And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which was opposite to Mamre --
Abraham is dead, and his two sons stand at the same grave — the son of the promise and the son of the slave woman. The verse also names the burial ground with care: a cave, a field, and the man Abraham bought it from.
Ishmael, the son cast out years before, still stands at his father's grave. Kelly sees a shared loss bringing two very different men side by side.
Here we read that "Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah," in the field Abraham had bought from Ephron, where Sarah already lay. The son of the slave woman was in no way forbidden to honour his parent in this way. He had to be "cast out" in the presence of the child of promise, and he was. Yet the natural family tie still has its place. The son of the free woman does not dispute it; he is gracious. Before God their feelings may have been as far apart as spirit and flesh, the two things that marked them out. But at the grave, at least, they stood together in the sorrow of loss. They shared a loving memory of the man who was gathered to his people, "the friend of God."
Kelly finds the same scene later in the family, and draws a rule from it.
Esau and Jacob came to bury their aged father, just as Isaac and Ishmael had buried theirs. Death has a powerful and subduing voice for the heart of man, even where faith is absent. It was not for believers to keep their close relatives away from the grave. They were to welcome them there instead. Many a self-seeking and proud soul has bowed there under the solemn issues of salvation on the one hand and judgment on the other.
Willis weighs what Ishmael had to swallow to stand at that grave.
Ishmael was very likely jealous of the little boy who, instead of him, had become "heir of all things"; it would have been almost unnatural if he had not been. Remembering this, it is a real pleasure to find Ishmael with Isaac burying his father (Gen. 25:9). Surely we may see that God was working in his heart.
The verse names the man Abraham bought the field from. Kelly says that purchase settles what Abraham owned in Canaan.
God's gift is absolute and still future. Buying a burial place from the Hittite confirms this; it does not weaken it or cut into it. For who would think of buying land he already owned? There Abraham lays his dead in land so clearly not his own that he has to buy it. The purchase is the pledge to faith that he will have the land one day… "By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise" (Heb. 11:9).
Burial in Canaan looked forward, not only back.
Abraham was buried with Sarah in the cave he had bought from Ephron (Gen. 23:19-20). The circumstances then pointed to the promise of Sarah's future resurrection. It was the same with Abraham. He believed with all his heart that God was able to raise the dead (Rom. 4:17-21).
His family did the same after him.
In the faith of God's promise he was careful to lay Sarah's body to rest in the Promised Land… Later, in the same faith, the sons of Isaac bury their father at Hebron, in the land of Canaan (Gen. 35:27-29). Jacob dies in Egypt, yet in due time his sons too bury him in faith in the land of Canaan, in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 50:13).
With the burial, one chapter of the account closes and another opens.
Then the great holder of all promise passes off the scene, however that promise was to be worked out and developed. The account closes as to both flesh and spirit — Isaac and Ishmael bury him. We begin again quite fresh with Isaac, the resurrection heir, walking the path of faith or unbelief (as Abraham did) under that principle. Isaac now takes up the place of blessing and the subject of testimony.
- Grave — One death brings both sons back to the same spot. Deep differences before God did not stop shared sorrow for a father.
- Gathering — Do not shut unbelieving relatives out of a funeral. Death speaks to hard hearts, and Ishmael's coming suggests God was at work in his.
- Ground — Abraham had to buy the field, so he did not yet own the land. That purchase is a pledge that God's gift is still ahead.
- Guarantee — Burial in Canaan was faith speaking. Abraham believed God could raise the dead. Isaac's sons and Jacob's sons buried their fathers there for the same reason.
- Going on — With Abraham buried, the account starts fresh with Isaac. He now carries the blessing and the testimony.
the field that Abraham had purchased of the sons of Heth there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.
Genesis 25:10 closes Abraham's life with the one patch of earth he ever owned — a burial plot he bought from a Hittite neighbour. Why does Scripture record the sale so carefully, and why did Abraham care so much where his body lay?
Abraham lived in Canaan as a guest. The only ground he ever owned there became his grave.
When he reached this land of promise, what did he find there? Nothing he could touch, nothing he owned himself. He did not have so much as a foot of land he could call his own. It is very telling that the only part he ever owned was a tomb, a burial place. It reminded him that in life he had nothing. It also looked forward to a resurrection. His faith laid hold of the God of resurrection, and held that his descendants would have the very land he stood in. He would leave his bones there as the witness that he claimed it for his descendants.
Choosing a family grave can be pure sentiment. Kelly says Abraham's choice was not.
Burial in the land began with Sarah. In Abraham it was no mere feeling or fancy, sentiment or superstition, but a fruit of faith. He expected to receive from God's hand the land where he laid her body. The gift of Canaan was far surer than owning a burial place in the meantime.
Buying the cave said something about how Abraham saw death.
I believe that in buying Machpelah as a burial place, Abraham was expressing his faith in resurrection. "He stood up from before his dead." Faith cannot keep death in view for long. It has a higher object — blessed be the "living God" who has given it. Resurrection is what always fills the sight of faith. In its power, faith can rise up from before the dead… Death is the boundary of Satan's power, but where Satan ends, God begins.
What was true when Abraham buried Sarah held when his sons buried him beside her.
Abraham was buried with Sarah in the cave he had bought from Ephron. The circumstances then pointed to the promise of Sarah's future resurrection. It was the same with Abraham, who fully believed that God was able to raise the dead.
The verse stresses that Abraham bought the field. The people of the land had offered it as a gift, and he refused.
The kindness of the world would press upon Abraham a burying place as a gift. True to his pilgrim character, he refuses to take the place of a prince who receives gifts. He is content to be the stranger who pays for what he needs. He refused to use the praise of the world to exalt himself, and he will not let the kindness of the world move him off the path of a stranger. As he had refused the gifts of the king of Sodom before, so now he declines the gifts of the Hittites.
Isaac and Ishmael — the son of promise and the son sent away — stood together at the grave.
The son of the slave woman was in no way forbidden to honour his parent in this way. He had to be cast out, and he was cast out, in the presence of the child of promise. Yet family ties have their place. The son of the free woman does not dispute this, but is gracious. Before God the feelings of the two may have been as different as spirit and flesh, the two things that marked them out. But there at least, around the grave, they were together in the sorrow of loss, and in loving memory of him who was gathered to his people, "the friend of God."
Abraham's hope held to one field. Kelly contrasts the Christian hope, which needs no resting place on earth.
The hope of Christ's coming forms a very different feeling in the Christian. A special resting-place here below vanishes from a mind shaped and fed in this way. We do not look for death, though we may fall asleep in the meantime. We look for Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. He will change us, whether we are awake or asleep, into His glorious image.
- Stranger. Abraham never owned a foot of Canaan while he lived. A tomb was his only holding, and it proved he had nothing here.
- Bought. He turned down the field as a gift and paid for it. Not even his grave left him in debt to the people around him.
- Promise. Burying in that land was no sentiment but faith's claim on ground God had already given by word.
- Resurrection. Faith does not stay bent over the dead. The bought grave expected the God who raises the dead to give the land yet.
- Reunion. Two estranged sons met at that graveside, and the man laid there is remembered as the friend of God.