Genesis 23 always fascinates me. It’s a delicate cultural dance that we don’t understand today, the “negotiation” between Abraham and Ephron. That’s not what struck me today, but I’d encourage you to read up on it. It’s a pretty interesting little lesson that you miss when you read through it without knowing the significance behind it. Well, I thought it was interesting. We’ve already established I can be a little… strange. 🙂
Genesis 23:4 (GW)–“I’m a stranger with no permanent home. Let me have some of your property for a tomb so that I can bury my dead wife.”
I’ve read over this verse a dozen times and never really thought about it. But when you slow down and lift it out and really let yourself feel the weight of it in the palm of your hand, it’s maybe one of the saddest verses in the Bible. His wife has died. He is grieving her (verse 2 in the GW translation says cried about her death), and he realizes… “I have nowhere to bury her.”
It’s bad enough to wander around without a home. I think it might have been particularly interesting in Abraham’s case because God promised him a land… and then sent him to wandering… and wandering… and wandering… And when Abraham got there, a famine drove him into Egypt. Folks, this was a man who trusted God, because he just kept on moving, kept on going where God led him.
But now, he’s stopped cold. There’s nowhere to bury the woman he loves. Can you imagine that in that moment, the concept of home became kind of tough for him? I wonder if he wished, even for a moment, for a permanent place to lay Sarah to rest. For a place he knew he would be able to come back to. Or I wonder if it was all practical thought?
Interesting… the first land Abraham “owns” in the Promised Land is his wife’s tomb.
More interesting? Jesus didn’t have a tomb either one. They had to borrow one.
Wonder if God’s got a correlation there? I’m not smart enough to think of it, but I wonder if there’s something there, something about the biblical, earthly Promised Land and the earthly father Abraham and then our biblical heavenly Promised Land and our Heavenly Father?
Something to think about.
Y’all be safe today. I’m spending my first Fourth at home… in our earthly Promised Land so to speak. That’s another story about the funny ways God works.
How about you? Any thoughts on home?
-JB
Dawn Lucowitz says
I read your comments before the chapter this week, and kind of wish I did it in reverse. I love your thoughts, but am not sure what I would have pulled out on my own. I have had a few weeks of very mixed emotions over my grandmother’s death. One of the toughest parts was that I was literally in the middle of my move when it was happening. I was unable to get to see her in person before she died, although we did get to talk briefly on the phone. When we found out she wasn’t going to make it out of the hospital I was somewhere between KS and VA. We had two packed vehicles, a dog and 3 cats. There really was no way to get to NY because there was nowhere to drop off stuff and animals since we were temporarily homeless!
Then, because my grandmother wanted to be cremated, the burial wouldn’t take place right away, and then, since family is scattered and my grandfather wanted to be a bit too accommodating, the memorial isn’t taking place until August. Anyway, since I wasn’t there for her death, I really wanted to be there for the services. There was a point though, when it looked like the date that was picked would be impossible for me to get there. My parents were upset because my grandmother and I were extremely close. I was upset because of all the family I felt that I was the one that most needed to be there (talk about selfish, eh?). Then I immediately came to terms with the fact that my grandmother wasn’t there anyway. Her ashes may be, but she’s not. And, I really don’t need to be with family to memorialize her. The best way to do that is in my actions each and every day. The first thing I did was make sure I found a church that Sunday to go and worship. That was the fastest I had ever gotten on getting to a church at a new location. I also knew that regardless of whether I was at the memorial, I had to make sure I shared some thoughts with family, which could easily be done with a letter to be read at the service. I know and fully understand that my grandmother is with her Lord and Savior, and that no matter when or where we celebrate her, she is home.
I will be performing the eulogy at her service and am excited about the opportunity to really share her faith with my family. They won’t have any choice but listen to me for those few minutes, and I pray that something that I can share with them about mine and my grandmother’s faith will root itself deep within at least one of them.
So, after all of my babbling thoughts, I can feel the pain about not having a place to bury his wife, but I can also understand that once she is buried, not showing that he needs to still be there close by. Not needing to have to come back to that spot over and over. With so many deployments facing our Military my husband and I have talked about his wishes for burial when the time for that comes. Where he wishes to be is not where I intend to live out the rest of my life. That is a really hard concept for him, but to me, wherever his body is, isn’t where he is (as a final aside, he plans to be buried in a different state than he plans to retire anyway).