1.In the time we are living in I think it is important to know what scripture says about G-d promising Avraham land and that it was a promise that was to be everlasting. It is also important to know exactly where to find these verses and even memorize them for future use. G-d promised Avraham land 5 times in Genesis. See if you can find these verses? Think about at least memorizing where these verses are found to use when speaking to someone about Israel today.
Promise of Land
1. Genesis 12:7 The L-rd appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the L-rd who had appeared to him.
2. Genesis 13:14-17 The L-rd said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north, south, east and west. All the land that you see, I will give you and your offspring forever…Go walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”
3. Genesis 15:7 Then He said to him, “I am the L-rd, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to take possession of it.”
4. Genesis 15:18-21 On that day the L-rd made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates – the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
5. Genesis 17:7-8 I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your G-d and the G-d of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give you as an everlasting possession to you and to your descendants after you; and I will be their G-d.
How do we know that the descendants of Isaac are the ones to inherit the land and the promises that G-d gave to Avraham? Genesis 21:12 says, “But G-d said to Avraham, Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.”
Although Ishmael is rejected as Abraham’s heir, he still receives a blessing and a promise that he will be the father of a great nation (Gen 16:10).
2.After Sarah died in Genesis 23:1-3 what two things does it say Avraham immediately did? How was this different than the way Lot and his family handled their crisis? What is this telling us?
In last week’s Torah portion we saw the angels had to take Lot, his wife and daughters by the hand to get them to leave Sodom. Even after the angels warned them not to look back Lot’s wife looked back and died.
What about Avraham? What did he do? Sarah died and Avraham went to mourn her and weep for her. But he did not let his grief stop him from moving forward in G-d’s calling on his life. He did not get stuck in his grief. He realized G-d was not finished with him.
Avraham believed the promises G-d had made to him and he knew the fulfillment of these promises required his active participation. So what did he do? Torah says in Genesis 23:3 “he stood up from before his dead and spoke to the sons of Heth” and arranged a place to bury his wife. He was not only finding a burial place, he was also buying the first piece of land G-d had promised him. He made the purchase in a public place so there would be no question about it.
Avraham then began the process to find a wife for his son. G-d had promised him descendants as the stars in the sky. So the next step was finding a wife for Isaac.
What does all this say to us? Remember G-d promised Avraham two things, land and descendants. Avraham believed G-d completely but he also understood he had an active part to play in G-d’s plan.
It is true that G-d promises but we have to act. G-d gives us the responsibility to join Him by taking part in His plan for our life. Don’t let fear, grief or anger hold you back but take that step to go to your own promised land. There is a time to mourn but don’t get stuck in it. Don’t allow it to cripple you.
Remember, G-d saved Noah from the flood but Noah had to build the ark.
Another example in this Torah portion is Rebekah. What did Rebekah’s family say when the servant asked her family for permission for Rebekah to return with him to be Isaac’s wife? The family asked, in Genesis 24:55 that she delay her departure another few days, maybe 10 days. When they asked Rebekah what did she say? In verse 58 her answer was simple and direct. In Hebrew it is one single word, elek or “I will go.”
Be ready to respond when G-d calls.
3.In Genesis 23:4 when Avraham stood before the Hittites trying to buy a place to bury his wife he said, “I am a stranger (alien) and a sojourner (resident) with you. What was Avraham saying and how does this apply or should it apply to us?
“A stranger and a sojourner.”
(ger) He is a stranger because he was not a Hittite;
(toshav)a sojourner or foreign resident because he was living there.
These terms are found in other places in scripture.
G-d spoke to the Israelites in Leviticus25:23“‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as strangers (ger) and sojourners.(toshav)
I Chronicles 29:15-16, “We are strangers (gerim) and sojourners (toshavim)in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow,without hope. 16 L-rdour G-d, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.”
David also knew this truth Psalm 39:12 “Hear my prayer, O L-rd, and give ear to my cry; do not be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger (ger) with you, a sojourner (toshav) as all my fathers were.
G-d was telling the Israelites that the land was His. He was allowing them to reside there. I think these words apply to us all. We are residents or sojourners in our world.
I Peter 2:11, “ Beloved, I exhort you, as strangers and sojourners, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;”
We all live in a town or community. We have a house, pay taxes, buy groceries like everyone else around us. All our possessions are given to us for our use while we are on this earth.
However, we should recognize that we are also aliens. What does this mean? First to all, we should be thankful for how G-d provides for us and not get caught up in possessions.
It also means our faith calls us to be different. It calls us to sometimes be separate and not participate in activities that would not glorify G-d. We have been called by G-d to be a people set apart. We have been called to have a higher calling, a higher loyalty.
G-d put Avraham and Sarah in a place with the Hittites, but they were not to become Hittites. So, it is with us in our daily walk. My prayer for us is that our residence does not cause us to forget who we are as G-d’s children. We are aliens on a path that has a different goal.
4.When we look at B’resheet/Genesis 24:1 we read, “Now Avraham was old, well advanced in age, and the L-rd had blessed Avraham in all things.” When Avraham had only one piece of land to bury his wife and one son how do you understand the ending of that verse that says the L-rd had blessed Avraham in all things?”
For a variety of reasons, neither Abraham nor Sarah had an easy life. Theirs were lives of trial, in which their faith was tested at many points. How can the Torah say that Abraham had been blessed with everything?
The answer is given by the parsha itself. Many times Abraham had been promised the land. Here is just one of those occasions:
The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Raise your eyes, and, from the place where you are now [standing], look to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. . . . Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you”. Gen 13:14-17
Also, G-d chose Avraham for this journey. He walked with him, fellowshipped with him, spoke directly to him. In James 2:23 it says Avraham was a friend of G-d. Avraham was blessed in knowing G-d as few men do.
To place your life in God’s hands, to have faith that whatever happens to you happens for a reason, to know that you are part of a larger narrative, and to believe that others will continue what you began, is to achieve a satisfaction in life that cannot be destroyed by circumstance. Abraham and Sarah had that kind of faith in G-d, and they were able to die with a sense of fulfillment. They held on to G-d’s promises as if they had already happened.
To be happy does not mean that you have everything you want or everything you were promised. It means, simply, to have done what you were called on to do, to have made a beginning, and then to have passed on the baton to the next generation. “The righteous, even in death, are regarded as though they were still alive” (Brachot 18a) because the righteous leave a living trace in those who come after them.
That was enough for Abraham and Sarah, and it must be enough for us.
Here are a few verses in the Messianic scripture that give us encouragement that we too can say we are blessed in all things.
Philippians 4:11-13, “ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
II Corinthians 12:10, “That is why, for Messiah’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
I Timothy 6:6-8, “ But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”
Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
I Peter 5:6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under G-d’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Hebrews 11:8-12 , “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is G-d. And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.”