Wed 7th Sept 2022 - Daily Reading:
Genesis 23
An Investment
Shortly after Isaac was born, Abraham agreed a treaty that would give him permanent access to water, essential for life itself, in the land God had told him would belong to his descendants.
Now, after Sarah’s death, Abraham purchases a burial site, not just for her, but for all of his people. In those times, it would have been normal for a person to be buried in the land of their origin. Abraham could have returned to Ur of the Chaldees to bury his wife, but instead he chose to bury her in Canaan. In doing so, he turned his back once and for all on the land God called him out of and made a commitment to this new land not only for himself, but for his descendants.
If Abraham had not bought this burial plot, he would have had to bury his wife in ‘foreign’ soil. Instead, he buried her in his own land, the land of his people. In fact, in future years, Abraham would join Sarah in this plot, as well as Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. Abraham’s two investments in land showed that, in life, and in death, his commitment to God’s promise was total.
Abraham was trusting God for a future that he would never see. This piece of land was a significant investment. Ephron appears to be very generous in his dealings with Abraham but, in fact, Abraham paid a very high price for this land. God had already told him that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years, but Abraham trusted that this land would belong to his descendants eventually, so he considered this investment worth the high price.
When we commit ourselves to service in the Kingdom of God, we commit ourselves to a story that we do not fully know, and that we might never see the ending of. Like Abraham, we invest now, for a return that others might benefit from, trusting that the God who never fails will keep his promises. Abraham may have paid a high price for this precious and symbolic piece of land, but he only gave out of the blessing that God have given to him in abundance. All we are is his, and all we have is from him. Let us invest it all into his Kingdom work.