23 We're coming near our end of our study of the life of Abraham in chapter 23 as we'll see here in a moment we have basically three things the death of Sarah the mourning of Abraham and Then the pursuit of Abraham to find a proper place burial chapter 24 you have Abraham's pursuit of a wife and For his son Isaac, I think we'll probably look at that one and then the next chapter he dies so one or two Studies likely and then we're done Now we want to do something a little different tonight um Normally, I've been reading like the passage of piecemeal as it relates to the points. But what I want to do is to read through the whole chapter on 20 verses and then come back and look at three things. But the three things I want to examine are a little bit more topical, and I'll explain that when I get there. But as I read through it, do keep in mind those three points. You have Sarah dies, that's in the first verse. Abraham mourns, that's in the next verse. And then basically from verse three on to the end, he's in pursuit of a proper burial place for his beloved Sarah. Genesis 23, one. Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Then Abraham stood up before his dead and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for a burial place among you, that I might bury my dead out of my sight. And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, Hear us, my lord. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead. Then Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, the sons of Heth, and he spoke with them, saying, if it is your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and meet with Ephron, the son of Zoar, for me. Then that he may give me the cave of Mechpelah, which he has, which is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me at the full price as property for burial place among you. Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Heth, all who entered at the gate of his city, saying, Know my lord, hear me. I give you the field and the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people. I give it to you, bury your dead. Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land and he spoke with Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land saying, if you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field. Take it from me and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, my Lord, listen to me. The land is worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead. You can see that's kind of a refrain, isn't it? And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out the silver for Ephron, which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Beth, 400 shekels of silver, currency of the merchants. So the field of Ephron, which was in Mechpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded. to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of the city. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Mechpelah before Mamre, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as property for a burial place. Now, as I've mentioned, you can see that the phrase bury your dead, or for a burial place is used six, seven, maybe eight times in the chapter. Why is it that the Holy Spirit would have Moses to write this section the way that Moses wrote it? Well, I think that there are some important reasons, and I wanna come to them. But what I wanna do is I wanna suggest three reoccurring themes, three dominant themes found in the chapter, and I wanna spend a little time digging deeper down in them. First, we find that Sarah died, verse one, Abraham mourned, verse two, and then thirdly, Abraham pursued a place to bury Sarah, and that's really the remainder of the chapter. Verse one, Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. Now Sarah's the only woman in the whole Bible who has the number of years recorded likely due to her prominence. Again, the Holy Spirit doesn't do anything for no reason. And here he had Moses to specify exactly how long this woman lived. Matthew Poole, the peer and commentator, said, this is the peculiar honor of Sarah, the mother of the faithful, to have the years of her life numbered in Scripture. Luther, one should consider how Moses delivered a beautiful funeral address about Sarah, for in the Holy Scriptures, no other matron is so distinguished. Matron, an older woman, a monarch. Her years, lives, conduct, and burial place are described. In the eyes of God, therefore, Sarah was an extraordinary jewel on whom extraordinary love was bestowed. And she's mentioned deservedly by Peter in 1 Peter 3.6 as an example for all saintly wives. He says there that she called Abraham Lord and that you are her daughters to all Christian matrons matrons, Peter holds her up as a mother. And so we hear often about Abraham as our father, but I don't think we hear much about Sarah as the mother of the faithful women in our midst. And she's set out as an example, and I think in part because as we've seen her weaknesses, the scriptures were not shy about exposing them. Remember, she sinned along with Abraham, not only in feigning the fact that she was his sister, but also in developing the scheme with her maiden. So I think because of that, because the scripture isn't shy to record her faults, I think here it ends on a high note, and it kind of portrays her in a very positive and wonderful way. Thus Sarah died just as every other Christian will. Verse