Abraham has passed the test. Summoned by God to a far mountain, he'd been ordered to devote his beloved son to the Lord by blade and flame, in a human sacrifice. Of course, God never meant to allow him to go through with it; to do so would've been to contradict himself. But Abraham displayed the devotion to go to any lengths for God, and the faith to believe that God would stoop to any miracle necessary to fulfill his promises despite the contradiction. With an angelic call from the skies, God intervened at the last moment to stop the shedding of Isaac's blood; Abraham rejoiced to see a ram provided as a substitute to be offered on the altar in worship.
It's in the glow of that smoldering flame burning up the mutton, as the sweet smoke of gratitude ascends to the skies, that “the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from the heavens” (Genesis 22:15). What more is there to be said? A fair bit, as it turns out. The prophetic voice relays an oracle of ongoing blessing for Abraham and his seed. Abraham's heard this sort of sentiment before, to the point that you could almost think this anticlimactic, so similar does it sound to past assurances. But heaven forbid we should let good news decay to background noise! This, in fact, is “the fullest version of the divine promise” Abraham will get.1 And there are a few key differences added here to keep things interesting for us.
The first difference is that, whereas formerly it seemed like Abraham received these promises as pure decrees of grace to be held passively by faith, now we can clearly see two additional pillars on which they'll rest for the ages. One of those pillars is Abraham's accomplished obedience, his radical devotion, the perfect fruit of his journey of faith. “Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only one” (Genesis 22:16), “because you have hearkened to my voice” (Genesis 22:18) – that's a new degree of maturity. Abraham's own virtue, his works, become “the basis for a renewal of the covenant promises of nation, land..., and blessing,”2 so that these expectations of faith are now “grounded on Abraham's obedience” alongside the grace of God.3
But the other pillar is even more profound. What we're about to hear are beyond promises, beyond even facts; they are solemn oaths. Earlier, before this adventure to the land of the moriah, Abraham dealt with the king of Gerar, Abimelech, swearing by God at Abimelech's request but dealing with the king until “both of them swore an oath” to each other (Genesis 21:31). Now, not one to be left out, God will swear as Abraham has sworn: “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD,” that all these blessings shall belong to Abraham's seed (Genesis 22:16). In “reaction to Abraham's unconditional loyalty” on display in his offering, we now get to see “God's unconditional commitment” to Abraham's family.4
The New Testament comments on this verse, observing that “an oath is final for confirmation” in all our human disputes, as there's no stronger form of promise out there (Hebrews 6:16). For that reason, “when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath” to Abraham (Hebrews 6:17). Now, as a rule, “people swear by something greater than themselves” (Hebrews 6:16), since the point is to submit themselves to a power capable of enforcing the oath over them. But here, “when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself” (Hebrews 6:13), committing himself as his own enforcer against himself, as if to say again that his very existence is placed on the line. St. Augustine asks, “What is the sworn oath of the true and truthful God but the confirmation of his promise and a kind of rebuke to those who don't believe him?”5
So what's the content of what we're to believe? What are the specific things made certain by this holy oath of the Most High? First, “blessingly I will bless you” (Genesis 22:17). From the beginning, Abraham had been told, “I will bless you and magnify your name” (Genesis 12:2) – it's practically the first thing he heard out of God, after all. But never before has God said to anybody, 'blessingly I will bless you' – that's the Hebrew way of intensifying a verb, by doubling it up on itself. Now, as powerfully as Adam was told that for disobedience “dyingly you shall die” (Genesis 2:17), exactly twenty chapters later Abraham hears at last the good news with the same degree of emphatic force: God will give him blessing with no less abundance than the curse of Adam!
Second, “multiplyingly I will multiply your seed” (Genesis 22:17). We've heard this exact phrase said before to Hagar (Genesis 16:10), and it's here an answer to the LORD's word to Eve that “multiplyingly will I multiply your hardship” (Genesis 3:16); God will make Abraham's seed fruitful enough to outmatch the hardships of human history, to overcome decisively the pervasive barrenness post-Eden.6 Decades earlier, God had promised first to make Abraham's seed “as the dust of the earth” (Genesis 13:16), then compared Abraham's future seed even to the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). Now, God modifies both pledges into a single oath, to absolutely multiply Abraham's seed “as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that's on the lip of the sea” (Genesis 22:17). The imagery “combines... the lofty and the earthly,”7 and while the top picture is unchanged, the bottom one is a swap, mortal dust of death displaced by gleaming sand bordering the open blue mystery.
