A Grave With a View: The Down Payment on a Kingdom Text: Genesis 23:1-20
Introduction: The Realism of Hope
We live in a culture that is terrified of death. We do not know what to do with it. We hide it away in sterile hospitals, we cover it over with euphemisms, and we try to turn funerals into "celebrations of life," as though we can throw a party loud enough to drown out the rattling of the bones. We scatter ashes on the wind because we want to believe that death is a return to an impersonal nature, a gentle fading away. We do this because we have no anchor, no hope, and no answer to the finality of the grave.
The Bible, by contrast, is unflinchingly realistic about death. Death is an enemy. It is the wages of sin. It is a brutal separation. When Sarah dies, Abraham weeps. Grief is not unspiritual; it is the proper human response to the wreckage that sin has made of our world. But biblical realism is never despair. The Christian does not grieve as those who have no hope. And here, in this seemingly mundane chapter about a real estate transaction, we see the anatomy of that hope. This is not just a sad story about a funeral. This is a strategic move in a cosmic war. It is an act of faith that lays claim to a future kingdom. Abraham is about to buy a grave, but it is a grave with a view of the resurrection.
This chapter is a profound statement about the nature of our pilgrimage. We are, like Abraham, sojourners and foreign residents. We are promised a city whose builder and maker is God, but for now, our only certain inheritance in this world is a plot of ground in which to be buried. But for the man of faith, that plot of ground is not a symbol of defeat. It is a down payment. It is the first legal foothold in the promised land. It is the flag planted deep in enemy territory, claiming it for the coming King.
The Text
And Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Then Abraham rose from before his dead and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, "I am a sojourner and a foreign resident among you; give me a possession for a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight." And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, "Hear us, my lord, you are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our burial sites; none of us will refuse you his burial sites for burying your dead." So Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. And he spoke with them, saying, "If it is your desire for me to bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and meet with Ephron the son of Zohar for me, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which belongs to him, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in your presence as a possession for a burial site." Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, "No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead." And Abraham bowed before the people of the land. And he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, "If you will only please hear me; I will give the silver for the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there." Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, "My lord, hear me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead." So Abraham heard Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard. So Ephron's field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were within all the confines of its border, were deeded over to Abraham as purchased in the sight of the sons of Heth, before all who came in at the gate of his city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field at Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded over to Abraham for a possession for a burial site by the sons of Heth.
(Genesis 23:1-20 LSB)
A Pilgrim's Grief and Resolve (vv. 1-4)
The chapter begins with the stark fact of death.
"And Sarah lived 127 years... Sarah died in Kiriath-arba... and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her." (Genesis 23:1-2)
The Scriptures do not romanticize death. Sarah, the princess, the mother of the promised seed, dies. Her age is given with precision because she was a real woman, not a mythological figure. Abraham's response is twofold: he mourned and he wept. This is not a failure of faith. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Grief is the proper response to the ugliness of death. But faith does not remain prostrate. The text says, "Then Abraham rose from before his dead." Here is the pivot. Grief is a valley we must walk through, not a swamp to settle down in. Faith acts. It gets up and deals with the reality before it, trusting in the God who is the God of the living, not the dead.
And what is his first act? He speaks to the sons of Heth, the pagan inhabitants of the land. His opening statement defines his entire existence: "I am a sojourner and a foreign resident among you" (v. 4). This is a staggering confession of faith. God had promised him this entire land, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates. He was the rightful heir of the world. Yet in the present, he owned not a single square inch of it. He had to ask permission from squatters for a place to bury his wife. This is the "already, not yet" of the kingdom of God. We have been given all things in Christ, yet we still live as pilgrims in a world that is not our home. Abraham's faith did not depend on present circumstances. He knew who he was and what God had promised, even when all the visible evidence seemed to contradict it.
A Prince's Integrity (vv. 5-16)
The negotiation that follows is a master class in godly character and shrewdness.
