(Genesis) Genesis 23:10-20

And now he has this deal to buy the cave. Now notice the transaction. And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth.

And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, "'Nay, my lord, hear me. The field give I thee, and the cave that is therein I give it thee. In the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee.

Bury thy dead.'" Now notice Abraham and the generosity of these people and of this man Ephron in particular. Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. They certainly were polite in that day.

We get the impression these were cavemen that carried clubs and clubbed each other. May I say to you, if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the Old Testament saints, in fact the ones that are mentioned in this chapter, if they were in Los Angeles today and could go back and report to their folk, I think they'd say, do you know that the offspring are a bunch of cavemen? They're highly uncivilized. They're rude and they're crude and they're a disgrace.

I think they would say that of us today. But we have the advantage, we can talk about them. But the interesting thing is, notice how polite they are.

Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. Now verse 13, And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me, I will give thee money for the field. Take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.

And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me, the land's worth four hundred shekels of silver. What's that betwixt me and thee? Bury therefore thy dead. And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron, and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

That is the legal tender of that day. Now the field of Ephron, which was Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field that were in all the borders round about were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth before all that went in at the gate of his city. And after this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, the same as Hebron, in the land of Canaan.

And the field and the cave that is therein were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the sons of Heth. And apparently that place today, a mosque built over it, is the mosque there at Hebron. And by the way, it's considered either the second or the third most important mosque of the world of Islam.

They have many beautiful mosques, Cairo and in other places. Some of them that I've seen are absolutely beautiful. But the ones that are the most important, of course, would be Mecca first.

And I'm not sure whether this one at Hebron or the one in Jerusalem is considered number two. But then the other one would be number three. So you can see how important this is because they all go back to Abraham.

Now, that reveals the importance of this chapter. And it's going to become important because Isaac's going to be buried here, and Jacob will die way down in Egypt, and he wants to be buried here. And he is buried there, by the way.