What’s Going on with Abraham and Sarah?

The Back Story

In our Scripture reading, we read the account of Sarah’s death and how Abraham took care of her burial. Let’s look at the back story leading up to the end of their lives.

 

The story begins in Genesis 12. God calls Abram and Sarai, and they leave their home in Haran for Egypt. They go with God’s promise in their ears, that God would make them into a great nation through whom all people on earth will be blessed. In chapter 13, Abram leaves Egypt with Sarai and settles in Canaan, near his nephew Lot who had accompanied them.

 

Chapter 14 contains further adventures in Canaan, leading to Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek, who gives him a special blessing. In chapter 15, God repeats and deepens God’s covenant with Abram. In chapter 16, Sarai is frustrated with not having any children. She gives her servant, Hagar, to Abraham so that she might have a child as a substitute for Sarai. When Hagar conceives, Sarai is jealous and drives her away, but God sends Hagar back to Abram and Sarai with God’s blessing on her child. Her son is then born, Ishmael, Abraham’s oldest son.

 

Chapter 17: God renews the covenant and promises Abraham and Sarah their own son (Abraham is now 99 years old), the son of the covenant. God also institutes circumcision as a sign of the covenant. Chapter 18 tells of a further promise of a son, even though Sarah is now past menopause. The son’s name will be Isaac, echoing Sarah’s laughter at the thought that she would have a child in her old age.

 

Chapters 19 and 20 break the narrative with some other miscellaneous stories from Abraham’s life, which brings us to the story that concerns us this morning. Chapter 21, then, is the fulfillment of the long-awaited promise: Isaac is born, the son of Abraham and Sarah. You would think that this great event would lead to a joyful climax, but the worst is yet to come!

 

Chapter 22. One that I have not preached on before. A deeply painful chapter. It begins:

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

 

I wonder what Sarah would have thought. She might have thought: “It was bad enough when we were young that you took me away from friends and relatives to travel through Egypt to Canaan. Egypt! Telling Pharoah I was your sister! It was bad enough that you made Hagar like another wife, and she had a son before I did. It was bad enough that I spent my whole life waiting for God to keep the promise that he made to you. And now that finally things are working out, you want to take our son and sacrifice him on an altar in the mountains? Burn him up? Never!”

 

The text doesn’t tell us if Abraham told Sarah what was happening. It just says that he got up early in the morning and left with Isaac and two servants. I’ll bet you Sarah was a night person and never saw them go. All she knows is that Abraham and Isaac have gone off on a father-son bonding adventure. And what an adventure!

 

Isaac has his suspicions. “Dad, where’s the lamb for the sacrifice?” “God will provide.” They go up the mountain, and Abraham changes his answer, “You are the sacrifice.” Isaac was a healthy young lad, but it seems he didn’t run away. He allowed his aged father to tie him up and lay him on the altar. Finally, God speaks. “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” And God did indeed provide the substitute sacrifice so that Isaac lived, and Jacob his son became Israel, and their descendants became the children of Israel, and the Messiah was born into their people, and the whole world is saved – because Abraham went on this crazy father-son bonding adventure.

 

It’s a wonderful climax, but also a deeply unsatisfying ending. The next verses suggest as much. Abraham goes back, but he doesn’t go home to Sarah. Perhaps he thought that trying to explain to her what he was willing to do was too dangerous. In any case, he settled in Beer Sheba, some 40 miles or so from their home in Kiriath Arba. Chapter 22 tells us that Sarah stayed there and died some years later. They may have still lived together, but the way the text reads led the rabbis to speculate. Maybe they got divorced, or maybe just separated. Maybe Abraham took Keturah has his wife instead of Sarah (chapter 25). We don’t know. What we do know is that the story of Abraham and Sarah is full of twists and turns, dangers and difficulties, possibilities and problems. And in it, God keeps God’s promise.

 

What Do We Do with This Story? 

What does the story of Abraham and Sarah say to us today? A first basic point is to realise that the stories of the patriarchs are not morality plays. They do not simply tell us how we should act. So, we don’t read how Abram passed off Sarai his wife as his sister and think that this was a good idea. Don’t do it! We don’t hear how Abraham took Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him and think, “that’s a good idea!” Don’t do it!

 

Instead, we listen to the story for what God is doing and ask what that action says to us. Here’s one thought. When God first called Abram and Sarai, they had no idea who God was. They knew about the gods of Babylon and the other countries around them, but they had no idea about the Creator, the one who made them, God who wants all people to find life in close relationship with him. “The God who saves” was a mystery to them.

 

As we read about Abraham and then the Children of Israel, they were a tribal people who mistrusted everyone around them – a lot like the tribes of Afghanistan today. They knew you can only trust close family. Somehow, God had to break through their insular worldview and reshape them so that God’s Messiah could come into the world. The first step was to gain their full and total allegiance. That is what happens by the end of the story.

 

Here’s a second thought. Abraham and Sarah lived through crises and dangers greater than anything I have ever faced. As we read the story, we see that God was present at every step – even in the most horrible moment of all as Abraham thought he must sacrifice his son. I take comfort from these two thoughts. If God can work patiently among the tribal family of Abraham, God can work in Canada today. If God is present even when Abraham is faced with the worst test of all, God is with us whatever we face in our lives.

