of Genesis - Ch. 23, Vs. 13-Ch. 24, Vs. 4 (12/13/2015)

The Christian world, to be great was to serve. The world was upside down.

Well, Christianity is something that's always turned the world upside down. That's what's happening today. Christianity is turning the world upside down.

Well, maybe not so much today. Now maybe it's the world that's turning the church upside down.

And I think if the Lord were to write a letter to us, He would be unhappy with us with that regard, too.

He would be unhappy with bringing the church, bringing the church, bringing the world into the church. He didn't say, let me say what

He did say, Go ye therefore into all the world. He didn't say bring all the world into you.

So our command is to go out into the world, not to bring the world into the church.

So if we want to build our church by bringing the world into it, that's the opposite.

What we should do is take our church out. And if somebody wants to come into the church, then that's good.

But we shouldn't go out and do things to draw people in to become part of the church if they're not

His. So that was the first aside, and I wanted to deal with that.

And I especially wanted to deal with that when Mark was here so he could clear me up if I strayed too far. Because I am not that familiar with the

Catholic church. But I didn't do too bad. Back to 23 verse 13.

And he, as Abraham speaking, spake to Ephraim in the audience of the people of the land, saying,

But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me, I will give thee money for the field. Take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.

And Ephraim answered Abraham, saying, My Lord hearkened unto me, the land is worth about four hundred shekels of silver.

What is that between me and thee? Bury therefore thy dead. So first he says,

I'm going to give it to you. And now he's saying it's worth four hundred shekels.

According to the worth of land at the time, that was probably a little overpriced. But Abraham didn't haggle about it.

He just weighed out the silver. I thought that was interesting. That Abraham did not engage in a negotiation.

He just paid what Ephraim asked. He didn't even pay a fair market price.

He paid the first price he quoted. Yeah. So, okay.

Right, right. But he is not interested in bargaining to get the best price.

He just wanted to accept a price that he knows will satisfy Ephraim that it is a fair price.

And so if Ephraim started weighing what he laid, which was before Mamre, the field and the caves, which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure unto

Abraham for possession in the presence of the children of Heth before all that went in the gate of the city.

Now, here's what's going on. Abraham knows that the whole land of Canaan is rightfully his, including that field.

It has been gifted to him by God Himself. But in his paying the price for that piece of land, he guarantees that his children will not be subject to the owners of the land.

If the owners of the land had given him the land, then he would be under some obligation to him. He wanted himself and his descendants not to be in obligation for any piece of land.

This land was God's gift, and Abraham would not let any other take credit for his possession of it, even of the smallest little part of it.

And after this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave in the field of... Would somebody pronounce that for me?

No, I'm not, but I will try it one more time then. Machpelah, before Mamre.

The same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. So, the cave was just outside Hebron.

Now, I want to consider the fact that Abraham refused the gift of the land. I want to deal with that a little bit more.

Were there any times that Abraham ever accepted a gift from a pagan? Okay, he took gifts from Pharaoh, and this is even after he had lied to Pharaoh.

And if anyone was in obligation to anyone, it should have been Abraham to Pharaoh, not

Pharaoh to Abraham. He also did it the second time, and I guess that's why you probably mentioned that one too.

When Abimelech, he did the same thing. He accepted gifts. Were there any times that he didn't accept gifts?

I know of two. I know of two. This time, and there was one other.

Remember when he went to recover Lot? And he brought

Lot back? What the king of Sodom offered him? The king of Sodom offered great wealth to him, and he said, no,

I don't want anything. I don't want anything from the spoils of the victory. Just give the guys that came with me enough for their share.

I don't want anything. So, he refused gifts from the king of Sodom, and he refused gifts from Ephraim.

And it was all about, I believe, bringing outside things into the family of God.

He didn't want to bring the influences of Sodom into his family, and he didn't want to bring the influences of the

Canaanites into his family, especially into his burial site.

Abraham often declares that he was buying the field as a place for burial.

The Holy Spirit emphasizes this matter so that we may learn this, along with Abraham, to elevate our minds to the hope of resurrection.

You see, what Abraham saw, he saw that half of himself was taken away. His wife was now dead.

That was like half of his life. But because he was certain that his wife was not taken away from the kingdom of heaven, he hides her dead body in a tomb until he and she should be gathered together in a new and a better place.

So this is a kind of a thing that culminates in a hope of resurrection.

He understood that he and Sarah and his family's life did not end at death.

