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Sermon Summary: Abraham's Life and Death in Genesis 25
This sermon analyzes Genesis 25:1-11, which describes the closing chapter of Abraham's life. The pastor explores the significance of Abraham's death, his legacy, and the spiritual lessons we can learn from how he approached the end of his life.
Main Outline
Introduction
Final sermon in Genesis series before moving to Jesus' sayings from the cross
Genesis 25 closes Abraham's chapter in Scripture
The importance of contemplating our own death (Ecclesiastes 7:2-4)
Abraham's God is a Covenant-Keeping God (verses 1-6)
Abraham takes Keturah as wife after Sarah's death
Has six more sons in his old age (fulfilling God's promise to make him "father of many nations")
Abraham gives all his possessions to Isaac, the son of promise
He gives gifts to his other sons and sends them eastward, away from Isaac
Abraham demonstrates covenant faithfulness by obeying God's will regarding Isaac's primacy
Abraham's God is a God Who Gives Blessing (verses 7-11)
Abraham dies at 175 years old, "in a good old age" and "full of years"
Contrast between biblical view of aging (positive) vs. modern worship of youth
Abraham is "gathered to his people" - evidence of life beyond physical death
After Abraham's death, God continues to bless Isaac (v.11)
Living by Faith Like Abraham
Abraham's life exemplified faith (Genesis 15:6)
Living with hope that extends beyond this world
Hebrews 11:6 - "Without faith it is impossible to please God"
God's faithfulness continues through generations
Our brief lives (a "handbreadth") can have eternal significance when lived by faith
Key Theological Points
Faith and Obedience: Abraham's obedience in sending away his sons demonstrates how true faith expresses itself in action.
Biblical View of Aging: Scripture presents aging positively as a blessing, not negatively as in modern culture.
Afterlife Hope: Abraham was "gathered to his people" though not buried with them - evidence of spiritual life beyond death.
Legacy of Faith: God's blessings continue to descendants of the faithful (Abraham to Isaac).
God's Sovereign Plan: God weaves a tapestry in history that we can only partially see, requiring faith to trust His design.
The sermon concludes with prayer, emphasizing how Abraham's example encourages believers to maintain faith even when they stumble, knowing God's faithfulness extends through generations.
Transcript
Abraham's Death and Legacy
Genesis 25:1-11
If you want to take your Bible and turn, we'll be in Genesis chapter 25.
Lord willing, this is our last sermon in Genesis until probably late summer or early fall. My plan, such as my plans are, is to do a series on the seven sayings that Jesus gives from the cross as we lead up towards Easter, and then we'll jump back in after Easter and finish up the Gospel of Mark, which we've kind of been off and on in for a couple of years now. So we'll, again, Lord willing, that's the plan, is to finish up the Gospel of Mark this summer, and then we'll come back to Genesis after that.
Today we're getting to a point where we kind of close a chapter in Genesis. It's the first major chapter to focus on an individual. The first 11 almost 12 chapters of Genesis focus on the origin of the whole world and so from Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 until Genesis chapter 11 verse 26 you cover about 2000 years of history from God's creation of the world until the genealogy of Tara, the father of Abram, whose name becomes Abraham.
And then in 11:27 and following, we have this focus in on Abraham and his family. And that focus continues all the way through the rest of the Old Testament. The descendants of Abraham are the focus of the scriptures. And until we come to the greatest son of Abraham in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the Gospels, the Gospel of Matthew especially, traces the genealogy of Jesus, not all the way back to Adam, but simply back to Abraham.
And so the focus of the whole rest of the Bible takes about as much time as historically as the first 11 chapters of Genesis did. And so Abraham is that first great chapter. And then he closes here in chapter 25. It closes.
Genesis 25:1-11
We're going to read here. We'll just read the first 11 verses of chapter 25. It says,
Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Midan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shua. Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Ashurim, Latushim, and Layumim. The sons of Midian were Ephah and Ephor, Hanak, Abida, and Eldah. All these were the children of Keturah.
Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. But to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts. While he was still living, he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the east country. These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
Isaac and Ishmael had his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar, the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with Sarah, his wife. After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac, his son, and Isaac settled at Bir Laharoi.
Contemplating Our Own Death
I wonder how often you think about your own death, the day of your death. We spoke a couple of weeks ago when we were looking at chapter 23 about facing the hardship and the test of faith that is the death of someone you love when Abraham's wife Sarah died. But today, I think we need to consider the day of your own departure from this world.
One of my favorite passages to quote, you've probably almost all heard me quote it multiple times. I'll just read it for you here is Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verses 2 through 4, which say, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth."
And what Solomon is teaching us there is that wise living is directly tied to meditation upon the reality of the day of death, that when we think about the house of mourning and the fact that that is where we are all headed, true wisdom and even true joy come from thinking about that and living in light of that reality.
We need to contemplate our last day here on earth and the last day, the ultimate last day when we stand before the judgment of God. What account will you give of your life when you stand before him? And when you leave this earth, when you die, what essence will there be left from your life?
In that chapter of Ecclesiastes chapter 7, the very first verse says this: "A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of birth." And that phrase "a good name is better than precious ointment" is comparing a good name, having left a good name to the spices and the perfumes that they would use to anoint a body that was being prepared for burial. And Solomon is saying it is better to have left a good life, to have left a good name with those who are remembering you than to have all the perfume that you can dump on a body. Like that's not going to matter at all in the end. We're going to put you in the cave and close the rock over the top. We won't smell that anymore. But we'll still smell whether you left a good life or not.
As we look here at Genesis chapter 25, the curtain is dropping on Abraham's story. And we need to ask ourselves these questions of where are we going to stand before God? What will we present before God when we stand before him? What will we leave for those who come behind us in terms of a name? And then this crucial question in addition that's actually going to prepare you to answer those questions rightly: Do you know Abraham's God?
Abraham's God is a Covenant-Keeping God
The first section here in verses 1 through 6, we see that Abraham's God is a covenant-keeping God, and that he expects covenant faithfulness from you too, verses 1 through 6.
First thing we see here is that after the death of Sarah, Abraham takes another wife. Her name is Keturah. And you've got to realize, like, Sarah died at 127 years old. She's 10 years younger than Abraham. He's 137 when she dies. So let's just presume, because Abraham sends all of these children away while he's still alive, so probably they're all born between the time he's about 140 and 160 years old. Okay, so in his very old age, God gives him six more sons.
Their names are listed there in verse 2. And this is God beginning to fulfill the promise that's associated with Abraham's name change back in 17. In chapter 17 of Genesis, before Isaac is born, even before God has changed his name, God comes to Abraham and promises him that he is going to bless him. Verse 4 says, "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations."
No longer shall your name be Abram. And the name Abram means exalted father, someone who's lifted up, someone who has nobility. And God changes his name to Abraham, which means father of a multitude. And so God changes his name as part of the promise that you will be the father of a multitude of nations. And here in 25, we see these names listed out of his sons who become nations.
They are not the ones through whom Abraham's descendants are named. The line of promise is associated with Isaac, and we'll talk about that in a moment. Nonetheless, God makes these sons also into tribes and nations.
Of particular importance is Midian, who's listed there in the middle. Midian comes up again in the biblical story, chapter 37 of Genesis. The Midianites, that's an interesting chapter. We'll talk about it more when we get there. But they seem to be associated with Isaac, the salvation of Joseph from his brothers wanting to kill him. They see Ishmaelite traders coming. And then there's a Midianite group of traders in with the Ishmaelites. And the Midianites are the ones to whom Joseph's brothers sell him. And then they go on the caravan down to Egypt. So the fact that Joseph is saved from death and is instead sold into slavery is tied to the Midianites.
