Chayei Sarah Slides (pdf)
Chayei Sarah Notes (pdf)
Overview of Chayei Sarah (“The Life of Sarah”) Genesis 23:1 – 25:18
Last week’s Portion ended with the Binding of Isaac, when his Father Abraham bound him upon the altar and offered him to Yehovah as a sacrifice. Yehovah accepted that sacrifice when He provided the ram for Abraham to offer instead of Isaac. This was a test of Abraham’s obedience…and also Isaac’s obedience. We speculated last week that Isaac was probably in his 30’s when this event happened (we’ll get a little more insight as we explore this week’s Portion); he was certainly old enough to resist 130 year old Abraham, if he wanted to – he was just as willing a participant in this as Abraham was; and perhaps this was more of a test for Isaac that for Abraham! Isaac literally became the “living sacrifice” that Paul speaks about in Romans 12:1.
In this week’s Portion, we see the transition of authority from Abraham to Isaac. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of Yehovah’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendants and land of his own (Genesis 12).
Chapter 23 – Sarah’s Death
The chapter starts with: “Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah.” The Rabbis suggest that, because this verse immediately follows the story of the Binding of Isaac, perhaps she died from the shock of hearing what Abraham had attempted to do to her son…her only son. Last week’s Portion ended with Abraham returning to his home in Beer-Sheba, and we see in the beginning of this week’s Portion that he came to mourn for Sarah at Kiriot-Arba (Hebron); they were obviously living apart at this time…another possible clue that Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac brought about Sarah’s death. If that’s the case, then Isaac would have been 37 years old (he was born when Sarah was 90), and he would certainly have been able to prevent Abraham from plunging that knife into him if he wasn’t a willing participant in it. So both Abraham and Isaac passed the test that Yehovah had prepared for them.
We read in the second verse that Abraham mourned for her and he wept for her. We get some insight into this by looking at the Hebrew text. The above quote of the first verse from the New King James is not exactly what the Hebrew says: “The life of Sarah was one hundred years, and twenty years, and seven years…” Rashi suggests that Abraham’s eulogy for her separated her life into three parts: when she was 7 years old, 20 years old and 100 years old. When she was 20, she was as sinless and naïve as she was at 7; and when she was 100, she was as beautiful as when she was 20. Rashi went on to say that the transitions from 7 to 20 and 20 to 100 were not transitions at all; but rather additions. She retained her 7-year-old sinlessness and naivety at age 20; and she retained those 7-year-old traits plus her 20-year-old beauty when she was 100. No wonder Abimelech found her so attractive at age 89!
Abraham ignored his heritage and buried Sarah in Canaan and not their Babylonian homeland. The rest of this chapter details the purchase of Sarah’s burial plot in Hebron. At that time it was known as Kiriot-Arba (“City of Four”), and the cave that Abraham wanted to purchase was known as Machpelah (“Double” or “Pair”). Today, there are three couples buried there: Abraham & Sarah; Isaac & Rebekah; and Jacob & Leah (the beloved Rachel is buried near Bethlehem). But Kiriot-Arbah means “City of Four”; who is the fourth couple? The Rabbis say that the fourth couple is Adam & Eve….but this is only speculation.
Abraham entered into negotiations with the owners of the land, the Sons of Heth; and we see here an example of good old fashioned Middle-Eastern bargaining for the burial site. The owner offered to “give” the land to Abraham but he insisted on purchasing it; he knew that what was given can also be taken back again. The owner proposed a ridiculously high price for it (enough to buy a huge house on a hill) and Abraham accepted it. So we see documented here the legal purchase of this land. We see this same documentation for two other plots of land: Joseph’s burial site at Shechem (Joshua 24:32), and the Temple Mount site in Jerusalem (II Samuel 24:24). We know today that Jerusalem is a major point of contention – and I believe that these other two sites (both located today in the PA-controlled West Bank) will be as contentious as Jerusalem as we enter the End of the Age. And over the centuries, the Sons of Jacob have in like manner purchased from the local owners all of the land they now occupy…and yet the “Palestinians” claim that these lands were “stolen” from them and must be returned!
Chapter 24 – A Bride for Isaac
Abraham charged the chief servant in his household (we believe that this is the same man Eliezer mentioned back in chapter 15) with the task of finding a wife for Isaac. Yehovah instructed him not to choose a wife from the Canaanites, but he must go back to Chaldea to find a wife from Abraham’s family. Eliezer asked if he could take Isaac along with him and Abraham said “No, Isaac must stay in this land.” Remember … Isaac was the offering in chapter 22, and we will see that the offering must be eaten in the Sanctuary (Leviticus 6:25-26 & 10:12-14). So Eliezer left for Chaldea, for the house of Nahor – Abraham’s brother (refer again to the chart of Terah’s Descendants here: https://torahnotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-Generations-of-Terah.pdf). He took with him ten camels loaded with all of Abraham’s goods.
