“AND Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.” vv. 1, 2. Abraham, at his wife’s death, was 137 years of age and Isaac 36.
There are two particular subjects of this chapter that merit the rear’s earnest consideration. The first of these is Abraham’s conduct before God and before worldly witnesses when confronted with death. There are indeed many things in this world that bring weeping and mourning and none is more sobering than death. It is recorded: “To everything there is a season... a time to be born, and a time to die;... a time to weep, and... a time to mourn.” Eccl. 3:1, 2, 41To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (Ecclesiastes 3:1‑2)
4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (Ecclesiastes 3:4). The child of God, in this respect, is no different from all around him and may at any moment find himself in this sad circumstance. Yet he has a sustaining comfort that the world knows nothing of. He well knows that “The sting of death is sin"; but he is also in the good of being able to say, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 15: 56, 57.
Sarah is named among those who “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off.” While her example of faith did not shine out as brightly as Abram’s, it was real nonetheless, and we may be sure that she came to the end of her years in full confidence that God had prepared a heavenly home for her. Sharing this same confidence, Abraham, although weeping could take an early place among those who “sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.” As an Old Testament child of God, this man of faith did not have the full knowledge of resurrection and eternal life that has since been revealed in the light of Christ’s work on Calvary. Yet he who had counted God able to raise up Isaac from the dead, could also look forward in faith at the time of his dear one’s departure from this life, knowing that God had prepared for His own “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” In view of this faith “Abraham stood up from before his dead.” Was this not a lovely tribute to the full trust and confidence of his faith in God’s abiding goodness? He did not remain prostrate in overwhelming grief but, his sorrow tempered by hope in God and the assurance of an eternal day before both Sarah and himself, he “rose up” before his dead, an expression, as it were, of the hope within him.
Do you, dear reader, have a hope beyond the grave, or is death a prospect of hopeless uncertainty for you? The fact of death cannot be ignored. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27). Nevertheless, Christ has taken the sinner’s place on the cross, and everyone who trusts Him as his Saviour can face death in calmness and peace, in assurance of the hope of resurrection and of entering that heavenly home prepared for those that love Him.
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