I always find the start of this Torah portion ackward. It is the “life of Sarah”, and then the passage starts by telling us she is dead…Yes, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen, she will have no speaking parts in this Bible passage. She has left the building.
However, we do find one item of note in that. First, she is the only female who’s age is mentioned when she dies in the Bible. With men, this happens all the time, but only this one time for any women.
Next, we find the very first “invasion” of the promised land. Abraham actually owes a small piece of the promised land. Granted, it was a for a tomb, but it was still a piece of ownership. Amazingly enough, this place is still in existence. You can know a bit more about the Tomb of the Patriarchs by going to:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/hebron-tombs-of-the-patriarchs.htm
A photo from the Cenotaph of Sarah. It’s really more of a monument, their actual bones are believed to be buried in a subterranean cavern under the complex.
Any rate, the section starts off with Sarah dying, which seems at first a bit silly that we start a section of the life of Sarah with her death, but then one has to think a moment. Generally, we don’t reflect significantly on one’s life until their death. We don’t read biographies on average people until we read them in their paper in a section called “obituary”. It is at that point in time that one’s life is complete. It is at that point that people are no longer keeping the same secrets. Generally, at that point a lot (but not always all) old sins and grievances are forgiven. We tend to put a positive twist on someone’s life, in part, I think because we hope others will look to us with the same kind of gracious posture when we are gone.
So, we have the life of Sarah, and the longer picture of her life is seen through the life of her son, Isaac.
The basic chronology of the passage is as follows:
1. Death of Sarah and the purchase of the field Ephron.
2. Abraham gets his elder servant to go find a wife from among his own people.
3. The servant’s adventure in finding Rebecca.
4. Isaac and Rebecca are married.
5. Concluding comments and the death of Abraham.
Much has been written about Abraham and buying a field while grieving for his wife and how he paid way too much for this field. Even though I have been a financial advisor, I am going to avoid the temptation to write on this story.
I did receive an email this week from a rabbi talking about how this passage among others is a good argument for “not cremating” a body at death. This is not found in Scripture and “burning bodies” is generally only associated with idol worship.
There is also the passage (Gen 25:1) which I must confess has some personal importance to me. Abraham had another wife, that we know almost nothing about. He had several children that we know very little about. I ran across this passage years ago, and found it a bit amazing.
Although most people will know that I am not particularly emotional or led by charismatic visions, I have had a few. One of these was while I was in Bible college (actually Seminary). I was praying and felt distinctly that God was calling me a son of Abraham. As you can imagine, I was honoured with such a title. I had suspected this as a statement in the New Testament context when Jesus referred to a person who believed in him (having faith) as being a true son of Abraham. Just for the record, I didn’t think, nor do I think now that I am gifted with an unusual gift of Faith. I am like any other follower of the Messiah, stumbling around and wishing that God would speak more clearly, or that I would be able to understand more clearly what God is doing.
Any rate, I found this passage while studying for a Sunday School class I was teaching, and fell in love with it. There were children of Abraham who we know almost nothing about. We know about Ishmael (the father of the Muslim nations). We know about Isaac (or at least I thought I understood about Isaac), the founder of the Jewish nation (actually the father of the Children of Israel, but at the time I heard these two expressions as identical). I knew I wasn’t a Jew, now was I from Muslim stock. I was a paste white (sometimes called ghostly white) European. So, I knew that I was not genetically related to Abraham, until I saw these children.
I confided this to one brother (former Mennonite pastor) almost 9 years ago. I mentioned this communication from God and how that inspired me, and then how in Genesis, we find that there were other children of Abraham and maybe I really am one of them. He introduced me to an understanding of the “Two House” concept. That, among the kingdom of God there are many who are children of Abraham (Children of Israel) who have been scattered among the nations and the prophecy is that they would someday return. Supposed Gentiles, who will one day return to the faith of their “Fathers” (Abraham means Father). This was revolutionary to me, and sent me on a serious study path, and eventually to try to settle this question a DNA test, to find that, yes, we may very well be “Children of Abraham” in the spiritual sense and in the physical sense.
