25 DEATH OF ABRAHAM

Abraham lived, after the marriage of Isaac, thirty-five more years, and all that is recorded about his life during that time is here in a very few verses. We read nothing else of any extraordinary appearances from God or earthly trials he faced. For even of the best and greatest of us, some of our years slide by silently. Nothing spectacular that God wanted us to know about happened during Abraham’s later years and that alone may comfort us if we are disappointed after looking for more high adventure or unique and special actions of God than He plans to give us. Ordinary times are okay too. Abraham plodded faithfully on and so will we.

After the death and burial of his wife, Sarah, and the marriage of his son Isaac, Abraham was now alone. Naturally he might well have become lonely. We next read an account of his children by Keturah, another wife whom he married after the death of Sarah. Maybe he wanted a companion, a nurse, his household needed a woman of the house, and it was neither good nor necessary for him to live alone. He did not send his servant to Paddan Aram to find a wife for himself as he had done for Isaac. He would not be influenced negatively by marrying someone in his household anyway. He therefore marries Keturah, possibly someone among his household or bought with money. He had trained his household in the ways of godliness as indicated by the conversation with the angels earlier. Genesis 18:19 says, “. . . he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord . . .” Marriage is not forbidden to people of old age. By Keturah he had six sons and each of them had good increase as the sons of Abraham of whom God had said he would be the father of nations. That may even be why he married again. The promise of God was like a beacon leading him in personal decisions. That is why God gives us promise. Promises are a kind of prophesy which, if we believe, work and pray for their fulfillment, are fulfilled even though God can work alone for their fulfillment when necessary.

So that Isaac would have no competition and no one would doubt but that Isaac was the chief heir of Abraham, Isaac was given his father’s estate though the other sons of Abraham received gifts too. Verses 5 & 6  say, “Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.” He set his house in order, with prudence and justice. He made Isaac his heir, as he was bound to do, in justice to Sarah his first and principal wife, and to Rebekah who married Isaac understanding that Isaac was the heir. Genesis 24:36 records what Abraham’s servant clearly had said, “My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns.”

In this “all,” which he gave to Isaac, are perhaps included the promise of the land of Canaan, and the essential elements of Abraham’s covenant with God. Or, God having already made him the heir of the spiritual promise, Abraham therefore made him heir of his physical estate. Our affections and gifts should mimic God’s. He gave portions to the rest of his children, both to Ishmael, though at first he was sent away empty, and then later to his sons by Keturah. It was justice to provide for them; parents that do not imitate him in this are worse than unbelievers. It was wise to settle them in places distant from Isaac, that they might not pretend to divide the inheritance with him, nor be in any way a care or expense to him.

Abraham did this while he was still alive, lest it should not be done, or not so well done, afterwards. In many cases it is wisdom for men to make themselves their own executors, and what they find to do to do it while they live, as far as they can. These sons of the concubines were sent into the country that lay east from Canaan, and their posterity were called the children of the east, famous for their numbers. A part of them became identified as the Midianites, descendants of Midian the fourth son of Abraham and Keturah. Their great increase was the fruit of the promise made to Abraham, that God would multiply his descendants. To draw a spiritual lesson from this we may notice that God, in giving away His blessings, does as Abraham did; common blessings He gives to the children of this world, as to the sons of the bond-woman, but spiritual-blessings He reserves for the heirs of promise. All that He has is theirs, for they are His Isaacs, from whom the rest shall be for ever separated.

Abraham lived 175 years, just 100 years more after he had come to Canaan. Abraham was a traveler in a strange country for 100 years. Though he lived long and well and though he did good, yet he died at last. We may well assume that his life was not demanded of him, but he cheerfully resigned it into the hands of the Father of spirits to Whom he committed his spirit. He “died at a good old age, an old man and full of years” (8), as God had promised him. His death was his discharge from the burdens of his age: an old man would not desire to live on and on as an old man—to live always. His age was the crown of the glory of his old age. He was full of years, or we could as readily say he was full of life. We might also say that he did not live until the world was weary of him, but only until he was weary of the world; he had had enough of it and desired no more. He could easily say “I have lived long enough.” A good man, though he should not die old, dies full of days, satisfied with living here, and longing to live in a better place. He was gathered to his people. His body was gathered to the congregation of the dead, and his soul to the congregation of the blessed. Death gathers us to our people. Everyone should seriously consider the kind of crowd to which the dying will be gathered. We will be gathered to those that are our people while we live, whether the people of God or the children of this world, they are the people to whom death will gather us. We choose the crowd we live with on earth and they end up becoming the ones with whom we will be gathered in death.

