Genesis 23:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Sarah is the only woman in the Bible with the age of her death recorded. The longevity of the human race was still in evidence at this time, though falling to levels which more closely resemble life spans today. Sarah had borne her only child when aged about ninety and lived another thirty-seven years. It is remarkable that around the time Isaac was born at the age of ninety, she was still so attractive that Abimelech was tempted to take her for himself. It seems therefore, as Candlish suggests, that she not only received from God the ability to conceive at this great age, but also a renewal of her youthful beauty. He observes that it is not said of her at her death, that she was ‘well stricken in age’, and takes this as another indication of the same thing. She may have continued in the strength given her to conceive until the last days of her life.The New Testament praises her as a woman whose example all Christian women are to follow. The apostle Peter says, ‘For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement’ (1 Peter 3:5-6). Her manner of life is therefore not something that belongs to a former age when different rules applied, but it is to be imitated today, although the way in which this is expressed will vary with culture. The Biblical requirement of submission of wives to husbands is something which can never be taken away while the world continues.Her faith was imperfect and her impatience led to her giving her maid, Hagar, to her husband in a presumptuous attempt to assist God in the keeping of the promise. But eventually in the goodness of God a great nation came from Abraham and her which would have a wonderful place in the plan of God. She too was a woman of faith and though she laughed at first at the news that she would bear a son, that laughter later turned from unbelief to faithful joy. ‘Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised’ (Hebrews 11:11).When Isaac was born and was persecuted by Ishmael, she saw more clearly than Abraham what was at stake, and she rightly required a separation of the seed to whom the promises was made, Isaac, from the son of the bondwoman. Though she treated Hagar with harshness, she did this because she saw the issue: that Ishmael must not be allowed to stand in the way of blessing coming to her own son.After the testing of Abraham in relation to the command to offer up Isaac on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22), Abraham had gone to live in Beersheba (Genesis 22:19). Assuming Isaac to have been in his late teens (strong enough to have carried the wood for the fire), her death must have been about twenty years after this event. Now however we read that Sarah dies in Kirjath Arba, another name for Hebron. This was the place where Abraham had settled earlier, near to the terebinth trees of Mamre (Genesis 13:18; 14:13). Why Sarah was back at Hebron is not explained. The words ‘and Abraham came to mourn’ seem to indicate that he was not present at her death. It is possible as Candlish suggests that he had two residences at this time, having kept part of his household at the old location at Mamre. Abraham may have been called away for some reason to his other residence and being alerted to the serious of Sarah’s illness, returned only to find that he was too late to see her again before she died. Abraham mourned in the presence of her body. Some have said this was not wise, in stirring up his grief by going into the presence of her body, but in the next verse he got up and he knew when the time of grief must cease. Probably there was a great deal of gratitude and praise to God for their lives together. Maybe there was also some measure of regret.