two, so Sarah died. Now that of course is accepting that one generation of people who will be alive at Jesus' return. Remember how Paul put it in 1 Thessalonians, we shall not all sleep, or was it 1 Corinthians? But either way, we shall not all sleep. In other words, there's going to be a generation of Christians alive when Jesus comes back. But rather, if you think about it, that's a rather small minority. I mean, we don't know when Jesus comes back. It's possible that when he comes back, there'll be more Christians on earth than there is now. Hundreds of thousands, maybe more. But that's comparatively small if you think about how many Christians died in the Old Testament and then up until Jesus coming. So I think it's safe to say that probably all of us are going to die. We're gonna follow the path of Sarah, and if we get to chapter 25, Abraham. Now this begs a question. Why do Christians die if Christ died for them? Is that a question that you've ever asked? Because if you think about it, the curse of the law brings death, and that death, of course, is threefold, spiritual, physical, and eternal. And Jesus endured that death for us. He physically died, he eternally died, in that he bore the equivalency of an eternity separated from God on the cross. And thus, in that sense, he died spiritually, quote-unquote. But, and thusly, Christians will never die spiritually. We're alive spiritually, right? Remember, we saw that from Ephesians 2, verse five. Even when we were dead in trespasses and sin, he made us alive. And brother, he doesn't make us alive only to kill us spiritually. You know, we're alive spiritually, we're always gonna be alive spiritually. Furthermore, we're never gonna die internally. That isn't the lake of fire. We're never gonna be separated from God eternally. So if the other two aspects are not true, we'll never die spiritually as Christians, nor eternally. Why physically? Well, all Christians have died physically. I personally believe that Adam was elect. That's to say he was. And he became a Christian. He believed God in Genesis 3 when God gave him the picture of Jesus and he killed that animal and he gave him the first promise of Jesus in the seed of the woman prophecy. And then he died, chapter five, and Adam died. And every other righteous person since has died with a few exceptions. Why is it, though, that Christians will die physically if Jesus already died for us physically? Well, let me start by saying we endure physical death just as we face the other effects of a fallen world. He doesn't take us out of the world when he converts us. If he did like, let's say, Elijah, for example, remember he was taken away without dying. If God did that, then none of us would die. We would simply live for however long he wanted us to live, and then we would be translated, I assume glorified bodily as Elijah was, and we would be somewhere where Jesus is at present. But that's not his will, is it? Because like I said, every other Christian lived and died, or they lived and remained in this world and then they eventually died. And in remaining in this world, they endured all of the effects of the curse. That is, sickness, sorrow, pain, agony, affliction, and death. Now, Jesus endured all of those. He endured pain, he endured affliction, and he experienced physical death. And thusly, while all Christians experience all of those things alongside non-Christians, right? Because Christians get sick as non-Christians get sick. Christians die of cancer, just like non-Christians. They endure afflictions, their children die, All of the other things that happen, happen to them. On top of all that, by the way, they also have to endure the persecution that's unique to being a Christian. And then they're all gonna die and be buried just like every non-Christian. Brethren, we all, as Christians, endure the common effects of the fall in this world along with non-Christians. But here's the difference. We experience all of those very differently. Because all of those things, even our sicknesses, our afflictions, our hardships, our persecutions, and then eventually our physical death, all of those are not bestowed upon us in any judicial way. They're not judicial judgments. They're all fatherly chastisements. Now a few of us that are persevering in our reading of Andrew Bailey's book, The Practice of Piety. We're in a section now where he's talking about the afflictions of the righteous, the sicknesses of the righteous that eventually will lead to death. And he talks about how it is and why it is that God afflicts his people with these things. And they're all good reasons. And we could even say they're all out of love. None of them are judicial. All of them are paternal. All of them are from the hand of our father. Everything we endure in this world, every hardship, every difficulty, ultimately will serve our good in his glory. That's not true for the unconverted, is it? For the unconverted, these are just previews of what awaits them. These aren't the, corrections of a loving father than the previews of judgment from a just God. So we all experience the same things, but, brethren, we experience them very differently. Sarah died. She died just like anybody else. There was nothing unique about the circumstances of her death. I don't know how she died or why she died. She got owned on. Probably was sick. Could have been quick. Sounds like it was quick because it seems