It actually only began there. The hope of resurrection is what drove him to keep this place totally separated from any other outside influence.

Well, think about this. Should our hope of resurrection keep our place pure from any worldly outside influences?

And the field and the cave that was therein were made sure unto

Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the sons of Heth. And that's the last verse in chapter 23.

Now, we're going to look ahead and focus on the last days of Abraham and his replacement by his son

Isaac. We won't get very far into this chapter, but I want to begin. And Abraham was old and well -stricken in age, and the

Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. Well, I see three things there. Abraham was old, he was well -stricken in age, and the

Lord had blessed him. So, how old was he? He's just buried his wife.

I'm sorry? No, he's older than that.

We were told in the last chapter, and it's not fair for me to pick on you. We were told in the last chapter that Sarah was 127 when she died.

And we know that Abraham was 10 years older than Sarah. So when Sarah died,

Abraham was 137. So when this occurs, a good estimate might be 137 or 138.

And I'm sure that Abraham probably thought he didn't have much time left. You know how much time he had left?

He had enough time to take a new wife, Keturah.

He had enough time to take a new wife who was going to bear him six sons.

And if you look further into the genealogy of Abraham, you'll find that he died when he was 175.

175. Dr. MacArthur identifies Keturah as a wife of lower status than Sarah, and therefore she was what was referred to as a concubine.

So even though Abraham feels the urgency to tidy up his affairs because he's 137 years old, we know he still has about 40 years left.

So what does he do? What's the first thing he does? He takes his eldest servant, the eldest servant of his house, the house that ruled over all he had, and said,

Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the

Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the

Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go into my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son

Isaac. So, one of the big things left ahead of him is to arrange a marriage for his son.

His son is kind of getting up there now. His son is in his mid -30s, early 40s, and he's unmarried.

And his dad does not want him to go out and marry into the

Canaanites, maybe for a lot of reasons. One of them was he didn't want to bring the influence of the

Canaanites into his family. Here's what John Calvin said, Abraham here fulfills the common duty of parents in attempting to find a wife for his son, but he looks somewhat further.

He wants to make sure that his wife is not found from among the Canaanites. Some suppose that the morals of those nations were so displeasing to him that he understood the marriage of his son would prove unhappy if he should take a wife from amongst them.

And that probably is a reasonable thing to think. But he says the real reason was he would not allow his own race to be mingled with that of the

Canaanites, whom he knew already to be divinely appointed to destruction. Since upon their overthrow, he was to be put in possession of the land.

So he was commanded to treat them with distrust as perpetual enemies.

And although he had dwelt in tranquility among them for a time, yet he could not have communion with the offspring of them without confounding things which by the command of God were to be kept distinct.

Hence he wished both himself and his family to maintain this separation entire.

So that was his reason for not wanting a Canaanite wife for Isaac.

And interestingly enough, if you look further into the future, Isaac is going to have two sons himself.

And he doesn't want them to have Canaanite wives either. And he sends—no, he doesn't send.

One of them runs away from the other one and winds up in the land of Abraham's fathers and marries his cousin.

The other one took a Canaanite wife. And the separation of Abraham's offspring separated.

So he didn't want that to happen with his only son. So the servant now has his commission.

And what's his commission? To procure a wife for Isaac.

Not a Canaanite wife, but a wife from amongst his own family back in Ur.

In this whole passage, the name of this servant is not mentioned. But there's a good reason to suspect that it is

Eleazar of Damascus. Now, if he is,

Eleazar of Damascus is by now going to be pretty old. But that's okay. Abraham was too.

If you look at Genesis 15—in fact, just don't go there. You can if you want to.

Isaiah—whoa. Genesis 15, 2. And Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing

I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus?

When the Lord promised him a son, and he came back from his destruction of the enemies of Sodom and brought

Lot back, he got a little afraid, and the Lord said, I'll be your strength and your provision.

And Abraham says, Well, Lord, what are you going to give me, since I don't have anyone to inherit it?

The only person I have to inherit it is this head steward, Eleazar.

And he said, No, no, no, no. It's not Eleazar. It's your son that you want to have. And so that's the reason that I suspect it's

Eleazar. Since it's only a suspect, everything that I say from here on out is just a suspect also.

But let's consider some things. Eleazar comes from the root word

El, meaning God, and Ezer, one who helps.

So it's not a great stretch to view Eleazar as a model of the God who helps.

That would be whom? That would be the

Holy Spirit. Now, look at John 14, verse 16.