From here on out, the promises elevated into this oath are decisively passed off to the next generations to carry through history. We see it beginning to take place when, in a foreign land, Abraham's seed “multiplied and grew very numerous” (Exodus 1:20); and when they were in danger of being reduced to one alone after the calf of gold was made, Moses begged the LORD to “remember Abraham... to whom you swore by your own self” (Exodus 32:13). That was Israel's salvation in their primal sin.
God's next words are something new, a different way of putting the promise of giving Abraham's seed the land (Genesis 12:7). Now we hear that “your seed shall inherit the gate of his enemies” (Genesis 22:17). I had little idea, before this week, what the Bible means by a 'gate,' but it wasn't just a door or arch at the edge of town. A city's gate was a big building, the gatehouse, which had a paved floor, benches, side chambers for meetings, even a second floor.8 Built into the city wall, it had a pair of protective outer doors that could be locked by night or in emergencies.9 The connected plaza was the main civic forum, the place where the town elders met, where public announcements were made, where court cases were heard, even a site of commercial exchange and ritual worship.10 Naturally, the gate was “a defensive liability” requiring added watchfulness and reinforcement.11 And when a town was conquered, the victorious king's representative might set up a throne in the gatehouse of the city, symbolizing the transfer of ownership of the whole city and its society, and his new authority to impose his brand of law and order there.12 So one king threatened another, “I shall install myself at your city gate.”13 That's what God is promising Abraham's seed: that they'll enjoy “military ascendancy” and, when they find themselves resisted by enemies, Abraham's seed will conquer and occupy their cities.14
So when Moses stood at the edge of Canaan, he preached for Israel to “go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore... to Abraham,” since God “is keeping the oath that he swore” (Deuteronomy 1:8; 7:8). As Moses died, God encouraged Joshua to “be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them” (Joshua 1:6). They fought battle after battle, clearing out city after city, to “subdue Canaan by their arms and be envied by all men.”15 By the end of the work, “the LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers; not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands” (Joshua 21:44). This persisted into the days of the kings, when “the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went” (2 Samuel 8:6).
All God wants to add is a new twist on an oldie but goodie. Up to now, Abraham's heard the pledge that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). But now, the LORD decrees, “in your seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves” (Genesis 22:18). The promise extends into the future, and it now sounds more geopolitical. That sounds incompatible with what we just heard: if Abraham's seed is seizing cities from their enemies, then it sounds like other nations will be hated adversaries, so how could this same seed be the way those very nations lay hold of the blessing? It's a mystery we start to see unfold in Solomon's “fame... in the surrounding nations,” how “people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom” (1 Kings 4:31-34). Solomon inherited already his father's conquests of the gate of his enemies; now Solomon can turn this prominence into a vehicle of blessing the neighbor nations with wisdom and light.16 In Old Testament terms, it's in Solomon's reign that God's oath reaches fruition – at least in its surface meaning. For what goes deeper, we have to wait for God to unveil.
In the wake of Abraham's devotion and obedience, he's now heard the God of all the universe swear an oath of undying loyalty to him. Everything is bright. But is it bliss? With the words “You heard my voice” (Genesis 22:18), Abraham will hear this voice no more. After the dreadful and majestic mountain-top experience, there are no more speeches or calls or visions or dreams. “The spiritual odyssey of Father Abraham is over,” as it were.17 He's become who he was meant to become; God can be with him in a quieter way.18
Earlier in this chapter, Abraham led his donkey, son, and two serving boys toward the mountain, then separated from his servants with the words, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there, and we will worship, and we will come back to you” (Genesis 22:5). Is that what happens? As the chapter ends, “Abraham returned to his boys, and they arose and went unitedly to Beersheba” (Genesis 22:19). It technically does not say that Abraham and Isaac returned. Maybe we're to just assume it, as many ancient readers figured,19 but it's possible they separated here in the wake of Isaac's new adulthood and the difficulty of seeing each other the same way after the knife entered the picture. And you already may have noticed that missing from chapter 22 altogether has been Sarah, who – you can imagine – would've had thoughts about her husband taking her one and only son to butcher and burn on some hill. As this chapter ends, “Abraham lived in Beersheba” (Genesis 22:19), and the next time we see Sarah, she's at Hebron (Genesis 23:2), thirty-five miles away, and it seems as though they're living separately. If this were a play, we'd never see any two of the three alive on stage together after this point.20 The Bible doesn't come right out and say it, but Abraham's obedience, while securing the future of his family, also might have cost him his relationships with his family.