like he was away and then he hears about it and comes back. But either way, she dies. And brethren, so it shall be with us. But while we shall die, death, physical death for the Christian has been gutted of any judicial judgment. Even death itself, perhaps the greatest affliction, the last enemy, as Paul calls it, is still the bestowment of a loving father who ultimately is gonna use death for our good because he's going to bring us through it to him. Think of death in that light. Death for the Christian is but a servant. It's a bridge to bring him to God. Oh, it's an enemy, it's not something you sit around and can't wait for and you're dreaming about the 10 hundred possible ways God might bring you. Car accident, helicopter accident, falling out of an airplane, getting eaten by a shark. Those are all ways that we might die. Or we might just die a slow, painful death of cancer. Who knows? Brethren, all of us here are gonna die and we're all gonna die in some way. And probably out of those options, given the fact that we have 20, 30 people here, we're gonna probably die 15, 20 different ways. Die we will. but death is going to bring us to God. And that's why we don't fear death. It's not something, again, we look forward to. It's an enemy. But remember how Paul put it in Philippians 1. Death brings gain. Death in itself perhaps isn't a gain, but it brings gain because it brings us to God. Oh, brother, and all Christians die, but just like the wicked, but they don't die the same. Death for them brings them into punishment. Death for us brings us into eternal bliss. It brings us to God. Sarah died, you'll die, we'll all die as Christians, but we'll die very differently than the death of the wicked because all the penal punishment, the judicial punishment in death has been removed. Jesus fully satisfied it. Thusly, it's no longer a terror for us, but actually it's just a servant to us to bring us to God. Death is gain, all right? She died. Secondly, Abraham mourned. Verse two. So Sarah died in Kerjeth Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abram came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. I said it's possible that he was away and he came to mourn. It's also just possible that they were living in different tents, which was very common. And he just went to her tent. But either way, he came and he mourned and he wept for her. Abraham obviously loved Sarah greatly and her death was a cause of great pain and turmoil of spirit. Abraham wept. He mourned and he wept. He grieved. His heart was broken. This was his beloved wife of many, many, many decades. Now we learn, or thus we learn several things from Abraham. One, we should mourn when loved ones die, and that includes Christian loved ones. Because we live in a fallen world, it hurts to lose our loved ones. Just go back and think for a second all the experiences that Abraham and Sarah had together. And you think about it, if you're married, well, a few of us, None of us probably are gonna be married 80 years, but they were married whatever, 80, 90 years. Can you imagine the experiences that they had together? Can you imagine the size of the scrapbooks? All their children, all the things they went through, the good times, the bad times, the sad times, the hard times, and all the joyful and happy times. And now his beloved companion, that for me I think is one of the best ways to describe marriage, as a companionship. Somebody to walk side by side with through all of the up and downs of this world. And that's what they did, and now his beloved partner, his beloved companion is gone. Brethren, it's not wrong to weep. when one of your loved ones died. I mean, Jesus did it, if you remember, because he too lived in a fallen world. He was unique, obviously, but nevertheless, he lived in a world where people got sick and died. And remember his friend Lazarus died in John 11, and verse 35 simply says, Jesus wept. And then verse 36 says, and the Jew said, look how he loved him. The Jews knew he was weeping in part because he loved Lazarus. Thus, there's a sense in which failure to weep would even be unnatural as spouses have lived together as one flesh. Weeping, and here I'm not speaking specifically of the actual tears flowing, though I think that's normal, but sorrow, grief. A person who doesn't, mourn or grieve the loss of his wife, especially of 80, 90 years, brother. Such a person has to be suspicious. But brethren, all of our weeping and mourning is ultimately for ourselves. We're not weeping for them. Remember how Jesus put it, weep for yourselves. We're weeping because we miss her, and that's very self-centered, and that's natural, as long as it's not over the top and excessive. Obviously, there is an excessive grief. We'll get to that in a second. But there's a proper, contained, and even deep grieving for the loss of somebody you love. But again, this grieving isn't for them. Why would you grieve for them? If they could come back from heaven, they would say as Jesus, don't weep for me, weep for yourselves. No, we weep because we miss them, but we also rejoice because we know where they're at. And if you remember Pastor Martin's book on how to grieve the loss of a loved Christian, his basic premise is, when you lose a Christian wife, in his case, now two of them, But this was his first wife of probably 50 years when she died of cancer, and then the second one died of cancer 15 years