Genesis 25:9&10 tell us briefly about the death and burial of Abraham. Nothing is recorded of any pomp or ceremony of his funeral, only that his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried their good father. “His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelahnear Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah.” I can imagine that in growing up the two brothers had enjoyable childhood memories of being together in the same household. Nevertheless, an unknown amount of emotional distance also probably developed between Isaac and Ishmael since their two different mothers did not get along well with each other. Either Abraham himself brought them together while he lived, or at least his death reconciled them.

They buried him in his own burying-place, which he had purchased, and in which he had buried Sarah. Persons that in life have been very dear to each other may perfectly understandably desire to be buried together. Some symbolism of lives spent together, along with the hope of also being raised together, could easily be drawn from their dead bodies resting in close proximity.

Immediately after the account of Abraham’s death, Moses begins the story of Isaac, with Genesis 25:11, “After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.” Moses tells us where he dwelt and how remarkably God blessed him. The blessing of Abraham did not die with him, but survived to all the children of the promise. Moses also briefly tells the story of Ishmael in seven verses which are outside the perimeters of this study of the four patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. We move past those verses 12 - 18 to pick up the story of Isaac again in verse 19.

We already know two important things about Isaac just from having read about Abraham and his treatment of his son. Firstly, Isaac was submissive even to being sacrificed as a burnt offering by his father. He, a strong youth, could have, but did not, resist his older, weaker father. Surely this is a clear enough indication of an amazing characteristic of Isaac’s. Secondly, he was a man of prayer. When Rebekah arrived on her camel, Isaac was walking in the field meditating—praying. He evidently was not merely waiting for the family servant to return, hopefully with a wife for him, but he was actively waiting upon God. We should learn to not just wait, but to wait upon God. These are two good indications of his godly character we know from the story of Abraham, submission and prayerfulness.

Next we read an interesting story of the birth of Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Their entrance into the world was not usual and is one of the most thought-provoking parts of their story. Not so much is related concerning Isaac but what had connected him to his father while he lived and then also to his sons afterwards. Isaac seems not to have been a man of great actions, neither tested as much as his father Abraham nor his son Jacob, but, by comparison, seems to have spent his days in quietness and silence. Isaac’s wisdom in dealing later with Abimelek concerning the wells is a notable exception and has several very rich lessons for leaders. We will look at that in a later teaching.  Now let’s look at Jacob and Esau.

Jacob and Esau’s parents, after they had been long childless, obtained them by prayer. Genesis 25:20 says, “Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah.” He was an only and uniquely special son, and possibly because he was the person through whom the promised seed was to come, he did not want to marry hurriedly, carelessly or thoughtlessly. Twenty years after his own marriage, now at age sixty, his sons were born. Genesis 25:26 says, “After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.”

Though the accomplishment of God’s promise is always sure, yet it is often slow, and sometime seems to be contradicted even by God’s own actions. As we view the way God works this seems to be the case so that the faith of believers may be tried, their patience exercised, and mercies long awaited may be the more welcome when they finally come. While this mercy was delayed, Isaac did not approach to a handmaid’s bed, as Abraham had done and Jacob afterwards does for Isaac loved Rebekah. Of Rebekah it was written “So she became his wife, and he loved her” Consistent with his being a man of prayer, when Rebekah couldn’t conceive, Isaac prayed; he entreated the Lord for his wife. Though God had promised to multiply his family, he had to pray for its increase. God’s promises if believed are able to encourage our prayers and solidify the ground of our faith. Though he had prayed for this mercy very often, and had continued his supplication many years—supposedly almost twenty years—and it was not granted, yet he did not stop praying for it. Luke 18:1 was not written yet, but Isaac practiced it. “. . . . for men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” We can see him praying without ceasing, and knocking until the door is opened. Let us assume that he prayed for his wife as well as with his wife.

A tradition lives among some Jews that Isaac, at length, took his wife with him to mount Moriah to the very place that Abraham had almost sacrificed him, where also the Lord said to Abraham, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies . . .” (Genesis 22:17) and there, in his prayer with and for her, pleaded the promise made in that very place. God heard his prayer and was entreated of him. And one of the two children God gave this couple, Jacob, subsequently himself became a great man of prayer. Children are the gift of God. Whether Isaac’s prayer was actually on Mount Moriah or not, is not certain, but it is certain that he prayed, God answered and two sons were born. Assuming that Isaac and Rebekah did not originally expect twins, they received twice as many as he probably asked for; he prayed for a child and God gave him children.

Abraham’s later thirty-five years were quiet. Isaac was a patient man of prayer and at long last God gave him two children; not just one. God know how to answer better than we know how to pray.