And then the next book, Book of Exodus, when Moses flees from Egypt because he's murdered an Egyptian taskmaster, he flees to the land of Midian, and Mary is a Midianite woman, and the priest of Midian is now his father-in-law, Jethro. And that priest seems to be a priest not of a pagan god, not of a false god, but of the true god. We see in chapter 18 of Exodus, he's coming to Moses and he offers sacrifices to the Lord and he's giving Moses wise advice. So the Midianites seem to continue worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, even though they're not associated with the line of Isaac and Jacob.
So that's an interesting note there with the Midianites. But Abraham here, he obeys the revealed will of God. He obeys again, chapter 21, verse 12, we talked about a few weeks ago. God had endorsed him sending Hagar and Ishmael away. And that seemed at the time like maybe kind of a cold thing to do. You know, Ishmael is this teenage boy. And Hagar is a woman who's going to be very vulnerable other than her son's there to protect her. And Sarah says, get them out of here. He's making fun of my son, the son that God has promised us.
And Abraham doesn't want to do it. And God says, no, listen to the voice of your wife. It's through Isaac that your offspring will be named. I'm going to bless you through Isaac. Nonetheless, I will make Ishmael a great nation. Send them away. Listen to the voice of Sarah. And Abraham does so, and he follows suit here with the rest of his sons without God having to intervene and say, do it. He gives them gifts, and then he sends them away.
It says there in verse 5 that he gave all that he had to Isaac, but to the sons of his concubines, and I think by concubines there it's referring to Keturah and to Hagar, so that the six sons of Keturah and then Ishmael, he gave them gifts. And while he was still living, he sent them away from his son, Isaac, sent them into the to the east, to the east country.
And that double that double statement of sent them towards the east, towards the east country, things associated with what we see in Genesis chapter 3 when God casts Adam and Eve out of the garden. He sends them east of Eden. And in Genesis in particular but even the Old Testament as a whole being sent east is symbolic of being sent away from the direct presence of the Lord. And so with Isaac's descendants what we have is the continuation of the line of promise that goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 when God promised to Adam and Eve that he was going to give them a seed who was going to crush the head of the serpent, who would come, he would rise, the seed of the woman, who would crush the head of the snake and bring salvation for God's people.
That line continues through their son, Seth, and then through Noah and his son, Shem. And that line continues now with Abraham and then Isaac. The rest of the sons are not included in that line, and they are sent away from the direct presence of the Lord. Nonetheless, they are sent away being blessed by Abraham. These nations, which are not the chosen nation, they're not the nation through whom God's going to send the Messiah. They are still blessed by their association with Abraham, which fulfills what God said in chapter 12 and verse 3. Through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
I think it's interesting here that it had to have been a temptation, again, for Abraham, like in chapter 21, to want to hang on to his sons, to keep them close, to not send them away from Isaac. You read about Isaac, and Isaac doesn't necessarily always seem to be a winner. Maybe one of these other sons would have been more able, more capable, a better, in human terms, a better person through whom to fulfill, to hand on all of the blessings that Abraham has received. He's the head of a large household. He has hundreds of people under his command. He might have had sons who had more technical ability, better leadership skills. We don't know.
Instead, all we read is that Abraham was obedient to the Lord. God has been faithful to him, and he puts his faith into practice by acting in a way that's full of faith and obedience to God.
God's Tapestry of Faith
God, in the scriptures and in your life, is weaving a tapestry that you cannot see. I once read a book that used this analogy of all of human history is a tapestry and that we're looking at it from the underside. And when you look at a beautiful rug, very often, when you look at the underside of it, what you see looks like a mess of knots. It looks like a tangled, jumbled disaster.
But if you're looking at it from the perspective of the person who's weaving and who has in mind where they're going with the whole thing, there's something beautiful and intricate and amazing that's being woven that you just, as a piece of string on the underside, don't have any capacity to understand. It takes the eyes of faith to see this. Abraham had those eyes and God poured out his blessing upon him.
Abraham's God is a God Who Gives Blessing
The second thing we see in verses 7 through 11 is that Abraham's God is a God who gives blessing. And because of that, we must walk by faith. We must trust him. Trust that he knows more than we do. Trust that he is at work.
