04 Jun Why is the Last Day of Your Marriage the Most Important? (Genesis 22:20-23:20)
Abraham & Sarah = focus from Genesis 12-22
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- The 50 chapters of Genesis cover roughly 2000 years
- 20% of those chapters are given to the life of one couple
- Abraham in Bible 100’s X (127). Sarah dozens X (137).
- Married as unbelievers. Saved
- Good and bad days – gave wife 2X, lied, polygamy & kid out of wedlock
- Not perfect family. Believing & Blessed (blessed sinners)
Is. 51:1–2 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, & to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father & to Sarah…he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him & multiply him.
= My folks were in town sharing stories about family history. Bible is that spiritually.
God is Faithful From Generation to Generation
Genesis 22:20 Now after these things it was told to Abraham, “Behold, Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 (Bethuel fathered Rebekah.) These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
- Shows Abr brother Nahor had 12 sons = became 12 tribes
- Stage set marriage Isaac/Rebekah through Milcah
- Focus shift to next generation w/passing of Sarah
The Last Day of Marriage is the Most Important Day of Your Marriage
Genesis 23:2-16 Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” The Hittites answered Abraham, “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.” Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. And he said to them, “If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place.” Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, 11 “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.” Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” Ephron answered Abraham, “My lord, listen to me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.
Unusual
- Only woman who’s death age in Bible
- 1st funeral in Bible
- 1st person weeping/crying in Bible. (MEN: Jesus wept)
LAST: Rev. 21:4 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, & death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Sarah
Died in faith believing/not seeing – A). son marry B). Promised Land C). Jesus “seed”/”blessing”
Abraham
- Grieving
- Honoring – God called them there, bury & stay there
= honor her body
= alien/stranger not allowed to purchase land = Promised Land bought here
= they honor/revere Abraham & try to give him tomb; NOT sell land
= paid 400 shekels silver (pay by weight). Temple land later 50 shekels (2 Sam. 24:24)
A). owns land =taxes & costs B. not obligated to anyone = free!
Abraham & Sarah will Rise Together
Genesis 23:17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites.
38 years later Abraham died & was buried there
- Son Isaac wife Rebekah later buried there
- Gandson Jacob &wife Leah later buried there
- Christians do not look to this filled tomb
- We look to the empty tomb of Jesus that was never enshrined because He rose
- Jesus is the God of Abraham Isaac Jacob
- Abraham, & Sarah, Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob & Leah will rise together as Jesus promised
- Today this cave is beneath the Muslim mosque of Abraham as a shrine
The First Day of Your Marriage
Millennials (born 1981-1996) – largest, most diverse, most educated generation
record 55% having children before marriage
“The Success Sequence” = virtually ZERO poverty
Adam = 1). Education 2). Work 3). Marry then kids
The Last Day of Your Marriage
Grace onstage Keys playing
- Charley Ray and Martha Jean Harris – Tennessee
- Met @ 12, married @ 19, married 65 years, died @ 84
- Both Christians involved in church – sang choir, taught Sunday school -Raised 3 kids
- She was sick, hospitalized He suddenly became sick, also hospitalized
- For 2 weeks – he was wheeled to her side & kept saying “I LOVE YOU” “
-On Monday, Charley who was talking and eating, went to say goodbye one last time to his middle school sweetheart when his own health took a turn for the worse. “I could see Daddy getting worse rapidly. He was chasing her,” said their son Richard. He chased her, right into heaven. “She was pronounced [deceased] and 42 minutes later Daddy joined her…holding hands.”“You know this is just conjecture of course, but it’s nice to think about that they held hands going through the gates,” their son Richard smiled.
= Funeral in same church they were married in. Buried together & will rise together
