The Book of Genesis
Part 45
Chapter 25:5-10
The closing days of Abraham the Patriarch were not much different from the closing days of many another believing pilgrim. He did not know the clear revelation of the New Testament, notwithstanding his faith and hope were in God.
Like Job, Abraham could say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God: Whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me” (Job 19:26-27).
Eliphaz the Temanite in propounding to Job his philosophy of life, tells him, that at the close of his days he may go down to the grave in a full age, like a shock of corn entering in his season. What a fit picture of resurrection!
Let us notice four important features of the close of Abraham’s life, especially in the days immediately before his death.
His Expectation
The writer of the Hebrew Epistle states of Abraham, “He sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promises: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (11:9-10).
Had he been mindful of the country he had left, surely he might have returned to it, but he desired a better country, that is an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called his God, the God of Abraham.
Hope has been defined as an earnest desire mingled with a confident expectation. Such a hope strengthened Abraham for the final crisis of life.
His Preparation
In view of his death there were certain important matters which demanded Abraham’s attention. The Patriarch faced death courageously, and as was the custom in ancient times, pronounced a paternal blessing upon his children, and allotted to each his portion of the estate. Frequently, these blessings were prophectic, as is obvious in the blessings of Jacob upon his sons (Gen. 49:1-28). They also contain charges, commands, and instructions (Gen. 49:29-33).
In modern times it is not the custom to wait until the end is near to transact such important business. Responsible persons occasionally have their last will and testament completed while they are still strong and healthy. This should be no problem to the Christian, for he can face death with assurance and hope. It is well to remember that the making of a will may save the breaking of a heart. Moreover, to make a will does not in any wise hasten death. We must ever remember that “Our times are in His hands.”
Abraham gave gifts to his sons, the children of his concubines, but to Isaac he gave all his estate. The Bedaween of Arabia still follow the practices of Abraham. When their children are grown up, they give each of the younger sons his share of the goods (Luke 15:12), whereupon they move to a distance, and leave the eldest brother in quiet possession of the home.
His Demise
The divine obituary is brief: “Those are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.”
Since Abraham was one hundred and seventy-five years old when he died, Isaac would be seventy-five at the death of his father. Esau and Jacob were born when their father, Isaac, was sixty years of age; consequently, they would be fifteen at Abraham’s death, and without doubt were with him and received his blessing.
Thus ended the pilgrimage of the father of the faithful. He had been among the men of the land, but not of them. His altar and tent had been the symbol of his relationship to this earth. He refused to be a debtor to the men among whom he lived, but they were enriched spiritually by their contact with him.
His Burial
Isaac and Ishmael, at least for a short time, forgot their personal enmity and met at their father’s grave.
Of both the Old Testament and the New Testament saints it is said, that in death they fell asleep (Acts 7:60; 13:36).
For the believer the bitterness of death has been removed through the triumph of Christ over death and the grave. Declared the Lord Jesus, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev. 1:18).
Not only does Scripture describe death as a sleep, but it likewise describes a burial as the planting of a precious seed, “It (the body) is sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:42).
Furthermore, the figurative language of the Word of God treats the resurrection as an awakening from sleep, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).
In the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, lie the remains of both Abraham and Sarah awaiting the Resurrection of Life when “in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits: afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:22-23).