I’ve been married for 39 years come this November. Wow! It seems like a long time. It is a long time to be married to one woman, especially by Hollywood standards. But, 39 years is really nothing in comparison to Abraham and Sarah’s life long marriage. By the time of Sarah’s death in Genesis 23, you can figure that they had been married well over 100 years! Also, it had been over 60 years that they had lived as vagabonds in the land that God had promised to give them.
They were soul mates. They went through it all together, hand in hand, for over a century. They traveled together from Ur to Haran, from Haran to Canaan, from Canaan to Egypt and back again. They had shared it all, the ups and the downs. She had put up with Abraham’s failures, even when he made her an accomplice in his sin. Of course she was the principal character in her own failures as well. Good news for all women. Sarah wasn’t perfect and yet she too, like Abraham, is called righteous.
She was Abraham’s soul mate. The woman who gave the most precious gift possible, his one and only son, Isaac. Isaac’s name means “Laughter.” Sarah is the mother of “laughter.” She was buried in the heart of the promised land. The purchase of Machpelah, her burial site, marks the beginning of Israel’s ownership of the promised land. When Abraham dies, he too will be buried with her in the middle of the promised land. Although they were both sinners in their own rights they ended up in the center of the place where God wanted them.
Figuratively speaking, the promised land is right in the middle of God’s will for our lives. I hope I can be buried there.