How long pass between chapters 22 and 23, we don't know – it could be days, it could be twenty years. But we hear now that “it came to be that Sarah lived a hundred years and twenty years and seven years – the years of the life of Sarah” (Genesis 23:1). She's the only woman in the Old Testament whose life span is tallied up; she is also the first member of the chosen family to die.21 Now, her lengthy work on earth being done, “Sarah died at Kiriath-arba, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan” (Genesis 23:2). She died in the promised land, in the place to which God had called her. But God won't appear 'on-screen' at all in chapter 23, lending this text a sense of “the seeming absence of God in death,” when its darkness dims our sight.22
Then “Abraham went in to lament for Sarah” – an outward practice of beating your chest and wailing with your voice, maybe even tearing at your hair, wearing sackcloth and ashes – and “to weep for her” (Genesis 23:2). If Abraham earlier laughed the Bible's first laughter, now he cries the Bible's first tears – a true emotional pioneer, this man.23 This was a woman he not only had been married to for at least sixty-two years; he'd known her for over a century, they grew up together. It hasn't always been smooth, but he's always loved her. Now... goodbye. (Some of you have experienced for yourselves the grief and pain of such a parting. I'm sorry.)
We aren't told how long this official time of weeping and lamenting over the late Sarah lasted. The Bible allows Abraham to grieve privately; not everything has to be stripped bare for our readerly gaze. But in the depths of this sorrow, Abraham also understood there were practical things to be done, and also things at stake beyond his personal feelings. As if this were a final trial in his life, “he was found faithful, controlled in spirit.”24 Abraham is “determined that death will not dictate the course of his life.”25 He will not let himself be consumed or waylaid from his holy mission, but will turn even this toward God's purposes.
So now “Abraham rose up from the face of his dead one, and he spoke to the Sons of Heth” (Genesis 23:3), one of the ethnic groups in the area at the time. This looks back to the Table of Nations where “Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth” (Genesis 10:15). The Bible often represents these people as 'Hittites,' and there was a great Hittite Empire far to the north at this time, but these Sons of Heth in the Canaanite hill country live much too far south and don't look or sound anything like them, so they're either unrelated or distantly related.26 But the important thing to realize is that Abraham has known, for decades, that these Sons of Heth are among the future enemy peoples whom Abraham's seed will dispossess: “To your seed I have given this land... and the Hittite” (Genesis 15:18-20). But for now, they're the very people Abraham approaches. And he does so in the gate of Hebron, the natural place for “legal and commercial transactions such as the sale of land... in the presence of witnesses.”27 Abraham has literally entered the gate of a future enemy city which his seed will seize, but has come to negotiate (Joshua 10:36-37). And that negotiation is a deeply Middle Eastern scenario, pitting two shrewd negotiators against each other to bargain for advantage while coming across as generous.
Abraham comes to them with a problem. He needs to “bury my dead one away from my face” (Genesis 23:4), to get the corpse out of sight before decomposition becomes too obvious. It's a need the Sons of Heth would understand, and Abraham's counting on them to not want an unburied corpse in the neighborhood any more than Abraham does.28 By prevailing superstition of the time, they'd be risking her vengeful spirit haunting them and causing trouble. But you don't have to be superstitious to realize that “human beings cannot live with death staring them in the face.”29 The dead have to be removed from the living somehow, and the culturally preferred way here was some kind of burial. The trouble is, Abraham is “a sojourner and settler among you” (Genesis 23:4). Being a semi-nomadic resident alien is fine for being a shepherd, but it's not handy if you need land to bury in. Now, Abraham knows that he's been divinely granted the entirety of Canaan for his seed, but he dare not appeal to that secret here to just take things prematurely.30 So he appeals to the Sons of Heth for a favor: “Give me a possession for a burial place among you” (Genesis 23:4).
