A Grave and a Wife

 Genesis 23-24

            Two things stand out in the story of the death of Sarah. The first is that Abraham is unwilling to receive land for a burial plot from the locals, described in this era as Hittites. Why not just take the gift? Two interrelated reasons: first, the land is going to be a gift from the Lord. That’s the promise, and Abraham seems to have finally learned that lesson. Second, to receive a gift from the locals would make Abraham beholden to the locals, obligated to them, and Abraham will not do that. (Remember Abraham is fabulously wealthy and powerful; it’s good to a guy like that in your debt!)

            The second thing that stands out is that, despite all appearances to the contrary, Ephron takes advantage of Abraham in his time of grief. Abraham wants the cave at the end of the field; Ephron offers the whole field. Abraham wants to buy the field; Ephron names a price that commentators widely recognize as exorbitant. The irony is that a man who was willing to talk God down from fifty righteous people to ten righteous people in the matter of Sodom is unwilling to negotiate as fiercely for himself. (I think there’s a lesson there for us: our intercession and concern for others should be fiercer than our intercession and concern for ourselves.)

            Isaac was 37 when Sarah died—and not yet married. In our day, that’s not so surprising, but it does explain Abraham’s urgency in sending for a wife for his son. Time is flying, after all. (Genesis 25:20 says Isaac was 40 when he got married.) The story of a wife for Isaac has a number of interesting points. One point is that it’s repetitious story: the action is recounted and the it’s recounted again. This is a common feature in the Old Testament, so it’s worth commenting on. It is a safe assumption that these stories circulated orally for a long time. (Moses, the writer of Genesis, lived a good 500 years after the events, after all.) Stories that are transmitted orally often repeat themselves as a memory aid. Frankly, repetition is common in the Old Testament because even after the stories were written down most people didn’t have access to printed texts; they only ever heard the stories read out loud.

            Another interesting point is the importance of marrying someone from one’s own people. Rebekah is Isaac’s first cousin once removed; his first cousin’s daughter. Today that strikes us as unseemly, but Abraham doesn’t want a local wife for Isaac, perhaps for religious and cultural reasons. Take a look at Genesis 26:34-35 and 28:6-9 for an insight into this phenomenon. This concern for marriage is another thing that we’ll be able to track through the Old Testament.

            Finally, on a personal note, observe Genesis 24:66-67. There’s a hint there that we’re not supposed to think of Isaac as a particularly strong man. He’s portrayed as perhaps overly sensitive and a little weak, which may explain how things unfold between his sons (see chapter 27-28.)