The Death of a Princess, Part 1

Our text this morning is Genesis chapter 23, as we slowly but surely make our way through the book of beginnings. It's a fascinating study. But before we read Genesis 23, I want to draw your attention to a passage of scripture in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, which reads as follows, verse number 1. There is an appointed time for everything, and there is a time for every event under heaven. The Bible says that there is an appointed time for everything.

That means that you are here this morning by divine appointments. You are not here this morning because you woke up and decided you thought you'd go to church today. You are here by divine appointments. And the text says there is a time for every event under heaven. That means that everything that happens under heaven happens by divine appointment. Nothing happens by chance, nothing happens by coincidence, and nothing happens by accident. Everything happens by divine appointments. And then the Bible says this, Ecclesiastes 3, verse number 2.

A time to give birth and a time to die. Solomon says that your birth was a divine appointment. He says that your death is a divine appointment. And it amazes me how many times we as people think that we control birth and death. We have things like mercy killing, abortion, birth control, as if we are in control of anything. But somehow we we think that we can determine our destiny based on our decisions, based on our actions, based on our intellect. But the Bible is very clear. There is an appointment for every event under heaven.

And the very first thing that Solomon says is by divine appointment is your birth as well as your death.

Think about that for a moment. Nobody dies by accident. Everybody dies by divine appointment. In fact, the Bible says in Revelation 1, verse number 18, that Christ holds the keys to death.

That means he controls death. Death. The study of thanatology. Put that in your doctrinal creed. The study of thanatology. The word death used over 900 times in the Old Testament, over 400 times in the New Testament, over 1,300 times the Bible speaks about death. We don't like to talk about death, do we? We like to focus on it. Some people don't even like to watch movies about death. And yet the Bible says in Philippians 4, verse number 8, that we are to think, our mind is to dwell on everything, number one, that is true.

So that means that because life and death are true, the Bible says Hebrews 9, verse 27, it is appointed unto man who wants to die.

That's a truth. And so the Bible says we are to let our mind dwell on truthful things. That means our mind should dwell upon death. And yet we find ourselves falling away from that. We don't want to think about death. It's a nasty thing. It's a cruel thing. It's our enemy. Yet the Bible says something completely different.

It's a divine appointment. And therefore we need to dwell upon it. In fact, you know, no one here that I know of ever asked to be born. Did you ask to be born? No. No one asks to be born. Why are you born? You're born because God in the sovereign plan determined your birth. He determined where you would be born. He determined who your parents would be. He determined everything about your life because your life is a divine appointment. And so is your death. No one really ever asks to die. Your death, even Timothy McVeigh's execution was a divine appointment.

Oh, we think that he chose a day in which he would be executed or the courts decided which day he would be executed, but they did not. God in a sovereign plan decided the day in which Timothy McVeigh would die. See that? We need to understand that because today we're going to witness the first grave recorded in the Bible.

We're going to look at the death of a princess. That's what Sarah's name means, princess. And isn't it ironic that there's a whole chapter devoted to Sarah's death and burial. It's an amazing thing because there are some very significant truths recorded in this chapter that somehow we need to be able to grasp. Somehow we need to be able to comprehend that we might understand more about life and death and what God has for us. In fact, the Bible says this later on in the book of Ecclesiastes.

It says a good name is better than a good ointment, a good perfume. A good name is better than that which smells good. Why? Because when you put your cologne on this morning, you know that it's gonna fade away after a while. If you got a cheap perfume, it's probably already gone by now.

The smell's gone and we just smell your regular body odor. But if you got a good one, a real expensive one, it's gonna last you a couple hours longer than the cheap one does. But a good name is better than a good ointment or a good perfume because your good name has the potential to last forever. In fact, the Bible says over in Psalm 112 verse number 6, the righteous will be remembered forever.

In Proverbs 22 verse number 1 says a good name is more desired than great riches. A good name referring to the character of one individual. And then it says this in verse number 1 of Ecclesiastes 7, the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. Now, your birth according to Solomon in chapter 3 was a divine appointment and your death is a divine appointment. But he says your death day is better than your birthday. In fact, you have from your birthday until your death day to develop a good name.

A good name. A name of character. A name of quality. Everybody has two names. One your parents gave you and one your peers give you. Sometimes the name your peers give you is not the same as your parents give you but everybody has at least two names. But a good name is desired above great riches. A good name is better than a good perfume, a good ointment. And you have from your birthday to your death day to develop that good name. Sarah and Abraham had a good name. The father of our faith. The mother of our faith.