Before he arrived at the City of Nahor, he “put out a fleece.” He said, “When I stop at the well for water, I will ask one of the young women if she would give me a drink. If she also offers to also water the camels, then she is the one who will marry Isaac.” Consider that one camel can drink up to 50 gallons, that’s a very generous offer for a young woman to make to a stranger. You can see in the Power Point slides a typical open well that would have been common then – certainly not an easy task to carry, by hand, 500 gallons of water out of that well.
And that is exactly what happened – Rebekah responded exactly as Eliezer had established. And she turned out to be the grand-daughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor. Notice the result of Abraham starting his family (with Isaac) at age 100: he is looking for a bride for his son among his brother’s grand-children – one generation behind his own family. Eliezer gave her jewelry and she took him back to her father’s house where he began negotiating the bride price…not with her father Bethuel, but rather with her brother Laban. We will see more of Laban in future chapters when Jacob interacts with him.
Laban took one look at the ten camels loaded with Abraham’s goods and the bride price was quickly established. Her family wanted her to linger for a few days – a reasonable request – but she wanted to leave immediately; perhaps to escape her bad home situation. We will get a clear picture of Laban in his dealings with Jacob and we should be able to understand Rebekah’s desire to leave her home. So Abraham’s wealth was unloaded from the camels, and Rebekah and her servants departed for Canaan on those ten camels. Is this a picture of Yeshua’s parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25?
The chapter ends with the entourage arriving in Canaan and Rebekah meeting Isaac, her husband, for the first time. “Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” The Rabbis say that Sarah’s tent had been the place of community fellowship and hospitality, until her death. When Rebekah entered that tent, that fellowship and hospitality returned.
Chapter 25 – Abraham’s Marriage and Death
After Sarah’s death, Abraham married Keturah, whom some believe is Hagar, Ishmael’s mother. These descendants include the Midianites and those who settled Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are descendants of Abraham/Keturah…not Ishmael. Abraham gave “gifts” to these sons of Keturah, but he gave all that he had to Isaac; and he sent the sons of Keturah off to the East, away from Isaac.
Abraham died at the age of 175 and both Isaac and Ishmael buried him alongside Sarah in the tomb in the cave of Machpelah. And Isaac dwelt at Beer Lahai-Roi, the place where Hagar encountered Yehovah in Genesis 16.
The chapter ends with the descendants of Ishmael: 12 sons. This certainly parallels Jacob and his 12 sons, just an entire generation earlier. Ishmael died when he was 137 years old and was “gathered to his people” in the land east of Egypt toward Assyria.
Next week we will see Isaac’s ministry and the start the Jacob’s adventures.
Haftarah Reading (I Kings 1:1-31)
In the Haftarah we read of another transition of authority: this one from King David to his son Solomon. But this transition was not nearly as smooth as Abraham’s to Isaac. David’s dysfunctional family – the result of multiple wives, jealousy and greed among his wives & sons – brought about his wife Bathsheba’s confrontation with him in 1 Kings 1:15-21 & 28-31:
“So Bathsheba went into the chamber to the king. (Now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was serving the king.) And Bathsheba bowed and did homage to the king. Then the king said, “What is your wish?” Then she said to him, “My lord, you swore by the Lord your God to your maidservant, saying, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’ So now, look! Adonijah has become king; and now, my lord the king, you do not know about it. He has sacrificed oxen and fattened cattle and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the sons of the king, Abiathar the priest, and Joab the commander of the army; but Solomon your servant he has not invited. And as for you, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, that you should tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. Otherwise it will happen, when my lord the king rests with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon will be counted as offenders.”……. Then King David answered and said, “Call Bathsheba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. And the king took an oath and said, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from every distress, just as I swore to you by the Lord God of Israel, saying, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ so I certainly will do this day.” Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and paid homage to the king, and said, “Let my lord King David live forever!”
Brit Chadashah (John 16:7-15)
In this week’s story of the selection of a bride for Isaac, Abraham sent his most trusted servant. We are not told his name here, but back in chapter 15 we were introduced to Eliezer of Damascus, the chief steward of Abraham’s house. So it is generally believed this unnamed servant is Eliezer – whose name means “My God is My Helper”. And his purpose was to select a bride for his master’s son. In the Brit Chadashah Yeshua promised His Disciples that He would send The Helper (Who is also unnamed), and He will select the Bride of Messiah. We read Yeshua’s words from the Upper Room Discourse in John 16:7-15:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”