In their response, as he humbly approached them, the Sons of Heth lift him up. They remark on him as a chief of a clan, a respectable figure, a “mighty prince” in their midst. Both he and they are exercising their best diplomacy here. But what they say could just as well be read, “A prince of God are you among us” (Genesis 23:6), which would make this the chapter's only reference to God. Though he's hiding in the background, the Sons of Heth unwittingly acknowledge his grace in Abraham's greatness, unaware that this God is the one who has pledged the Sons of Heth into the hands of Abraham's seed – they don't realize what they're admitting.
Does that mean they give Abraham what he asks? It sure looks like it: “Bury your dead one in one of our choicest burial sites; none of us will withhold from you his burial site to hinder you from burying your dead one” (Genesis 23:6). Problem solved! Or is it? They're saying that they have multi-generational family tombs, like Abraham has asked about.31 They suggest that one of their number could open up his own family tomb and adopt Sarah's bones into it, to effectively treat Abraham's clan as an extension of their (native) family. That'd be a coveted honor for any of them, to be able to lay claim to such a mighty prince!32
But notice what their offer doesn't do. People in these cultures were very reluctant to part with their ancestral land outside the clan, let alone to a total foreigner like Abraham.33 So while they extend him a privilege to bury the body, they exclude the possibility of Abraham possessing the spot; the burial site will remain theirs, remain Hethite.34 Their offer is effectively a gambit to block Abraham from becoming a landowner.35 If Abraham takes their offer, he'll solve his short-term problem: the dead body will be buried. But it comes with long-term risks. Either they'll expect him to move her bones out when he inevitably ceases sojourning in what they call their land, or they'll exercise the right to refuse Abraham's bones when the less mighty Isaac has to ask for a similar favor, or they'll use this burial as a pretext for a postmortem assimilation of Abraham's family into their people, thus erasing the distinctive identity God has sworn on oath to give them. Twice in life Abraham allowed Sarah to fall into the hands of foreign men and put the promises at risk; he's resolved there not be a third in her death.
So Abraham rose again in the gate plaza of Hebron and “bowed to the people of the land, to the Sons of Heth,” showing them utmost respect (Genesis 23:7). Then he made a second petition, building on their concession of a desire that he “should bury my dead one away from my face.” Since they're willing to extend the privilege of a local burial, then “hear me and entreat for me Ephron son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of the machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field” (Genesis 23:8-9). Abraham's done his homework. He mentions a specific property owner and a specific property. By mentioning an empty cave, Abraham subtly declines their offer of absorbing Sarah's bones into a used Hethite tomb; by clarifying that it's at the end of a field, Abraham assures them he won't need a right-of-way over Ephron's other property.36
Abraham reasserts his request quite clearly: “For full silver, let him give it to me among you as a possession for a burial place” (Genesis 23:9). Abraham's not asking for a freebie; he's willing to pay fair market price – which he has to ask the community for here, because resident aliens didn't have the legal permission to buy land at all. But that's exactly what he wants: to have this land be his lasting family possession, something inheritable by his heirs, something where all sales are final.37 Sarah should be buried in Abraham's earth, not a Hethite tomb.
Now, having asked the Sons of Heth to appeal to this Ephron for him, we learn that “Ephron was sitting among the Sons of Heth” in the gatehouse this whole time. Sneaky Abraham, making sure every Hethite eye turned to put Ephron on the spot! Now “Ephron answered Abraham in the hearing of the Sons of Heth, of all who went in the gate of his city” (Genesis 23:10), “as formal witnesses to the proceedings.”38 “No, my lord, hear me,” Ephron declined. “I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it; in the eye of the sons of my people, I give it to you. Bury your dead!” (Genesis 23:11). What an incredible gift! How generous of Ephron!
