Abraham Mourns the Death of Sarah

Genesis 23

With the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah, which we discussed previously, we arrived at the peak in Abraham’s life. After that time, his life went downward, and in this chapter we are confronted with death, for it speaks about the end of Sarah. The place of her death was in Hebron. Abraham and Sarah lived in Beersheba when he went out to sacrifice Isaac. But in Hebron, which means “binding together,” they spent the evening time of their life, and here she died at the age of one hundred twenty-seven years.

By the fall death entered into the life of mankind. Especially in Genesis 5 we hear the death bell ring: “And he died.” But in Genesis 23, for the first time, God’s Word speaks in detail about a funeral. Not one will escape the judgment on sin; the Lord had said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Sarah is the only woman whose age at death is mentioned, which tells us that she holds a very important place in sacred history. This is true because she was the ancestress of Israel. This was not only outwardly, in the flesh, but by faith she might also take part in the wonder of grace, which was wrought in her as the mother of the faithful (1 Peter 3:6). She is also mentioned among the heroes of faith, since by faith she received strength to give birth to Isaac when she was ninety years old.

For Abraham she was a companion on the path of faith. With him she was tried, with him she lived in tents, with him she hoped for the salvation of the Lord, which He had promised to them. Not always was she a helpmeet to him, and some 230 times she hindered Abraham as he walked in the path of faith. But Abraham would not complain, because when he looked back in his own life, then it was also not without shortcomings and sin.

At that moment he could testify of many blessings in his life which came by her feminine faithfulness and care, but by her presence spiritual blessings were also bestowed upon him. Although Sarah’s life was in the quietness of her tent, she was of the greatest importance in the kingdom of God, in which the Lord used her. Sometimes she is called the “Mary” of the Old Testament. What we have written about Sarah is not intended to praise the dead, as happens so often at funerals, but we mention this only to show what the Lord in grace had given to Abraham in his wife. God’s work may not be hidden.

We may say of Sarah what is written of David in Acts 13:36, “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption.” After Sarah had fulfilled God’s counsel, she was relieved from her post and died “in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.”

Several times in the course of this Bible study we have mentioned that Sarah was a beautiful woman, and she remained so until her old age. You have to remember that one does not find the greatest beauty in the lovers of sin and the world, but it is found in the life of sanctification. Then one may be as a tree whose leaves do not wither. We read of Moses that his eye was not darkened and his strength not diminished when he was one hundred twenty years old. We think it was, to a certain extent, the same in the life of Sarah.

We do not read that Sarah had a sickbed. Also, considering that Abraham came to her after she had died, it could be that she died suddenly. The Lord sends the angel of death in different ways. Sometimes it is after a long illness at a high age. It can be also in our youth, suddenly and unexpectedly. Would you be prepared, young people, if death would come today? Are you prepared to meet the Lord? In the past year we have had several callings that not only old people, but also young people, were taken away. The Lord warns us time and again to hasten for our life’s sake.

Still, when Sarah died suddenly, as we suppose, then you must not think that she was not prepared to die. Already forty years previously she reckoned herself an old woman, but she was a woman with grace. For her, death was not a loss when it came to her at Kirjath-arba. This very old city was built by a giant named Arba. Later the name of the city became Hebron.

In Scripture it is expressly mentioned that Sarah died in the land of Canaan. This is not to tell us that Hebron was situated in the land of Canaan, but to show that she died and was buried in the Promised Land. She had left everything and followed her husband to the land the Lord promised, and although they had not yet inherited the land, she might die in the land her children would receive. She might enter into the heavenly Canaan and her body might rest in the earthly Canaan.

When Sarah had died and Abraham had received the tidings, he went to the tent where the body of

to believe in Him and be saved. You are melted, and the tear stands on your cheek; but like the morning cloud and early dew, it quickly passes away.

Ah, brethren, what hard, iron hearts you must have, when all that man can do will not melt them! Your hearts are too hard for us; and we have to go back weeping to our Lord, saying, “Who hath believed our report?” In all other things we could persuade you by arguments. If your bodies were sick, we could persuade you to send for the physician; if your estates were entangled, we could persuade you to be diligent for your family. Oh, how readily you would obey us! But when we demonstrate that you are the heirs, soul and body, of an eternal hell, you will not awake for it all.

Even if we could show you the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the bleeding, beseeching Savior, your wicked hearts would not turn or cleave to Him. You need Him, who made your hearts, to break and bend them. Will you not, each of you, go away, then, beating on the breast, and saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner”?

Learn, secondly, believing brethren, what need you have to pray. When God, in Ezekiel 36, promises to give a new heart and a new spirit to Israel, to take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and to give them an heart of flesh, He adds, at verse 37, “I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.” And when God promises to give to Christ the heathen for His heritage, He only promises it in answer to prayer, “Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee” (Psalm 2:8). And just so here; when He wishes to give life to these dead carcasses that are lying in the open valley, His word is, “Prophesy, O son of man.”

Oh, believing brethren, what an instrument is this which God has put into your hands! Prayer moves Him that moves the universe. Oh, men of faith and prayer! Israels, who wrestle with God and prevail! righteous, justified men, whose prayers avail much! you may be a little flock, but be you entreated to give the Lord no rest. Oh, pray for the Spirit to “breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”

— Rev. R. M. M’Cheyne

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