"Hear us, my lord, you are a mighty prince among us..." (Genesis 23:6)
Notice the testimony Abraham had among the pagans. They did not see him as a weird, irrelevant cultist. They saw him as a "mighty prince," literally a "prince of God." His life was so marked by the blessing and gravity of God that even the unbelievers had to acknowledge it. This is the goal of our witness: not to be liked, but to be respected; to live in such a way that our adversaries must recognize the hand of God upon us.
The negotiation proceeds with all the elaborate courtesy of the ancient Near East. Ephron the Hittite makes a grand gesture: "No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it" (v. 11). This is not a genuine offer; it is the opening move in a bargaining process. To accept such a gift would be to place himself in Ephron's debt, to become his client. Abraham will have none of it. He is polite, bowing before the people, but he is firm. He insists on paying "the full price" (v. 9).
Why is this so important? Because Abraham is not merely acquiring a piece of property; he is making a statement. He will not be beholden to the Canaanites for his inheritance. His inheritance comes from God alone. By paying the full price, he establishes a clean, undisputed, legal claim. This is an act of faith, securing the first small piece of the promised land. It is a down payment. He is buying it, not as a Canaanite, but as the heir of the promise. When Ephron names the price, "four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you?" (v. 15), Abraham does not haggle. He immediately weighs out the silver, "commercial standard." No tricks, no debts, no shortcuts. This is the integrity of a man who walks before God.
A Covenantal Claim (vv. 17-20)
The conclusion of the chapter is recorded with the precision of a legal deed.
"So Ephron's field... were deeded over to Abraham as purchased in the sight of the sons of Heth, before all who came in at the gate of his city." (Genesis 23:17-18)
The Holy Spirit inspired Moses to include all these details, the field, the cave, the trees, the borders, for a crucial reason. God's covenants are not ethereal wishes; they are grounded in history, in law, and in real estate. This transaction was public, it was witnessed at the city gate, the place of legal proceedings, and it was permanent. This piece of land, the cave of Machpelah, now belonged to Abraham and his descendants. It was the first fruit of the promise, a tangible anchor for their hope in a land that was not yet theirs.
And what does he do with it? "After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave" (v. 19). He plants the mother of the promise in the soil of the promise. This is not an act of despair. It is an act of profound, forward-looking faith. He is entrusting her body to the land that God swore to give them, in the sure and certain hope of a future resurrection when God would raise them up and give them the land forever. This grave was not a final destination; it was a waiting room. It was a grave with a view. It faced Mamre, the place of God's promises. Every time the patriarchs looked at that tomb, they were reminded that God keeps His word.
The Better Tomb
This entire chapter is a shadow, pointing forward to a greater reality. Abraham, the father of the faithful, buys a tomb with silver as the first installment of his inheritance, an act of faith looking forward to a promise. Centuries later, the apostate sons of Abraham, the chief priests, would take thirty pieces of silver, the price of the Son of Abraham, and buy a field to bury strangers in (Matt. 27:7). They used the price of the Lord of Life to purchase a plot for the dead, a picture of their unbelief.
The cave of Machpelah became the resting place of the patriarchs. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, were all buried there, their bones anchoring the hope of Israel in the land. But our hope is anchored by a different tomb. Not a tomb that was purchased and filled, but a tomb that was borrowed and emptied.
Jesus Christ, the true seed of Abraham, was laid in a borrowed tomb. He owned no plot of land, for the whole earth is His. And on the third day, He rose. He did not simply secure a down payment on the inheritance; He purchased the whole thing, lock, stock, and barrel, with His own blood. He defeated the enemy of death that had put Sarah in her tomb.
Because of Christ's empty tomb, our graves are now what Machpelah was for Abraham: a place of hope, a grave with a view of the resurrection morning. When we bury our dead in Christ, we are not abandoning them to the dust. We are planting them like seeds, entrusting them to the Lord of the harvest, who will return to claim His purchased possession. We live as sojourners, but our inheritance is secure. It was bought with a price far greater than 400 shekels of silver. And our King is not just a mighty prince among the nations; He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given.