Genesis 23:1-20
‘Sarah was 127 years old. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died…. And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her, and spoke to the sons of Heth saying: “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Give me possession of a burying-place with you, so that I may bury my dead!”…. After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah…. And the field and the cave therein were made sure to Abraham for possession of a burying-place, by the sons of Heth.’ Genesis 23:1-20.
Calvin comments: “It is remarkable that Moses who relates the death of Sarah in a single word (‘died’), uses so many in describing her burial… The holy father saw that they, in common with reprobates, were subject to death. Nevertheless, they were not deterred…from advancing with intrepidity toward the goal…. They, being animated by the hope of a better life, did not give way to fatigue….
“Moses does not say that Abraham had paid to his wife, while yet alive, the due attentions of a husband…. He omits it, as a thing indubitably certain…. He speak particularly of the mourning, as a matter connected with the care of sepulture….
“It may be asked — what end could it answer, to approach the body for the sake of mourning over it? Was not the death of his wife sufficiently sad and bitter to call forth his grief, without this additional means of excitement?…. If Abraham…both privately wept over the death of his wife…exercising self-government…, and also voluntarily mourned over the common curse of
mankind — there is no fault in either of these…. Yet what Moses soon after subjoins, that he rose up from his dead — is spoken in praise of his moderation….
“How perversely they act, who occupy themselves too much in mourning for the dead!…. The most abundant consolation, is supplied to us in the resurrection of Christ!…. Abraham…had the hope of a resurrection deeply fixed in his heart…. He bought a cave, in order that he might possess for himself and his family, a holy and pure sepulchre….
“The promise of God was not extinguished either by his own death or by that of his family….. It then rather began to flourish!…. Abraham by faith had looked up to Heaven…. He calls the corpse of his wife ‘his dead’…. Nothing but a future restoration, cherishes and preserves the law of mutual connection between the living and the dead…. ‘And Abraham stood up’…. He always kept all his thoughts fixed on God!”
In his Institutes III:25:8, Calvin adds: “To what end was the rite of burial…, unless to teach that new life was prepared for the bodies thus deposited?…. The Spirit…raises our eyes from the view of the tomb…to the prospect of renovation…. Nor would Abraham have been so anxious about the burial of his wife…., had not…something superior to any worldly advantage been present to his mind…. By adorning her dead body with the insignia of the resurrection, he confirmed his own faith and that of his family” — at the death and burial of Sarah!
