Sunday Sentiments

 

This week I finished up the third book in the Precepts Bible studies on Genesis. The first book was a four-week study about Creation (though I stretched it farther than four weeks), the second book was a seven-week study on The Fall, The Flood, and the Nations, and then this most recent book was a six-week study on Abraham called Becoming a Friend of the Faithful God. 

I've studied Abraham's life before - more than once, actually - but this time was different. It probably is the most in-depth study I've done on his life, and I didn't realize that along the way of my slow, careful study, he started to feel like a friend to me, too.

Never before have I immersed myself into his life story and seen how deep the push and pull of his desire to be a faithful man of God and his stumbling with sin and selfishness. Never before have I seen how deep - truly deep - his love for Sarah. Never before have I realized just how deep his faith was, especially in light of all he did not have in his lifetime (like the Bible, for example) to teach him.

This week, I studied Sarah's death, followed by Abraham's, and I nearly cried as I read. 

It struck me so profoundly that when Sarah died, the only way he had left to show his love and devotion to her was to properly bury her. They were in a land that, as my study pointed out, belonged entirely to Abraham as part of the promise, but he actually legally owned none of it and had to purchase land to bury his wife. 

The people of the land had such deep respect for him that they wanted to just give him the land as a gift, but he would not hear of it. He insisted on paying a fair price for it. Part of that, I'm sure, was because he was a good and sound businessman. But part of it felt to me like a man who wanted to give this one last gift to his wife, and it only felt complete if it was truly his. 

In this study, I noticed Sarah's occasionally bossy and complaining side. She manipulated things by insisting Hagar have a child in her place and then got angry when she did. Everything she asked or told Abraham to do, he did, and then she would come back and tell him to go fix what he did. Though I know Sarah had good, faith-filled qualities too, I must admit, I am not sure I would have loved living next door to her! But despite the grief she sometimes caused him, Abraham stayed fully devoted to her through her whole life and into her death.

And then when Abraham died, Ishmael and Isaac came back together to bury him beside Sarah. They put aside their own lifelong differences to honor their father. And even in death, Abraham was with Sarah, though he had gone on to marry one more time after she died - and he had more children, as well. 

When I finished the story of his life, I felt like I had said goodbye to a dear friend. I learned much from him in this study. I know that since the Word of God is living and active, I will have many more opportunities to learn from his life. But for today, I am grateful for all I have learned from this dear friend.