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There's that very famous statement by Benjamin Franklin that says, “in this world nothing can be said to be more certain except death and taxes”. A few dishonest criminal may think they have figured out how to get around taxes, but nobody has yet figured out how to avoid the reality of death.

People rarely talk about death but sooner or later we all have to deal with the subject. Usually, the first time we have to face with it is through the death of someone near and dear to us, perhaps a family member or a friend passes away. The death the death of loved ones can be sudden like an heart attack or an accident which we weren't expecting, out of the blue so to speak when someone we know and loved dies or is killed. On the other hand, sometimes death can be slow and gradual like a terminal illness slowly overwhelming a person physically. Therefore, whether it comes slowly or suddenly we all have to be confronted with the subject of death at some point and when it comes to us, we need to know how to deal with it. My question is, how can we know how to deal with the death of a loved one, particularly somebody very close to us.

As we have been going through the book of Genesis and we have arrive at a point here in Ch 23 where we are confronted with what some have described as a death notice. There are many death notices in the Bible, we are told many times that somebody died but those reports are usually quite brief often just a line in a generational list of names. However, the death notice we're going to look at tonight is much more extensive. It is an extended description of what happened  after somebody died. Over the next 4 or five episodes I want us to look at the experience of Abraham and the loss of his beloved wife Sarah and see what happens and also ask does any of this apply to us today.

Reading Genesis Ch 23 we quickly find out that Sarah, Abraham's wife dies.

“Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her”.

(Gen 23: 1-2)

This whole chapter is about the death of Sarah which is highly unusual. I don't know of any other passage that goes into this much detail about the death and burial of somebody perhaps with the exception of Jesus in the gospels, but that's an entirely different situation. What happens in this passage is Abraham is seen to respond to Sarah’s death by doing three things and it's those three things I want us to layout clearly. What Abraham did is what we will go through and consider if we too need to be prepared to go through these things at some point preferably sooner than later. 

But let me back up and just start with the fact that Sarah died. Taking account of the time of when her son Isaac was born from what we can piece together from the book of Genesis she was between 108 and 110 years old when she die. What is significant here  is the fact that verse two says this she was in the land of Canaan when she died. Please notice that it is deeply significant she was in the land of Canaan when she died. I don't think I have to tell you that Sarah is a very important woman in the Bible and for a whole bunch of reasons. The Lord promised Abraham that he was going to bless him give him the land and thereby bless the whole world through him. Sarah was a part of that because although Abraham had a son by a handmade Hagar, God had particularly said, I'm going to bless you I'm going to give you a son who is going to come through your wife Sarah. This is why Sarah is such an important individual in all of the Bible, but this other reasons why she's important.

The book of Hebrews makes that very clear that there's another reason why she is important, one that doesn't often get a lot of attention. Her importance as an example. First Peter Chapter 3 also describes her as a role modern for Christian woman  A description of here that is not very popular with some in recent times. But we shall look at that next time.