later. But when the first one died, he wrote that little booklet and basically said, don't think so much about what you've lost, though you can't not think of that, but fix your mind more so on what she's gained. Because remember, birth and death brings gain. She's in a most happy place She's not suffering anymore with cancer her soul has been perfected she's with a very happy throng she's with a very happy congregation in heaven that the Saints that who died before and been perfected the angels and God in Christ. They're there Let me give you a couple of quick quotations. The first is John Trapp. Mourning our dead is a practice warranted by the best in all ages. And mourn we may in death of friends and family if, one, we mourn in truth, that is, not deceitfully, and secondly, in measure, and not as men without hope. Calvin, to feel no sadness at the contemplation of death is rather barbarian and stupid than an evidence of fortitude of mind. Nevertheless, as Abraham was a man, it might be that his grief was excessive, and yet what Moses soon after subjoins in verse three, that he rose up from his dead, is spoken in praise of his moderation. So he's weeping, but he's weeping with moderation. He's weeping in verse two, verse three, that Abraham stood up from before his day. The inference is he's not weeping excessively. It doesn't say how long he wept. I don't know, maybe it was weeks. But eventually he stands up before the dead. Now then the Bible is just so realistic, isn't it? It doesn't try to hide death. It doesn't run from death. It's not afraid of death. It faces death head on. We are gonna die, but those who die in Christ, they will live. And that's how Jesus put it, didn't he? With reference to Lazarus' sisters. Oh, I'm gonna give you one last one, Luther. Why does Abraham weep? My answer is, by this example, Holy Scripture shows that mourning or weeping over dead parents, a wife, or friends doesn't displease God. Indeed, it's wrong not to weep. The world which is totally leprous caused the lack of natural affection, courage. Man up, don't weep. dry your eyes. Well, again, Jesus wept, so that should settle that. But he goes on and says this. The world which is totally leprous calls the lack of natural affection courage, but this is utter madness and is not a virtue. He preached those lectures, I found Luther did, the lectures through Genesis. In the year that there was a great plague in the city of Wittenberg and I don't know the numbers but when plagues came back then half of the people died and I can only imagine how many widows were weeping when he preached the sermon and Probably why he spent many pages talking We should weep Secondly, we also should have hope And by this I mean, of course, we shouldn't sorrow as others who haven't any and of course You might anticipate this passage first Thessalonians 4 and notice first 13 first Thessalonians 4 13 But I do not want you to be ignorant brethren Concerning those who have fallen asleep last you sorrow as others who have no hope Brethren, the world may try to fool themselves. Oh, we're gonna see him again. He's in heaven fishing with a big man. He's in heaven playing golf. He's in heaven playing video games with the big man. But they don't have any well-grounded hope. That's the hope of a fool. And the tragedy is, brethren, is they're not gonna see them again other than in hell if they're not Christians. But then notice verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died or rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Of course, Paul is thinking about Christians in the first century. who have been waiting for Jesus' second coming, and he's never come. And all the while, all of their friends and family members are dying. What about them? He says, I don't want you to be ignorant, because your loved ones are at present with Jesus, and their bodies are sleeping in the grave. And when Jesus comes back, all of your loved ones will come with him. That generation alive will be changed first, and then the bodies of your loved ones will be raised gloriously and united to their souls. Brethren, Christians do have hope, biblical hope, good hope, solid hope, that their loved ones, when they die, go to heaven, and we're gonna see them again. This is only, this is only farewell for a season. Now stop and think about it. I don't wanna be morbid, but let's say I die first, and my wife has to live on for two decades without me. It's just two decades, 20 years, and she'll follow me into heaven. It's a relatively short time, isn't it? But lastly, we should not only mourn and then secondly, have hope, but thirdly, continue to live. Brethren, you do know that he remarried in the next couple chapters. He remarries in chapter 25, verse one, and then he has five more babies. His new wife gives him five, no, six, six more sons. It's not that he didn't miss Sarah. Nobody replaces Sarah. But he's alive and he's going to live the remainder of the couple decades he has until he goes to God as well. All right, that brings me then more, hopefully quickly, and lastly, to Abraham bury Sarah. Now, within verses four to 20, we find Abraham seeking a burial place for his beloved wife. For example, verse three. Then Abraham stood up from before his dead and spoke to the sons of Hathsang, I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Now, when you read that, you might think, wow, Moses is not very sympathetic