And the lives that these two people lived is better than a good perfume or a good ointment. Why? Because their names have lasted forever. They have lasted until this very day. They have been recorded in the Scriptures. And we were not able to observe Sarah's birthday but we are able to observe Sarah's death day. And it won't be too long from here that we will observe Abraham's death day. Isn't it amazing that the Lord would spend time recording the significant events around the death of Abraham and Sarah?

I think it is. As we examine Genesis chapter 23, we're gonna look at the death of a princess. We're gonna look at her life very briefly.

Then we're gonna look at her lover, that's Abraham. And then we're going to look at her legacy and ask ourselves the question, what legacy will we leave behind on our death day?

Let's look at it together. Genesis chapter 23. We'll begin reading verse number one. Now Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. Sarah died in Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron in the land of Canaan. Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Then Abraham rose from before his dead and spoke to the sons of Heth saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner among you. Give me a burial site among you that I might bury my dead out of my sight. And the sons of Heth answered Abraham saying to him, hear us my lord you are a mighty prince among us.

Bury your dead in the choicest of graves. None of us will refuse you this grave or his grave for burying your dead. So Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. He spoke with them saying, if it is your wish for me to bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and approach Ephron the son of Zoar for me. That he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site. Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth.

Even of all who went in at the gate of the city saying, no my lord hear me. I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it in the presence of the sons of my people. I give it to you, bury your dead. And Abraham bowed before the people of the land. They spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land saying, if you will only please listen to me I will give you the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there. Then Ephron answered Abraham saying to him, my lord listen to me a piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver.

What is that between me and you? So bury your dead. And Abraham listened to Ephron and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth 400 shekels of silver. Commercial standard. So Ephron's field which was in Machpelah which faced Mamre, the field and cave which was in it and all the trees which are in the field that were within all the confines of its border were deeded over to Abraham for possession in the presence of the sons of Heth before all who went in at the gate of a city.

And after this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre that is Hebron, the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded over to Abraham for a burial site by the sons of Heth. This is a very important passage of scripture even today as we speak and I'll explain a little bit more about that to you in a moment but it has to do with Abraham's purchasing of the place which is called today Hebron. And so as you look at this text today the death of a princess first of all her life.

Two things I want you to notice about the life of Sarah number one is her faith number two is her faults.

First of all her faith Sarah was a woman of great interest, great inspiration, great insight. She had an incredible testimony for the Lord because of the marvelous grace that he bestowed upon her and of course Abraham as we began to examine their lives in Genesis chapter 12. The woman became a mother of the nation of Israel. She was the first Hebrewess.

Abraham was the first Hebrew. He was the father of the Jewish nation. Sarah was the mother of the Jewish nation. These two became pivotal figures in the land of Israel. She is the most important female in the of the world. More important than Eve, more important than Mary is Sarah the wife of Abraham. It says over in Genesis chapter 12 these words turn back there with me if you would for a moment Genesis chapter 12 verse number 5. And Abraham took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all their possessions which they had accumulated and the persons which they had acquired in Haran and they set out for the land of Canaan thus they came to the land of Canaan.

Together according to Genesis chapter 11 they both left Ur of the Chaldees together. They took this pilgrimage together. It was husband and wife. It was man and woman. It was Abraham and Sarah. Little did they know what God had in store for them when God called them. Little did they understand the magnitude of their lives on how it would impact the world even today. But here they were journeying to a land that they did not know where they were going because God didn't immediately tell them. He just said it's time for you to go to a land in which I'm going to show you.

So Abraham and Sarah would leave their family. They would leave the land of familiarity. They would leave the place they grew up in to do what God had called them to do. If you read Hebrews chapter 11 you realize that Sarah's name was in the Hall of Faith. In fact there are only two women mentioned in the Hall of Faith. You know who they are? Sarah and Rahab. That's it. Only two women specifically named in the Hall of Faith. It references many women in terms of who they represent but it only specifically mentions two women Sarah and Rahab.

She was a woman of great faith. Peter named her as a good example for Christian women to follow in 1st Peter chapter 3. Paul would use Sarah as an example of the grace of God in Galatians chapter 4. Why? Because she was a woman of great faith. Ladies if you were to die today would you remember because of your great faith? Would you be remembered because you lived a life of trusting obedience? A life dependent upon the power of God, the person of God, and the plan of God? Would you be a woman that your children look to as a stalwart of faith?

Someone to look up to and say I want to I want to walk with my God as my mother walked with her God. Sarah was a woman of of great faith and God used her in a mighty way but in spite of her faith she had a few faults didn't she? We've had a chance to look at those just like you.