Or not. This could be Ephron's way of saying Abraham can't have the cave unless he bargains for the entire field – which, if this is to be a purchase, is a much bigger one.39 And if it's not offered as a purchase, then this hasty gift might come with unseen strings attached. Unlike documented sales, “donations are notoriously insecure in law,”40 and Abraham's claim on this field and cave “would not have been incontestable.”41 Abraham can't be sure this isn't an offer of a temporary lease.42
Negotiations in the Middle East tend to open with lavish offers not meant to be accepted immediately; Abraham can't honorably say yes to this, isn't expected to think Ephron's speaking literally,43 and Ephron likely doesn't want to “yield Abraham legal possession” of the property.44 If Abraham took Ephron literally and accepted this as a huge gift, he and Isaac and Isaac's heirs would be deeply indebted to Ephron's family for ages,45 and in light of the future enmity between Israel and Heth, Abraham doesn't want to be thus unequally yoked.46
So again “Abraham bowed down before the people of the land,” the community of stakeholders in this property deal (Genesis 23:12), and then “spoke to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land, saying, 'But if you will, hear me'” (Genesis 23:13). He's got a next move to play in this game of commercial chess. “I 'give' the silver of the field! Take it from me, that I may bury my dead one there” (Genesis 23:13). Abraham's playing hardball. If Ephron insists on 'giving' the field, then Abraham insists on return 'gift': the full market price of the place. And he won't bury the corpse of Sarah until Ephron agrees. Abraham won't let his grief push him into a bad deal, but will actually leverage the desperateness of his situation to press Ephron to hurry up and sell.47
Playing it smoothly but sharply, “Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 'My lord, hear me: land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead!'” (Genesis 23:14-15). He keeps up the conceit of an unconditional gift, implying his asking price without using the language of selling. Ephron prices his land at four hundred shekels, or around ten pounds, of silver.48 Is that a fair price? This is a fifteenth of what Omri will buy the whole future site of Samaria for (1 Kings 16:24), and it's over twenty-three times the “seventeen shekels of silver” Jeremiah pays for his cousin's field (Jeremiah 32:9). There's a whiff of suspicion Ephron is price gouging, either to convince Abraham to back down or to exploit his vulnerable grief.49
Both sides have been petitioning the other to 'hear me' this whole time; now “Abraham heard Ephron,” accepts his terms, even though it's Ephron who's been backed into giving Abraham “exactly what he wanted.”50 “And Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had spoken in the ears of the Sons of Heth: four hundred shekels of silver by the standard of the merchants” (Genesis 23:16). Since a city's gatehouse was often a place for commercial transactions, yet coins hadn't been invented yet, there'd be a scale on hand with standardized weights.51 Abraham draws on the “thousand of silver” Abimelech gave him years earlier to cover Sarah from judgmental eyes (Genesis 20:16); now Abraham uses that Philistine silver to cover Sarah's body with a cave.
With payment, the deal is struck. Where before Abraham had been rising and bowing, now “there rose up the field of Ephron in the machpelah, which was before the face of Mamre..., to Abraham in the eye of the Sons of Heth, among all who entered the gate of his city” (Genesis 23:17-18). It's colorful language, as if the field and cave stood up and walked over to join Abraham, giving him an “impeccable legal claim” to this real estate.52
So now “Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of the machpelah on the face of Mamre, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan” (Genesis 23:19). From the moment the funeral paused, the text has not said her name once; she's only been Abraham's 'dead one' – a corpse, a non-person. Only once her remains are laid to rest is her identity and relationship restored as “Sarah, his wife.” If in a sense the dead body was no longer her, in another sense it now was and would be again.53 Her burial “legally completes the transaction” and “makes the sale absolute and incontestable” – no refunds, no reclamations.54 And she's buried “in the land of Canaan,” so that the molecules of her flesh can be infused into the very earth there, filling the land of promise with her God-restored miracle of maternity. Now it's sown with what it needs to become the motherland of her children!
