Ever wonder what you can learn from Abraham buying a grave?
Me too, though there were a few thoughts Sunday night. This is, to me, one of those passages of Scripture that's there more for the historical record than for any specific application.
Which is worth considering for a few moments. Do you understand that sometimes, life is just, well, what it is? There are ordinary, day-to-day life events that we all go through. When you read the Bible, you see people going through extraordinary moments in their life.
Consider this: Eric Metaxas' biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is 608 pages. Eberhard Bethge's biography of the same life is over 1000 pages. Yet Pastor Bonhoeffer does not live past middle age, and even so the combined force of these 1600 pages still leaves questions unanswered, events deemed minor left out.
Abraham lives more than 100 years longer than that Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His life is no less integral, in fact it's more important, yet Genesis records his story in 13 chapters. That means that most of the life of Abraham is deemed unnecessary for us to know.
How does that come into life for you or me?
Simple: every day isn't noteworthy. It's really not. You will have some days that you get up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, hug your family, eat dinner, and go to bed. Note that I'm not saying this isn't a blessing or the grace of God for you: it is certainly that.
It's just not earth shattering. It's the day-to-day of life, and it feels dull sometimes. We tune in to TV programs that highlight grand moments, that skip past the mundane. Really---you never saw someone sweeping on the Enterprise, did you? No.
You don't see reality, even in reality TV. A biopic will condense a life into 2 hours---you don't get the whole life.
I think that one of the side benefits of the Lord God including Genesis 23 is just this: we see that even the Patriarch Abraham handling business. Boring business.
And we take heart, because we have boring business to attend to. We have the ordinary of life to live through.
That's where our legacy lies. Why?
That's where we see great things, in the sum of the boring things. After all, negotiating for a cave doesn't sound like much, but it's the end of a lifetime of marital commitment. It's the end of a family connection to walk with Christ together. It has to remind Abraham, somewhat, that he's not got too much longer.
Yet we see the life that's left behind. One small step in obedience. One day, followed by another day.
Don't fret that you're plodding. Find the right direction, and plod away. You may take years to grasp what, when you look back, you think should have taken minutes. You can't recover it, and you can't change it. Take it from here and go forward.
Because that's what our heroes of the faith did as well: they were faithful in the little things that bear almost no mention, and when the great moments came, they were ready. Your great moment is coming: have you been faithful in the unknown enough to be prepared for it?
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