here. And Abraham stood up from before his dead. She was dead. Brother, you know that death means separation. Her soul had already gone to be with God, and her body was empty. Now, it was still her body, as we'll see in a minute, but nevertheless, she was dead, and thus it's not wrong to speak of her as his dead. This is Abraham's dead. And so he speaks to the sons of Seth, who are Hittites, and he says, I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Now this is a rather interesting point. Remember God had several decades earlier given the land of Canaan to Abraham and yet he presently is dwelling in that land as a foreigner and visitor. And he's now looking for a place, he has to buy a place from somebody to bury his dead. That's because he's living as a foreigner. as a visitor, if you will. And the reason being, of course, Abraham understood that his ultimate inheritance wasn't pain him, but it was a new one. And he said, but how do you know that? Because the Bible tells us that. Look at it. Hebrews 11, verse 11, verse 13. Hebrews 11, 13. You have it back in verse eight and following, but let's just jump down to verse 13. These all died in faith. That, of course, includes Sarah. Not having received the promises, that's the actual coming of Jesus and all of the benefits we have in him, including the final state, which is the new heavens and earth. But having seen them all afar off, we're short of them. Abraham saw all these things. He saw Jesus, he saw the redemption that he would have in him, and he saw the ultimate final state of the new heavens and earth. And it says, and they embraced them and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They embraced them. What did they embrace? Jesus and all of the salvation that we have in him. Brethren, Abraham saw Jesus' day and was glad. That's what Jesus said. And I think that largely, not though in a limited sense, but largely refers to last week when Abraham saw Jesus on Mount Moriah. If you remember when the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, promised him that God would provide on this very mountain a lamb. He saw it from a long distance. He embraced it and because he embraced it and that is he knew that His ultimate inheritance was far greater than any land on Earth even the land of Canaan. It says how does he put it in verse 13? They Confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland Rather than Abraham understood that ultimately can't what this home Notice verse 15 and surely if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out they would have had opportunity to return think there of lots wife She returned to the land from which she came and died and perished. But now, verse 16, they desire a better, that is a heavenly country, therefore God isn't ashamed to be called their God, for he's prepared a city for them. Brother, what is all that talking about? It's talking about heaven in the final state. Remember when you die, when Sarah died, she went to heaven in the intermediate state. It was a place of bliss, of happiness and holiness, but it wasn't the final state. That's what this passage is talking about. The final state is heaven on earth. It's the new heavens and earth. Brethren, that's what Abraham and all the fathers before and after him anticipated. And he said, but how could they see that? They saw it by faith in the promises. Having seen them afar off, were assured of them and embraced them. And thus Abraham purchased the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, the field and the cave which were in it. Verse 17. And so all through the remainder of the chapter, you have Abraham in pursuit of a place, and then he intentionally selects this one, And the owner of it, Ephron, intends to give it to him for free. But he says, no, I want to pay for it. I want to pay a good price. I want to pay whatever it's worth. And thus he does. And he pays him in silver. And thus he buries his beloved wife in the cave. But the question I want to close with is this. Why did Abraham want to bury Sarah, quote, out of his sight, end quote? Because that's what you have twice, don't you? Verse four, give me property for a burial place among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And then verse seven, or verse eight, if it's your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and meet with Ephron the son of Zoar for me. He intentionally wanted to bury her in this field, and particularly in the cave. Why? Well, let me suggest a couple, three reasons. First of all, to hide her in the dirt. By this I mean, though she was beautiful in life, her body would return to dirt. Obviously, brethren, he didn't want to bury her in his living room and watch the decaying process. No, her body did what Lazarus' body did several thousands of years later. It stank. It decomposed. That's how the old King James has it, isn't it? It's been four days, he's stinking. It's true. It's not very flattering, but it's a fact. Irrespective of how beautiful, this woman was very beautiful, remember? I mean, over and again, she's described as most handsome, beautiful. And now she's gonna be what? Food for the worms. Because remember what the Bible says, that outward beauty is what? Fleeting. And brethren, quite frankly, it's a mercy from God that he has us to bury our dead out of our sight. Not that we forget them, not that we don't go visit the grave, but nevertheless, we