That's why this wasn't just about two individual men making a deal. “There rose the field and the cave that is in it to Abraham as a possession for a burial place from the Sons of Heth” as a community (Genesis 23:20). It's officially no longer Hethite property; this land is reborn as Abrahamic land.55 This right here was “the patriarch's first instance of acquiring land,”56 as if this field is “a downpayment on the divine promise of land.”57 God previously pledged Abraham and his seed “all the land of Canaan as a possession everlasting” (Genesis 17:8); now, as the opening deposit, Abraham gets one field as “a possession for a burial” (Genesis 23:20), “a permanent stake in the Promised Land,” obtained not by coercion but by commerce, craft, and character.58
In time, Abraham will be buried in this cave (Genesis 25:9), Isaac will join him (Genesis 35:27-29), and Jacob's very last words command his sons to “bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, which is before the face of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess for a burial place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah – the field and the cave in it were bought from the Sons of Heth” (Genesis 49:29-32). Now we appreciate why Abraham couldn't take their sly and subtle diversions for an answer. This was how the generations would be rejoined as a family unit in the afterlife, with their bones side by side in the land of promise.59 While their children spend centuries in a foreign land, this field and its cave and the bones therein stood as a placeholder of promise: the seed of Abraham will be back, they'll inherit all that God has sworn, and as they pluck fruit from the trees that came with Abraham's purchase, they'll savor the sweetness of the goodness of the LORD!60
When the time came to make good on that claim, Hebron would be captured by Joshua, who awarded it to his buddy Caleb as a personal inheritance (Joshua 14:13-14); but then, while Caleb's family kept the surrounding villages, Hebron itself was turned over to the priests as a city of refuge for Israel (Joshua 21:10-13). Centuries passed, and God directed a non-priest to move to Hebron (2 Samuel 2:1-3). His name was David. And it was a stone's throw from the bones of Father Abraham and Mother Sarah that David was anointed king over Judah (2 Samuel 2:4). Hebron was David's capital city for the next seven and a half years (2 Samuel 2:11), and after the fall of Saul, “all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel” (2 Samuel 5:3). Eventually, this king from Hebron took control of Mount Moriah also, and there, as God had sworn an oath to Abraham, so he swore an oath there to David also.61 Yes, “the LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: 'One of the fruit of your womb I will set on your throne'” (Psalm 132:11), and to that coming king, “the LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek'” (Psalm 110:4), so “rule in the midst of your enemies!” (Psalm 110:2).
When the fullness of time had come, another angel spoke, not out of heaven above, but descending humbly to an earthly Nazareth. There the Lord's handmaiden, grace-saturated Mary, received the annunciation and sang back a hymn of praise, that the Lord God was now acting “just as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever” (Luke 1:55). After she visited her kinswoman Elizabeth, who with her priestly husband might've lived not far from Sarah's tomb, Zechariah saw it all coming together – how now God “had raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David..., that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:69-75).
Jesus, in his ministry, “was made a priest with an oath” by God his Father (Hebrews 7:20). In him, the oath to Abraham and the oath to David merge and reach their “definitive fulfillment” – hence why the Gospel starts by labeling Jesus both Son of David and Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1).62 His fellow countrymen, by this point, had made it their mission to “build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous” (Matthew 23:29), as when King Herod raised a thick stone wall at Machpelah and inscriptions for the patriarch and matriarch.63 Such actions weren't themselves bad, but Jesus pronounced a woe, for those who so honored the patriarchs failed to receive the Messiah in whom the oath of God was now being paid in full.
To honor the oath of God, Jesus ascended the mountain like Isaac – we heard all about that last Sunday – and he “suffered outside the gate, in order to sanctify the people through his own blood” (Hebrews 13:12), “so that, in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations” as God had sworn (Galatians 3:14). Turning the vital key, Jesus laid down his life. A wealthy secret disciple came and claimed the divine corpse, and Joseph of Arimathea did what Ephron the Hittite couldn't. Joseph “laid [the body of Christ] in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock” (Matthew 27:59-60), “where no one had ever been laid” (Luke 23:53).
That's half the story – but barely half. For the oath of God was still in effect, which had decreed that Abraham's Seed must seize possession of the gate of his enemies. “And the last enemy... is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Surrounding cultures had oft imagined “the seven gates of the netherworld,”64 and the Old Testament similarly pictured the realms below as if a fortified citadel of the powers of darkness, a prison-city “whose bars closed upon [the dead] forever” (Jonah 2:7), where “Death shall be their shepherd” (Psalm 49:14). King Hezekiah, when terminally ill, lamented being “consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years” (Isaiah 38:10); God asked Job if he'd seen “the gates of death..., the gates of death's shadow” (Job 38:17); and the psalmist prayed to be lifted up, up, and away “from the gates of death” before being swallowed up therein (Psalm 9:13).
