Genesis 23:1

CHAPTER XXIII

The age and death of Sarah, 1, 2.

Abraham mourns for her, and requests a burial-place from the

sons of Heth, 24.

They freely offer him the choice of all their sepulchres, 5, 6.

Abraham refuses to receive any as a free gift, and requests

to buy the cave of Machpelah from Ephron, 7-9.

Ephron proffers the cave and the field in which it was situated

as a free gift unto Abraham, 10, 11.

Abraham insists on giving its value in money, 12, 13.

Ephron at last consents, and names the sum of four hundred

shekels, 14, 15.

Abraham weighs him the money in the presence of the people;

in consequence of which the cave, the whole field, trees, c.,

are made sure to him and his family for a possession, 16-18.

The transaction being completed, Sarah is buried in the cave, 19.

The sons of Heth ratify the bargain, 20.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXIII

Verse Genesis 23:1. And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old] It is worthy of remark that Sarah is the only woman in the sacred writings whose age, death, and burial are distinctly noted. And she has been deemed worthy of higher honour, for St. Paul, Galatians 4:22, makes her a type of the Church of Christ and her faith in the accomplishment of God's promise, that she should have a son, when all natural probabilities were against it, is particularly celebrated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 11:11. Sarah was about ninety-one years old when Isaac was born, and she lived thirty-six years after, and saw him grown up to man's estate. With SARAH the promise of the incarnation of Christ commenced, though a comparatively obscure prophecy of it had been delivered to Eve, Genesis 3:15; and with MARY it terminated, having had its exact completion. Thus God put more honour upon these two women than upon all the daughters of Eve besides. Sarah's conception of Isaac was supernatural; she had passed the age and circumstances in which it was possible, naturally speaking, to have a child; therefore she laughed when the promise was given, knowing that the thing was impossible, because it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women. God allows this natural impossibility, and grants that the thing must be the effect of Divine interposition; and therefore asks, Is any thing too hard for God? The physical impossibility was in creased in the case of Mary, she having no connection with man; but the same power interposed as in the case of Sarah: and we find that when all aptitude for natural procreation was gone, Sarah received strength to conceive seed, and bore a son, from whom, in a direct line, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, was to descend; and through this same power we find a virgin conceiving and bearing a son against all natural impossibilities. Every thing is supernatural in the births both of the type and antitype; can it be wondered at then, if the spiritual offspring of the Messiah must have a supernatural birth likewise? hence the propriety of that saying, Unless a man be born again-born from above-born, not only of water, but of the Holy Ghost, he cannot see the kingdom of God. These may appear hard sayings, and those who are little in the habit of considering spiritual things may exclaim, It is enthusiasm! Who can bear it? Such things cannot possibly be." To such persons I have only to say, God hath spoken. This is sufficient for those who credit his being and his Bible; nor is there any thing too hard for him. He, by whose almighty power, Sarah had strength to conceive and bear a son in her old age, and by whose miraculous interference a virgin conceived, and the man Christ Jesus was born of her, can by the same power transform the sinful soul, and cause it to bear the image of the heavenly as it has borne the image of the earthly.