Genesis 23:17 Commentary and Bible Study

So the plot of land, the field and the trees in it and particularly the cave where Abraham could bury Sarah was made over to Abraham. As Leupold notes, the reason for the choice of this plot is brought out in this passage for it was close to Mamre where Abraham resided. It was a cave which would be close to him and which allow him to remember Sarah, who though taken from him, yet lived. Abraham certainly looked forward to being with her again in the world to come. We may remember departed believers, especially those who have been the closest to us, with deep affection. This is true even though in heaven our relationships will be so different. Marriage, Christ teaches, is something for this world only. But that is considered no obstacle to our affection by Paul who says, ‘But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus’ (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). We are to look forward to being reunited with known individuals.The significance of Abraham purchasing a plot of land in Canaan is that he believed the promise of God. The burial of Sarah’s body was Abraham’s claim to the land, for he would not have laid her there unless he believed that God had given him more than this small plot in the middle of this alien land. If he did not believe the promise of God, he would have returned to his native Ur and buried Sarah there. This burial plot was then a token of all that would later come to his descendants. Hebrews makes much of the fact that Abraham lived a stranger in the land, and remained a dweller in tents. He looked forward to the inheritance he would later receive in the person of his descendants, but in his own lifetime he did not receive any of it apart from this small token plot. But more than this, he looked forward to a city not built with hands – heaven itself (Hebrews 11:16). This placed him in the very same position as the New Testament believer. We too have received a promise of a heavenly inheritance. Abraham therefore buried Sarah in the land which by faith he was assured would one day be given to his descendants in its entirety. He buried her in the same cave where he was later buried (Genesis 25:9), where Isaac and Rebekah were buried, and where Jacob buried Leah and requested to be buried himself (Genesis 49:29-31), a request which his sons carried out (Genesis 50:12-13).