Now Jesus, like Sarah before, passed through those gates. But he did not come as one who could be imprisoned and enslaved – not by a long shot. He entered as a warrior, a Samson ready to grab the pillars and topple the house. “Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?” (Psalm 89:48). This Messiah, that's who. After preaching the gospel of salvation to all the dead ones (1 Peter 4:6), he raised quite a ruckus in grave-land's gate plaza, disenchanting the doors, plundering the darkness. Just as conquering kings would enthrone themselves in the gatehouse of the broken city, so Jesus enthroned himself in the gate of death on Holy Saturday, seizing for himself “the keys of Death and Sheol” (Revelation 1:18). In victory, he imposed his eternal law there.
On the third day, God the Father “raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption” (Acts 13:34). It's here that Matthew gives us a unique image, suggesting that, as Jesus died, “the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and, coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:52-53). Bible-believing scholars debate what to make of that picture, but if Matthew means it literally, then surely one of the tombs opened at the earthquake must've been in Hebron; surely Abraham and Sarah “rose with Christ” and, in the light of Easter, would've made their way to preach from Mount Moriah the name of the Promised Seed who'd set them free!65
It's in retrospect that we can look back on a moment late in Jesus' earthly ministry. There, at a grotto far to the north, he'd asked his disciples who they think he really is. Simon alone is enlightened by the revelation of God to proclaim the True Son of the Father. And in return, Jesus declares, “I tell you, you are Peter,” a strong rock (Matthew 16:18); as Abraham was the rock from which Israelites were chipped, so here's a fatherly rock for a people made new (Isaiah 51:1-2). “And on this rock, I will build my Church” (Matthew 16:18). This Church will be the new Temple, gleaming beautiful and sturdy atop the new mount, outshining the one Solomon of old compelled the surviving Sons of Heth to assemble (1 Kings 9:15-21). But the Church will also be a new Sarah, since Sarah had stood for the new covenant and the heavenly mother-city of the faithful (Galatians 4:24-27).
And here comes the kicker, the promise rooted in the prior oath of God: “And the gates of Sheol shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Remember what God swore to Abraham: that to Abraham's seed would be given possession of the gate of the enemy, hence the gate of the enemy would not prevail against the seed of Abraham. Among the functions of ancient city gatehouses in the Middle East, one purpose they served in times of war was as “a command center during battle, used for mustering troops and sending dispatches.”66 The gates of Sheol are where the armies of death muster, to spill forth and trouble the world of the living. It's where the revelations of hell arise from, the network of dark decrees to negate the power of life. It had seemed, in Genesis 23, as though the gates of Sheol had prevailed against Sarah. But they cannot prevail against the New Sarah. The forces of death mustered there may march out as they please to flood the world, but the Temple will stand on the rock. The orders of the devil may pass from courier to courier from there, but they will not at last deceive the Bride of Christ. The Church will prevail; the Church will gain possession. The Church must, since God's oath in Genesis 22 “foretold the Church quite openly” and gave this blessing to her!67
And so neither can the gates of death stop Abraham's seed from being multiplied by the grace of God, as now “the preaching of the gospel” has “extended” from one end of the earth to the other,68 making Father Abraham “the father of a countless multitude of nations in Christ.”69 Jesus was “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” but it's pledged in the oath of God that “as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20-21). The field of Ephron was a guarantee or a downpayment on the earthly inheritance of the seed of Abraham, but there's a Machpelah for our final future, too: “the promised Holy Spirit... is the downpayment on our inheritance until we acquire possession of it” (Ephesians 1:13-15), for “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). Such a faith is why Christians dare, in the spirit of Abraham, to bury our dead in holy ground “consecrated to the power of life.”70
We know the Seed of Abraham must possess fully the gate of his enemies, “destroying every rule and every authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24). For the prophet heard God declare that “by myself I have sworn...: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear'” (Isaiah 45:23), and the apostle understands that “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow – in heaven and on earth and under the earth – and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). Angels kneel and Abraham kneels, Sarah and the Sons of Heth and the Serpent shall at last all confess, that Jesus is the aim of the oath of God, the Lord who sits in glory in every gate. And when Death is destroyed, we who confess Christ early and are the seed of Abraham in Christ know that we “shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” forever (Romans 6:5). “O Death, where is your victory?... Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, my beloved brothers [and sisters], be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:55-58). Hallelujah! Amen.
1 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 261.