The days of the years of Abraham's life were 175 years. Verse 6 says he breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man full of years, and was gathered to his people. Abraham lived a long life. We don't get his story. We don't pick up Abraham's story until he's 75 years old. In chapter 12 of Genesis, he has lived tons of life off camera, as it were, like hidden from our view. And then, you know, we get the stories with Isaac and all of that. You know, we get to look into like a 40 year window and then he's off camera again for another 40 years. Like he just we don't know what's going on in Abraham's life.
That's how most of our life is, too. For most of us, it's our entire life. Other people aren't seeing what's going on. Other people don't know how you're acting. Other people can't see the choices that you're making, the thoughts that you're thinking. But the pattern, Scripture tells us, of Abraham's life was that he lived by faith.
The paradigmatic verse for Abraham's life is chapter 15 and verse 6. Abraham believed the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And when you come to the moments, like the really hard times when he has to trust God, chapter 22, he's asked to offer up Isaac, chapter 21, where he's asked to send Ishmael away, like these moments where there's a big decision to make and he says, yes, God, I'll listen to you. Those things, you don't say yes in those moments if you haven't been saying yes in all the little off-camera moments all along the way.
And so Abraham has lived in a pattern of faith towards God and faithfulness to God. And when we get to the end of his life, how is it described? It says he died in a good old age, an old man and full of years.
The Goodness of a Full Life
I'll be honest, like as I was thinking about the sermon this week, I had a really hard time moving my mind off of just like those two descriptions of Abraham's life. That his life was, it was good that he got old. Died in a good old age and he was full of years.
How do we think about age in our society? How do we think about getting old? We think about life draining away from us. We think about becoming decrepit. We think about the glory years are behind me. The best is in the past. That's how we think about it. We do everything we can to appear younger, act younger that we do not look at age as a positive thing in our society and yet here Abraham's 175 years are described as a good old age and he was full of years.
That's not to deny like the reality in a sinful world of our bodies do break down right. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 talks about that. It's one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture, and it's heartbreaking in the way that it describes the body falling apart over time.
But if we have an internal perspective that says, I'm looking forward to the resurrection of the body, I can live even in this, what Paul calls this tent, this jar of clay, in such a way that it is filled with the grace and the beauty that comes from trusting in Christ. We don't have to try to patch the tent together. We don't have to try to keep resealing the clay pot that we are living in to recognize that God is capable of filling our years with his goodness and with joy.
Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 18, it's in the middle of warnings about the way of the wicked. And in the middle of that chapter, chapter 18 of Proverbs 4, Solomon says, the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
And I think what he's communicating there is that as we walk through life as Christians, if our eyes are on God, our pathway grows brighter and brighter and our life reflects God more clearly and more fully. It becomes brighter and brighter to those around us until we reach the full day and that full day is our death. When the Christian dies it should be like at the peak of our beauty and God dies.
Psalm 116 verse 15 says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. That at that moment, as we're reflecting Christ to those around us and God calls us home, it's a beautiful thing to God himself.
Abraham was able to live with this faith because he had a hope that went beyond this world. If that's not your experience of aging, it's not how you're, if you're a young person, you think, oh, I can't. I used to not be able to imagine myself past 25 years old until I was probably like 24 and 360 days. I could not picture myself past 25 years old. I really couldn't. And part of it was just I had bought into the worship of youth and the strength that youth gives and the vitality that youth gives.
But those things are not worshiped in the Bible the way they are in our society. So if you are looking at your life and thinking, I don't have that fullness. That's what God wants for you. John 10.10. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. That's true in an eternal sense, but it's true right now that they might have life abundantly.
Hope Beyond This World
Abraham's hope, as I said, goes beyond this world. We see that because in verse eight, it also tells us that he was gathered to his people. And I don't think that's just another synonym for death, because when he was buried, he was not buried with his people. His people were hundreds of miles away. The only one who shares his tomb at this point is his wife, Sarah. He had had to purchase this piece of ground in Hittite territory in order for him to have a place to bury his wife. And so he's buried with her, but he's not buried with his people.
