A Small Piece of Real Estate

I have a memory from my childhood, a very vague memory, that became important a few months ago. I remember my parents telling us that they had bought plots in a local cemetery where they would one day be buried. I thought it strange that they would buy anything like that, or even know ahead of time where they should be buried.

On Dec. 31, 2009, my father passed away at the age of 84. Nearly five years before, my mother had preceded him. She was 75 years old. Though their funerals were held in different churches, it was a short drive from each of them to the cemetery where they had provided burial places for themselves years before.

My husband and I are as old, or not far from it, as my parents were when they purchased their burial plots. But we have no such plans. Indianapolis does not feel like home to us. That is nothing against Indianapolis. It’s perfectly fine, as far as cities go, I guess. We have lived here for not quite eleven years, the longest we have ever lived anywhere since we were married nearly 24 years ago, but have very little family in the area. If we live to be a ripe old age, we will probably not end our days in this city, and probably won’t be buried here. We don’t know where we’ll be, so we cannot make that kind of provision for ourselves.

In this, we are more like Abraham. Abraham traveled far and wide in his lifetime. The writer to the Hebrews in the New Testament tells us he obeyed God and went by faith, without knowing where he was going. Since he didn’t know where he was going to settle, he didn’t buy a place to be buried. He was a sojourner, and I know how that feels.

But when he was 137 years old, and Isaac was 37 years old, Sarah died. She was 127 years old, the only woman in the Bible whose age at death is given. Some feminists probably wouldn’t like that bit of Biblical trivia, that men’s ages are often given but a woman’s only this once, but my response is that God can give us or withhold from us any details He wants to, and he doesn’t need anyone’s permission or input in the matter of editorial choices.

So now Abraham had to have a place to bury her. And the Bible gives us a fascinatingly detailed account of the process Abraham went through to purchase one. It shows an interesting picture of the process of purchasing land in the ancient Middle East. It’s not the dull, humdrum process of a thousand papers written in legalese to sign that buying a piece of real estate would be here, in this day and age.

This is my linguistically updated version of the proceedings:

Abraham went to the city gates of an unnamed Hittite city, where people of that city gathered to do business. He got straight to the point. “I am a foreigner, and I need to buy a place to use as a family burial plot.”

“Sure,” someone answered. “You may be a foreigner, but you are actually a mighty prince among us. No one will refuse you. You can bury your wife wherever you want.”

“Then please ask Ephron son of Zohar to sell me the Cave of Machpelah, at the end of his field. Let him know I’m willing to pay the entire purchase price for the cave.”

According to some of the commentaries, and this idea makes sense to me, Abraham knew who the cave belonged to, but didn’t know the man himself, and so didn’t know he was even there at the gates. Others suggest it was a show of politeness that he asked the others to make the request for him, showing himself to humble to make the request himself. But anyway, Ephron was there and heard the request, so no one had to carry it to him. Ephron answered. “In the presence of these witnesses I make a gift to you not only of the cave, but also of the field and all the trees in the field.”

“I’ll be happy to pay the full price for the field.” Abraham was well aware that Ephron didn’t really mean it was a gift, and this was the correct response.

“It’s worth 400 shekels of silver. Between you and me, that’s nothing. Just go ahead and bury your wife there.”

“Sold. Bring out the scales and let’s start weighing silver.” The commentaries I am using are old enough to be public domain, so even though some of them gave what was for them current monetary equivalents of 400 shekels of silver, I couldn’t find one I could trust as accurate in the present, so I don’t know how much 400 shekels of silver in Abraham’s time is worth today, an interesting bit of trivia this blog will have to do without.

And so Abraham legally purchased the only piece of property he ever purchased in the land he had been promised by God. When he was buried there himself some years later, he still had no other property. Ten chapters earlier, we read this promise that God had given Abraham: “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever (Genesis 13:14-15).” Did God break a promise? Certainly not. God is eternal, and He had every intention of keeping His promise and He did keep it. The Israelites live there today. The ancient Cave of Macpelah is modern Israel. Hebrews 11:39 says that Abraham wasn’t the only person who would die before the thing God had promised them took place: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.” God sees from an eternal perspective. I’m sure that Abraham, now in heaven, does not feel that he was wronged that he did not see what he was promised take place in his day. He did receive everything God had promised him, since his spirit is still living in heaven. His descendants received on earth everything that was promised.

In Revelation, Jesus tells the church in Smyrna “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).” We don’t get that crown while we are still alive.