can't see what's going on beneath it. Because remember how God has it. You've been taken from the dirt and to it you shall return. Listen to Mr. Gill. Though Sarah was very lovely in her life and greatly desirable by Abraham, yet death had changed her countenance and was turning her into corruption, which rendered her unpleasant and began to make her loathsome, so that there was a necessity of removing her out of his sight, who before had been so agreeable to him. It is kind of tragic, and it ought to make us feel some kind of way. Beautiful are beautiful wives. They're just their bodies are going to become Decomposed He goes on and this is the case of the dearest relation and friend at death But as we're seeing a minute the point is is that it's gonna come out of the grave that body Altogether different than the way in which it went into And secondly, not only to hide her in the dirt, but to protect her in the grave. I think this means while their body is lifeless, it remains the image of God. I think there's a dignity to burying our dead bodies, the bodies of our loved ones, in the ground. Now that's not to say that disintegration is something that's unpartable sin. And I understand that today it's become popular and sometimes necessary just simply because of the finances. But brethren, it's not the ideal. As Christians, we desire, if possible, to bury our dead in graves. But either way, the point being is that they're put somewhere where they can't be contaminated by people. They can't be disrespected and dishonored. There's something dignifying about that. You put the body, there she is, in the casket, you put her on the ground, and then you cover her with dirt. And there she's going to lie forever, how long it takes Jesus to come back. And then she'll come up out of the grave altogether, She won't come out of it in the way in which she laid there all those years. Listen to Mr. Poole. The privilege of burial has been always sought and prized by all nations, whom nature and humanity teaches to preserve the bodies of men, which have been the temples of reasonable and immortal souls, from contempt and violation. for which cause Abraham desires a distinct bearing place separated from the pagans. In other words, it's a place wherein the body can have a sense of dignity. Because remember, that body was, and yet still is, purchased by the blood of the Lamb. Because remember, we're image of God, body and soul. He buys our body and soul and he's gonna glorify our body and our soul and thus lastly to lay her quietly in her sleep until the morning of the resurrection. You know that the scriptures speak of that sleep that the dead have in the grave, that is their bodies, as a long night. And the morning's coming. When's the morning coming? I don't know. Thousands of years, hundreds, thousands, 10,000. But coming it is. And so we don't know where we're at in the prophetic clock. It could be yet 10 o'clock at night. We got a long ways to go. Could be just a few hours into the break of dawn. But brother, the point being is when Jesus comes back, every dead body for whom he died will come up out of the grave. Now I know that's 1 Corinthians 15, altogether glorious. And thusly you know that the scripture speaks of the dead bodies of the righteous as sleeping in Jesus. How is it, why is it that Sarah is sleeping in Jesus right now? Wherever her body rotted, if I can use that phrase respectfully, wherever it decomposed, somewhere in the Middle East, it's there, it's in the dirt. That body is yet sleeping in Jesus. And it will for the virtue of Jesus. and in particular, his resurrection, come out of the grave. And when it comes out of the grave, it's gonna come out altogether beautiful as Jesus' glorified body. It's the same body. Oh, brethren, the same body that gets put in the ground comes out, but it just comes out altogether different. And that's why he wanted to find a place, a nice, secluded, quiet place for his beloved to sleep. Now, I'm not talking about her soul, right? Because her soul goes to be with God. To be absent from the body, Paul said, is to be present. I'm talking about her body rather than that's it. You know what I can think of that I I mean, I we don't know right who's gonna die first me or my wife maybe together That's how we kind of dream it, you know talk about it We were when we're in the plane we pray and say what we go down. We're gonna go down hold hands But likely one of us is gonna die let's say my wife dies first I'm gonna preach her funeral I'm gonna cry my eyes out and then we're gonna go to the site where she's gonna be buried and Not in a cave, but probably in a hole in the ground. And I'm gonna put a casket in there, and I'm gonna put the first shovel of dirt on there, and I'm gonna say, sleep, my beloved. Because the morning's coming. Let me close with Calvin. Moses, because he's the author of Genesis, is the more particular in this matter, that is, of Abraham finding a suitable grave for Sarah, that we may learn with our father Abraham to raise our minds to the hope of the resurrection. He saw the half of himself taken away in Sarah. But because he was certain that his wife was not exiled from the kingdom of God, he hides her dead body in the tomb until he and she should be gathered together. And brethren, they will. Amen. Well, let's stand and transition as we recite the Lord's Prayer, and then we'll come to our prayer time.