2 Jon D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (Yale University Press, 1993), 138.
3 Alex Varughese and Christina Bohn, Genesis 12-50: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2019), 155; cf. Qiang Fu, How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing: Using Formative Narrative Approach and Narrative Discourse Analysis (Wipf & Stock, 2023), 92; Gary A. Anderson, That I May Dwell Among Them: Incarnation and Atonement in the Tabernacle Narrative (Eerdmans, 2023), 164.
4 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 346.
5 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God 16.32, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century I/7:223.
6 Jon D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (Yale University Press, 1993), 140.
7 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 346.
8 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 29-30, 90.
9 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 35, 46.
10 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 127-149, 160-169.
11 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 173.
12 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 144-145.
13 “A Declaration of War,” in Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (CDL Press, 2005), 226.
14 James Chukwuma Okoye, Genesis 12-50: A Narrative-Theological Commentary (Cascade Books, 2020), 154.
15 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.235, in Loeb Classical Library 242:117.
16 Scott W. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God's Saving Promises (Yale University Press, 2009), 118-119.
17 Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 211.
18 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 262.
19 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 1.236, in Loeb Classical Library 242:117.
20 David W. Cotter, Genesis (Liturgical Press, 2003), 160.
21 Terence E. Fretheim, Abraham: Trials of Family and Faith (University of South Carolina Press, 2007), 141.
22 Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 322.
23 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 363.
24 Jubilees 19:8, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:92.
25 R. R. Reno, Genesis (Brazos Press, 2010), 209.
26 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 395; Jan Christian Gertz, Genesis 1-11 (Peeters, 2023), 388.
27 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 151.
28 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 249.
29 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 363.
30 Jubilees 19:9, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:92.
31 Jennie Bradbury, Death and Burial within the Ancient Levant, 4500-550 BCE: Challenging the Normative (Routledge, 2025), 94.
32 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 368.
33 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 156-157; Alex Varughese and Christina Bohn, Genesis 12-50: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2019), 161.
34 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 364; Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 248.
35 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 120.
36 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 159.
37 Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 319.
38 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 216.
39 Kenneth Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2003), 328.
40 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 157.
41 Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 315.
42 John Goldingay, Genesis (Baker Academic, 2020), 269.
43 David W. Cotter, Genesis (Liturgical Press, 2003), 163-164.
44 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 365.
45 Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 212-213.
46 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 372, 375.
47 Alex Varughese and Christina Bohn, Genesis 12-50: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition (Beacon Hill Press, 2019), 165.
48 Stephen K. Ray, Genesis: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary (Ignatius Press, 2023), 228.
49 Shira Weiss, Ethical Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible: Philosophical Analysis of Scriptural Narrative (Cambridge University Press, 2018), 114.
50 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 366.
51 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 169-171.
52 Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 321.
53 John C. Lennox, Friend of God: The Inspiration of Abraham in an Age of Doubt (SPCK, 2024), 263.
54 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 160.
55 Zvi Grumet, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant (Maggid Books, 2017), 248.
56 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 48.2, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 87:25.
57 Tremper Longman III, Genesis (Zondervan Academic, 2016), 309.
58 Bryan Howard Cribb, Speaking on the Brink of Sheol: Form and Message of Old Testament Death Stories (Gorgias Press, 2014), 105.
59 Steffan Mathias, Paternity, Progeny, and Perpetuation: Creating Lives after Death in the Hebrew Bible (T&T Clark, 2020), 64.
60 Jonathan Grossman, Abraham: The Story of a Journey (Maggid Books, 2023), 379.
61 Scott W. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God's Saving Promises (Yale University Press, 2009), 117-118.
62 Scott W. Hahn, Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God's Saving Promises (Yale University Press, 2009), 122.
63 Martin Goodman, Herod the Great: Jewish King in a Roman World (Yale University Press, 2024), 22.
64 Descent of Ishtar to the Netherworld, line 94, in Benjamin R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (CDL Press, 2005), 502.
65 Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis 23:1-2, in Luther's Works 4:190.
66 Daniel A. Frese, The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant (Brill, 2020), 174.
67 Augustine of Hippo, Expositions of the Psalms 30.3.9, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century III/15:342.
68 Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Genesis 9.2, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 71:152.
69 Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch 3.2.3, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 137:160.
70 R. R. Reno, Genesis (Brazos Press, 2010), 211.
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