However, the part of this story that I really wanted to capture is the whole idea of setting a test for God to show His will. This is an awkward story. We have the Senior servant of Abraham with an amazing assignment. He’s going to go someplace where he knows no one (supposedly), and announce that Abraham (who people may or may not even remember) has had a son and needs a wife, and he’s going to convince her that she should leave everything for this “mysterious son”. The wedding is site unseen. She doesn’t even know if he’s a monster, but this young lady is going to trust someone she just met with one of the most important decisions of her life. Let us not forget as well, that the servant also has to use his “best judgement” to find a wife for his master’s son. How does he know he hasn’t bumped into a bridezilla?
To be honest, the task is really impossible. Can you imagine doing this in today’s age? How much more so in a world where women were not held in the same regard, where mobility (leaving a bad husband) would be almost impossible?
Yet, this is the servant’s task.
So, he arrives at the town, and of course, has no one to meet him. He goes to the well. I guess it would be a place you might bump into a young lady, and he seeks a sign from God.
The servant is there with multiple servants (Gen 24:23, and 54) we don’t know how many, but they are standing around the well, and the servant asks for someone who would give him a drink and offer to water all the camels as well. I don’t have a reference to how many camels were there. The Rabbis I have heard generally tell me 10. They always have an answer whether one can find it in the text or not.
There is also an interesting item about the water. Although the text in Hebrew says that she “drew it out for the camels”. It actually has a different phrase when she gets water the water for the servant. This is the way the KJV reads:
Gen 24:16 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her. And she went down to the fountain, and filled her pitcher, and came up.
It is this phrase “and came up” which is a bit difficult to tag. In the Talmid, it is believed that it was not Rebecca that came up (as our English reads) but the water itself that came up. If this reading is more correct, then we have the servant watching a miracle as the water bubbles up to refresh the servant. She did have to draw the water up for the camels, but there is definitely different wording about the water for the men.
Gen 24:20 And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw, and drew for all his camels.
My Hebrew is not good enough to comment as to whether I agree with the Rabbis or not, but it is easy to see that different words are used.
Now back to the idea of seeking a “sign from God”. Most of the Christian community today is not fond of the idea. It is what Gideon did to know with certainty the will of God. The children of Israel used this during the temple age, it was called the Urim and Thummim. It is what the disciples did when they replaced the office that Judas held (Ac 1:26). Some may argue that this sort of decision making was something prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit. That would be true. Yet, the reason for this is when a decision had to be made. We need information from God and we want clarity. This action was taken.
What about today? Do we ever find ourselves in a position where we lack clarity. Is there ever a time when an action has to be taken (or not taken) and no one has a clear sense of God’s leading? Why not seek a sign? Why not cast lots, throw dice, draw straws, flip a coin, or whatever.
We do believe in God’s desire to communicate his will to us. We are his servants. We have gotten used to acting based on “I feel” God’s will is such and such. If this works out, then we can say, well obviously we were following the will of God. That may or may not be true. Following God’s will is not a matter of whether it worked out or not. Maybe God intended something which on the surface would look like a failure, but would teach some incredible truth. God has done things like that. Also, what if the decision doesn’t look like it works out. Many things in my life have not worked out. Does this mean we did not hear the will of God? Does this mean we are false prophets? Does this set a crisis of faith? In truth for many people it does exactly that. I have many pastors confide with me their struggle when they had convinced themselves that they had “God’s blessing” and in fact they were chasing their own vanity.
Not that I am proposing this for every decision, but I think there are times when we should pray for God to lead through a clear “sign”, make sure there is no room for misinterpretation, and then wait…get the sign… and then act (no questioning, no turning back). I sincerely believe there is a lot more Biblical basis for this then a democratic voting system that we have decided the will of God from in most of the churches I have attended.
A dear brother of mine (Dr. Carl Hinderager) was asked about the possibility of using this sort of “sign seeking” to know direction, and he paused a moment and looked thoughtful and then said, “if it was me, I would pray that the sign would be given from my parents. I would ask God to give direction from my parents. I would commit that to prayer and then when ready call them and ask the question you are struggling with. Whatever advice they say, you accept this as God’s will. The reason for this is two fold. First, you would be seeking a sign and getting the signal, but second, you would be obeying one of the commandments “Children obey your parent’s in the Lord for this is right.” I thought that was a fair counsel on the question.
Shabbot Tov (or in English, Have a Good Sabbath “Saturday”)
