Genesis 23:4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
How to Best Live of Earth
Some years ago I was preaching in a church out west. On Sunday morning between the Sunday School hour and the morning service, an older lady who had just had her 85th birthday that day came up to me and with bright eyes, and expression and said, “Brother Wil, guess how old I am?” Well, my momma didn’t raise no dummy. I didn’t give her an answer at first, and when she insisted, I guessed that she was 35. It is considered impolite by many to discuss a lady’s age.
But in Genesis 23 we find the unique mention of the age of Sarah and the description of her burial. This is the only place in the Bible where a lady’s age and details of a lady’s burial are mentioned. So, in Genesis 23, Sarah died, and Abraham mourned. She was 127, and they had been together for many years. The Bible goes on to tell us that Abraham bought a piece of property, a cave, from the sons of Heth, and said in verse 4, “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” The leader of this group sold him a place of burial.
Death is the reality that tempers life. No matter how long one lives, at the end there is death, should Christ tarry his coming. You will die. I will die. But there is an even larger reality that tempers death, and that is eternal life. Like Abraham, we are strangers on this earth, and the only possession we really have here is a place of burying because this world is not our home. We have another home, a better place. In Hebrews 11:13 it says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off.”
Abraham bought a piece of property that, in God’s sight, was already his, but he had seen these promises afar off. You see, faith is looking beyond what you can see to what God knows. These people were persuaded of the promises, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Hebrews 11:16 says, “But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
We should treasure every day on this earth and enjoy the pleasures of this life that God gives. But always remember that those who live the best on this earth are those who do not live for this earth and are preparing to live beyond it.