 

John 12 

The climax of the story comes when God says, “You have obeyed my voice.” This little statement provides us with a connection to the story in John’s Gospel. The passage we read comes just after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, a foretaste of his own more effective and complete resurrection. After raising Lazarus, Jesus entered Jerusalem for the Passover Feast: We call this “the triumphal entry”.

 

With all the excitement from raising Lazarus and from the entry into Jerusalem, many people crowded around, trying to get close to Jesus. Among them were some Greeks. It is not clear if they were Jews, or just interested people wanting to see what Judaism was all about. They found Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples, and asked if he could take them to Jesus. Philip went to Jesus to see, and Jesus replied in a curious way. He didn’t say yes or no. Instead, he said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”

 

Essentially, Jesus said what he always said when someone asked him how to be saved: “Follow me. Take up your cross and follow me.” That is what Abraham had done, although he came so many years before. He followed God all his life. He wanted to see God, and that meant following God wherever God led. The Greeks said, “We want to see Jesus.” That meant following Jesus, even to the cross.

 

The Point 

I think that’s the point of the whole thing. Those who want to see Jesus must follow him; and those who follow Jesus will see him.

 

I do some visiting on a regular basis, especially when people face some sort of health crisis. I wonder sometimes what each one wants. We want healing of course, but more and more I am convinced that what most of us want most is to know that God is there. We want God to make sense of things for us. We want God to make life come out right, to make everything fair and good. We want God to answer our questions. But most of all that means simply we want to know that God is there.

 

I am also convinced that having our questions answered and our needs met means meeting God. The experience that Abraham had on the mountain was that he met God. He followed God all his life, and he met God. His life wasn’t magically sorted out. The problems with Sarah remained. The weirdness of taking his son up the mountain was still weird. But he met God. Just as the Greeks at the Passover wanted to see Jesus, he saw God.

 

C.S. Lewis wrote a book at the end of his life, his last book, called Till We Have Faces. The main character goes through all sorts of trials throughout the book and pleads with God for answers, and she gets no answer. At the end of the book, when she finally meets God face to face, she says, “I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away.” You are yourself the answer. I think that is what Abraham experienced on the mountain. God did not answer his questions. God was the answer.

 

I don’t mean “Jesus is the answer” in a trite way that simplifies the difficult issues of life. Such simplifying is usually false. I mean something like Paul said in Colossians 1: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” In Jesus life holds together, coheres, makes sense – not because he answers our questions, but because Jesus is life, and life makes sense when it is lived in Jesus.

 

A Conclusion 

Vachel Lindsay has a moving poem titled “General William Booth Enters into Heaven”, which captures something of my deep desire – our deep desire – to see Jesus.

Booth led boldly with his big bass drum—  
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)  
The Saints smiled gravely and they said: “He’s come.”  
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)  
Walking lepers followed, rank on rank,  
Lurching bravoes from the ditches dank,  
Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale—  
Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail:—  
Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath,  
Unwashed legions with the ways of Death—  
(Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)

 

The poem continues for several verses describing the way that Booth and his band march around Heaven as though they own the place. Then Jesus works the work of Heaven on them.

Jesus came from out the court-house door,  
Stretched his hands above the passing poor.  
Booth saw not, but led his queer ones there  
Round and round the mighty court-house square.  
Yet in an instant all that blear review  
Marched on spotless, clad in raiment new.  
The lame were straightened, withered limbs uncurled  
And blind eyes opened on a new, sweet world.

 

Several more verses describe the transformation and wonder that comes in the New Heavens and the New Earth. And then the final verse.

And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer  
He saw his Master thro’ the flag-filled air.  
Christ came gently with a robe and crown  
For Booth the soldier, while the throng knelt down.  
He saw King Jesus. They were face to face,  
And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place.  
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

 

I cannot read that final verse without tears – “You are yourself the answer, and before your face all questions die away.” I believe that was Abraham’s experience, and that is God’s gift to each of us in the perplexities and struggles of this life.

 

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church

 22 September 2024

 

Texts

Genesis 23: 1-4, 17-20.

Sarah’s Death and Burial

23 Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years; this was the length of Sarah’s life. ² And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. ³ Abraham rose up from beside his dead and said to the Hittites, ⁴ “I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” ...

¹⁷ So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, passed ¹⁸ to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, in the presence of all who went in at the gate of his city. ¹⁹ After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ The field and the cave that is in it passed from the Hittites into Abraham’s possession as a burying place.

 

John 12: 20-26

Some Greeks Wish to See Jesus

²⁰ Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²² Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³ Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

 

Sermon in a Sentence

One of our deepest desires is to make sense of life – especially the confusing parts – which can only happen in a profound encounter with God.

 

Living Our Faith Questions

The story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 is about as difficult as it can get. What did Abraham and Isaac's trek up the mountain do to Sarah? What happened to Abraham and Sarah's relationship as a result? Where can we turn when our lives are turned so completely upside down?