Summary of passage: God calls Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac as a burnt offering in the mountains of Moriah. So Abraham faithfully takes Isaac to where God calls him, bounds his son, and prepares to kill him. On the journey, Abraham tells Isaac that God will provide the burnt offering.
An angel of the Lord stopped Abraham before he killed Isaac, saying he has proved he fears God because he didn’t withhold his son from Him. God provided a ram instead to sacrifice. The angel says because of Abraham’s faithfulness the Lord will bless him and make his descendants as numerous as the stars and will rule over the cities of their enemies.
All nations on earth will be blessed because of Abraham’s obedience. Then Abraham went to Beersheba.
Sarah lived to be 127 years old. She died in Hebron. Abraham offered to buy a burial plot from the Hittites and they told him he could pick any plot to bury her in. He approached Ephron and offered to buy his cave. Ephron offered to give it to Abraham. Abraham refused and offered to pay for the land. Ephron reluctantly agrees and the land is deeded to Abraham.
Abraham then buries Sarah.
Questions:
11a) Honestly, I wouldn’t connect the two if you hadn’t of told me to. In Abraham’s mind, he has sacrificed Isaac. His mind was tested and he knew what God’s will was. He offered Isaac’s body as an act of worship.
b) Being a living sacrifice is denying ourself and being God’s instead. We yield our body, mind, and will to God. It’s reading the Bible instead of watching TV. It’s helping others instead of ourselves. It’s giving of our time and money when we’d rather not. It’s changing your poor attitude, giving up destructive addictions, and changing your thinking to be more in tune with Christ’s.
It is a daily death to self. We must understand and know the will of God and walk that path every day. We must change our thoughts by obeying God and God’s word and in turn our hearts will change as well. We must find God’s will for our life and live it and go where HE directs, not where you direct.
c) Personal Question. My answer: Today I will do my utmost to listen and obey Him and His will for my life. That includes teaching my children, taking care of my family, doing laundry and dishes, and loving others as myself. I will try to live and breathe Him as much as humanly possible and at the end of the day hopefully I will find rest in what I have done, which I did for Him, through Him and by Him AND according to His will. Amen.
12a) On the surface, he purchased it as a place to bury Sarah. But really he purchased it to set a precedent of an alien owning land in Canaan. As a landowner in ancient times, you were accorded certain rights others were not. Now, Abraham could claim those rights.
b) God promised Abraham he would take possession of Canaan and Abraham now owns a piece of it.
c) Personal Question. My answer: Good question. God promises to provide for all of my needs and He has. I purchase food, clothing, and shelter. We also own cars to transport us to do His work and care for others. He also has given more.
Conclusions: I couldn’t help the flippancy in 11a but my haunches raised when I’m told to read a passage and then told to go somewhere else.
I’m conflicted on this lesson as well like yesterday’s. It was interesting how Abraham used Sarah’s death as a means to own land. Not sure if I approve of this. I did like the living sacrifice example. It brought out the importance of obeying God not only in word and deed but also in heart and mind.
The exchange between Ephron and Abraham is an example of how bargaining was done in that time and in that culture. Ephron had no intention of giving Abraham the land but that is how the bargaining started off. Kindness took precedent and is still predominant in the Middle East today when bargaining.
I liked this concise article on living sacrifices enough to link to it despite the overpowering presence of ads:
http://www.abideinchrist.com/selah/mar27.html
Fun Fact: Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose age when she died is recorded.