You have a few faults don't you? The only difference is is that God recorded Sarah's faults so we could all read them. Your faults are not recorded anywhere unless your husband's keeping a record someplace. But Sarah's faults are recorded in the pages of Scriptures. After they had left Ur the Chaldees and went to Haran and they left Haran to the land of Canaan there was a famine in the land of Canaan and they went down to Egypt Abraham and Sarah that was a bad choice on Abraham's part. It led to a lie there in Egypt with the Pharaoh that was there.

Sarah was part and parcel to that because in Genesis chapter 20 they would lie again to Abimelech and we know that in that account that they had conjured up this story way back in Ur the Chaldees way back before they ever left that place that when they went out and and if something never happened that Sarah would tell the leader of the land that she was his sister. That was true to a certain extent because Sarah was the half-sister of Abraham but it wasn't really the honest truth the whole truth so Sarah was part and parcel to the lie in Genesis 12 and in Genesis chapter 20.

And then when you come to Genesis chapter 16 you have the Hagar incident don't you? I'm sure that in the mind of Sarah there was this lie that she and Abraham conjured up and Pharaoh took her into his chambers and would seek to violate this woman and maybe in the back of her mind Sarah was a little bitter because Abraham was so willing to sacrifice her purity for the sake of his own life. And so in Genesis chapter 16 she like Abraham was probably a little tired of waiting for the promised seed to come and so she conjured up her own plan that somehow if Abraham would sleep with with Hagar a woman that they brought from Egypt after they had spent some time there lying about who they were they brought her from Egypt had been in the family for a while if somehow Abraham would sleep with with Hagar she would have a son and through that son would come the promised seed.

She began to take things into her own hands. Sarah began to to control the events of life. You ever met a woman like that? Maybe ladies you're a woman like that. You tend to move toward the controlling aspect of the relationship. Your husband has not been quite the leader he said he would be or you hoped he would be and so slowly but surely you begin to take control of family. You begin to take control of the reigns and somehow you've got a good plan and so you orchestrate that plan. Maybe you do it through your children.

Maybe you do it through your work. Some manipulative technique to control the family to make things come out your way sort of like Sarah did. Only hers is recorded in the scripture. Yours is not. And so as she began to control the events of life she wasn't trusting God at that point. She wasn't dependent upon God. A lot like women do today. They they want to control the events of their family so they control their husbands. They control finances because he can't control them so she does. He can't make good decisions so you make good decisions because he's incapable of making those strong leadership decisions.

All the while making your husband an emotional cripple. All the while robbing him of his responsibility to lead although he's already forfeited it. You begin to realize that he can't do it so you do it. It's basically what Sarah did. He couldn't lead so I'll lead. Well it caused Sarah, Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael who was born from that relationship lots of turmoil. Again a great woman of faith but she had some faults. And then of course there was Genesis chapter 18 where she laughed at God. Remember that one?

Pre-incarnate Christ came and appeared a couple angels to Abraham's tent. In that account the Lord God said to Abraham I will return to you next year. The text says at the appointed time and Sarah herself will conceive and have a son. And Sarah she was behind the tent door and remember she laughed to herself. The text says you got to be kidding me. How can that happen? I'm too old. I'm 89 years of age. And God said to Sarah why did you laugh? She said I didn't laugh. Oh he said but you did laugh.

She doubted the character of God. She doubted the power of God. She doubted the Word of God. God said you're gonna have a son and she laughed. How many times ladies do we laugh at God? He has said something very specifically in his Word and we say that's never gonna happen. And God says why do you laugh?

And we say I didn't laugh. Who me? I'm not laughing but God knows your heart. He knows what's on the inside. Sarah had some faults like we all do. But the overarching character quality of this woman was that she was a woman of faith. She learned to believe in her God. She learned to serve her God and follow her God and learn to trust him. The Bible says that she lived to be 127 years of age.

It's a long time. 127 years of age. They left her the Chaldees when Abraham was 75 years of age. And so there was at least 52 years between the time they left and the time she died there in Hebron. She was a woman of immense beauty. Remember Pharaoh took her into her chambers and even Abimelech when she was way up into her 80s saw her as a woman of immense beauty and wanted to have her as a part of his harem. So she was a beautiful, beautiful woman. Probably the most beautiful woman ever created was Sarah.

Incredible beauty about her that would cause men to be attracted to her. Sarah, her life, her faith, her faults. She was a great woman.