BURIAL AS KNOWN BY THE FAMILY OF FAITH
Genesis 15: 51, 16; 23: 14-20; 49: 29-32
I have read these scriptures, dear brethren, to point out that the thought of burial has an important place in connection with the family of faith. We are here to bury an aged and beloved sister. God said to Abraham that he would go to his fathers in peace and be buried in a good old age and in the fourth generation the people should come into the land. That is, there was to be a waiting time and in the meantime he was to be buried. It is a remarkable thing that God should speak to Abraham about his being buried some long time before the end of his life here. Burial involves resurrection; it is the final closing up of one history, in view of life according to God and according to Christ being brought in in the power of resurrection.
God is the God of resurrection. Resurrection is attributed to the Father, as the Lord says, “as the Father raises the dead and quickens them, thus the Son also quickens whom he will”, John 5: 21. We know that the Lord Jesus has Himself been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father; the Father’s love and power moving hand in hand to bring out of the grave the One who was so delightful to Him and securing in Christ risen from among the dead (who is said to be “the beginning, firstborn from among the dead”, Col 1: 18) a world that is going to abide for ever for the pleasure of God, and which takes character and life from Him. Wondrous thing, the glory that is before us now, dear brethren!
The time of waiting for Abraham was a long time, but for us it is a very short time—the time of waiting before we see this glory brought in. And so Abraham, the father of the family of faith, is told that he should be buried; he was to go that way. We all have to feel the reality of death, the penalty of death, the weakness, the humiliation of it. All that is part of our education as having had part in an order of things spoiled by sin. But then all has in view a world beyond death of which God is the Author and where His power and glory are seen and we are all taken up to have part together in that world, a world of resurrection from among the dead. And so we might liken our beloved sister somewhat to Sarah. Sarah was greatly honoured of God, and I have no doubt that our sister in her quiet consistent walk and service over many years has been honoured of God, too.
Now it says that Abraham was anxious that he should bury his dead and that he should have an unquestionable right to the place of burial. I believe this points to the present position of the many— millions indeed—who sleep in Christ; they have an assured portion. We know very little about their present condition, save that as regards things here, they are asleep, asleep through Jesus. As regards God they are not asleep, for “all live to him”. What a wonderful thing it is to take account of those who have fallen asleep living to God! God has His portion in them; we cannot say much about it, but what the Lord says is that “he is not God of the dead but of the living; for all live for him”, Luke 20: 38. And so that is what we are in the light of, dear brethren, that there is this world, an unseen world of spirits, the spirits of departed saints that have their part before God for His pleasure, and soon they will be brought out in the full glory of conformity to Christ. What a day of glory awaits us and how near it is! The disposition of the dead in Christ has been secured. Abraham was very careful to pay the full price and to let it be perfectly clear that the position was secured. And that is exactly what Christ has done in His precious blood; He has secured the position in an unchallengeable way so that all the dead in Christ are assured of their portion. What a thing it is to know it!
And so it says here “the field of Ephron, which was at Machpelah, which was before Mamre”, Gen 23: 17. Mamre is Hebron, it is the purpose of God. Thank God we have the light of His purpose! Satan can accomplish death but that is the end of his power. Man can accomplish death, that is the end of his power. As the Lord says, “those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do”, Luke 12: 4. At the point where man’s power has come to an end and Satan’s power has come to an end, God comes in in His glory and raises up from amongst the dead. He has begun already in Christ. He is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead. Very soon, all those who belong to Christ, and our beloved sister among them, will hear the voice of His power and feel its touch, and they will be conformed to His image, to His body of glory. It says that this was “assured to Abraham for a possession before the eyes of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city”, Gen 23: 18.
Jacob, in giving a charge to his son, recapitulates these things. We can see how the light of resurrection and of a settled burying place in the meantime filled the hearts of the patriarchs. And so Jacob as he is about to die says, “I am gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite”, Gen 49: 29. Beloved brethren, we who are alive and remain, if we remain here a little longer and the Lord comes, shall never feel quite in the same way the power of resurrection. I suppose the change that will take place has something of the nature of resurrection in it; it must be so. But at the same time, those who have fallen asleep in Christ in a sense have a more wonderful portion because Christ has been before them into the grave; He has lain in the grave. Our sister will lie in the grave as all those who have fallen asleep have lain in the grave, but maybe many of us will never lie in the grave; it may be. Certainly sooner or later the time will come when a large number of saints belonging to Christ will never lie in the grave. They will be changed, it is true; they will feel the voice of power and they will be changed, their bodies changed like unto His body of glory. Jacob says, “I am gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers”. It is a great privilege to go the way that Christ has gone. Christ has been into death; He has been into burial; He has been raised again by the glory of the Father. It is a great privilege to go that way, the way of death, the way of burial, the whole way that Christ has gone, and then to become the subjects of divine power operating in resurrection.
And so he says, “the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is opposite to Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite along with the field for a possession of a sepulchre”. He has the whole position in mind. It is before Mamre, that is, Hebron; we are in the full light of the purpose of God. How blessed that purpose is! We can understand the apostle saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Eph 1: 3. It is all beyond death; we have to go that way, death and resurrection or else death and the change, but we all have to go that way, but it is the way into the purpose of God, into that which Hebron speaks of, which is Mamre. And so he says, “There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah”, v 31. How we can go over the ground. You can say that is where Paul is, that is where Peter is, that is where John N Darby is, that is where James Taylor is. Our sister is going to be there, all those who have fallen asleep will be there. What a burying place it is! The whole position secured, unchallengeably secured through the blood of Christ, and Christ Himself is out of death, the beginning, firstborn from among the dead. But what a position it is, how Jacob goes over it, Abraham, Sarah his wife, Isaac, Rebecca his wife, Leah! He himself has to go there. We can go over those in the past, the apostles and the martyrs and those of our own day, for they are all there. They are all there in the light of the purpose of God, and they are soon to come forth in glory like Christ.
“The purchase of the field, and of the cave that is in it, was from the children of Heth”. One of the earlier passages mentions the trees that were in it. They speak of the saints in their variety of glory. What a variety there is among the saints who will come forth in resurrection, all speaking of the wondrous variety of the work of God standing out in abiding fruitfulness for His pleasure! Our dear sister is among them. She has her own distinctiveness in that scene of life and glory and so we bury our sister in the light of these things.
KINGSTON-ON-THAMES
3rd July 1963
From Ministry of the Word, 1964
Word at a burial meeting
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