John, chapter 14, verse 16. Jesus is telling his disciples that he's going to leave them, but he's not going to leave them without an aid.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever

I have said to you. So Jesus has said a lot of things to them that they don't understand, and the

Comforter is going to come and say, This is what he meant when he told you that. Remember that? Remember when Jesus told you this?

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give

I it unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. So, the

Comforter. The Greek word for Comforter is

Parakletos. And if you look up the definition of that, that's one who is summoned or called to one side, especially one that is called to one's aid.

He is one who pleads another's case before a judge. So he could be a counselor for the defense, a legal assistant, an advocate.

He is one who pleads another's cause with an intercessor. In the widest sense, a helper, an assistant.

The Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the Apostles after the ascension of Jesus to His Father.

He does not leave them without hope. He leaves them with a

Comforter who will lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel, truth, and give them the divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the kingdom.

So that is what we're talking about.

A connection between this Eleazar who is sent to get a bride for Isaac and the

Holy Spirit who in one sense is sent to get a bride for Jesus.

So, the Holy Spirit has edited

Isaac's name out of the Genesis story from the time of the attempted sacrifice until sometime after Eleazar returns.

There's no mention of Isaac between then and there except when he says to Eleazar, go get a bride for my son.

And he didn't even name his son then. So they say, was that on purpose?

Did he take that out of the passage on purpose? If we're going to view

Isaac as a model for Christ, then it is proper that he be missing.

Christ left the scene from the time of His sacrifice just after the cross until He returns for His bride, the church.

So let's kind of tidy it up. Who's the Comforter? After His sacrifice,

Jesus returns to the Father. The Father sends a Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to act as an agent for Jesus with the task of securing

His bride. So that's what the Holy Ghost's job is.

Oh, it's to enlighten us. We say we understand what we understand of the

Bible because the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. We can't understand what the

Bible is saying if we just read it like a textbook in science. We can't understand it unless it's illuminated by the

Holy Spirit. All of that's true. But what's the purpose for us understanding about the

Holy Spirit? It's for God, through the action of the

Holy Ghost, to gather together this group of people, the church, that He's going to present to His Son, Jesus Christ, and put them right over there on that piano like we do almost two or three times a week, a month.

That's His role. The Father sends the Comforter to act as an agent for Jesus with the task of securing a bride for Jesus.

Now look at the story here. Though a substitute was provided and Isaac was not sacrificed, there was a sacrifice made.

Isaac returns with his father. He's not mentioned again. He disappears from the story.

An agent is sent by the Father to secure a bride for Isaac. That agent,

Eleazar, the Comforter, returns with the bride and Isaac reappears and the story continues.

Isaac has not yet reappeared, but the stage has been set and we're ready for the rest of Chapter 24 next week.

And that's not too bad on time. Anybody got any comments?

I didn't leave many opportunities for you today. And you know something else?

Isaac never left the Promised Land. Abraham did.

Jacob did. Isaac didn't. I think there's a message there too, but I'm still in the process of chewing on it.

I've got it into my next week's lesson, but I may take it out if I... It's in one of these nebulous states.

But that to me is interesting that Isaac never left the land. The other people did.

In fact, one of the questions that Eleazar is going to ask... Come on in.

It's fine. One of the questions that Eleazar is going to ask Abraham is, what if she won't come?

Should I get Isaac and take him and bring them back? And Abraham is going to say, no, no, no.

Now, I think there's something there. That's where I'm hung up right now. Anything else?

Well, it only took one and a half weeks to get Sarah behind us. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for all of our many blessings.

Thank you for giving us this place that we may come and study. Thank you for giving us a

Holy Spirit, a comforter, who not only will explain those things about the

Bible, about your Word that you want us to understand. He promised the disciples, you will remember the things that Jesus said and you will understand them through the agency of the comforter.

And we appreciate that and we love that. But even more, we love the fact that he has gone to secure a bride for Jesus and that we are part of that.

Bless us and keep us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I couldn't get there fast enough.

I'm sure they're in the right place. They're in the middle. The address out there would really help, brother.

One more time. There is that. And it did. The Google map did this really beautifully.

It's not my fault. It's not the Bible's fault. Okay, but the thing that threw me off is that that word, is a pronounced we,

M -A -C -S, for fast -moving things. I like my four and my five.

So I appreciate that. See, I should have done that. I have access to the Bible. Well, you also have access to Blue Letter because that's what this is.

Because when you said look up the definition, you read it word for word, but you left out the word divine kingdom at the end.