What this is telling us is that he's being gathered to the presence of God with all of those who are faithful believers in God throughout history up to his point. When Abraham died, his body was dead, but his spirit departed to the presence of the Lord.
We see that in Matthew chapter 22 when Jesus says to the Sadducees who are asking him about the resurrection, and he says to them, they're asking him this disingenuously because they don't believe in the resurrection. So Jesus answers their original question. And then he comes back and he says, now you guys don't actually know anything about the resurrection. Because haven't you ever heard in the passage about the bush, Exodus chapter three, where God comes to Moses, God says to him, I'm the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are all long dead at that point.
And Jesus said, he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, implying that God, when he spoke to Moses hundreds of years after this, spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as if they were living in the presence of God. And Jesus, again, another 1,400 years later, is saying they're still alive in the presence of God.
Abraham lived in that kind of hope. It's the hope that anyone who trusts in Christ can and should have. It's John chapter 11. When Jesus is standing outside the tomb of Lazarus, he comes and he's speaking to Martha. John chapter 11, verse 24. Well, verse 23, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. So the Jews had a hope for the resurrection of the body.
But she's like, I know at the end he'll rise. Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die do you believe this she said to him yes lord I believe that you are the Christ the son of God who is coming into the world. Jesus says I am the resurrection I am the life those who believe in Christ never really die. Now our bodies they still die.
And your body's a real unimportant part of you. And we're not Gnostics. We don't believe that the body's unimportant. The resurrection on the last day that she is hoping for is the same thing that Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians 4 and in 1 Corinthians 15. Like, the resurrection of the body is important.
But if you are living with your hope in Christ right now, you'll be able to wait just fine because your spirit will be in his presence. And Paul says in Philippians 1 that to die is to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.
So that separation of the spirit and the body at death isn't good. And yet it's still better than what we experience living in this fallen world. There's that temporary glorious hope that's then fulfilled with the resurrection of the body, the reuniting of our spirit and our body in the presence of God forever. That's what Revelation 21 and 22 talk about.
Living with Faith and Hope
Do you have that same hope? Do you have the ability, like Abraham, to put your faith in God right now, even when circumstances are hard, even when his promises seem difficult or impossible to believe, counting on what he's done in the past as evidence that he will be faithful in the future. Do you have a hope in God which extends beyond this world? Faithful living is dependent on that kind of confidence. Faithful in the sense of being obedient to him. But true obedience only comes from trusting that he is going to do what he said for you.
Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6 says, Without faith it is impossible to please him. For the one who would please God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. I've been thinking about that verse a lot lately. Like God's definition of faith includes not just us believing a set of facts about what he's done in the past. It's believing that he will personally reward those who seek him.
God is not just out there somewhere going to do some good things for some people. If you trust in what Christ has done for you and you seek to honor the Lord with your life, he will reward you. Not because you deserve it. Your good works amount to rags of nothing before him. But because he's faithful to his promises. And he said, I will reward those who seek me. I will reward those who want to honor me with their lives. And God in his kindness and the abundance of his grace pours out blessing on those who trust in him.
Hebrews 11 verses 13 through 16. It says, about Abraham and his descendants not having received the things promised but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth for people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out they would have had the opportunity to return but as it is they desire a better country that is a heavenly one therefore God is not ashamed to be called their god for he has prepared for them a city.
It's the author of Hebrews applying to Abraham and his descendants what Jesus says in John chapter 14, I go to prepare a place for you. Christ himself is preparing a place for those whose hope is in him.
God's Faithfulness Continues
And God continues to show his faithfulness to Abraham's family, even after his death. Verse 11 of Genesis 25 says, after the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac, his son, and Isaac settled at Bir Laharoy.
Abraham's story in Genesis is over. The curtain closes. It drops on his life. He's done. No more Abraham for the rest of the Bible. I mean, we can hear his name all the time, but he's not alive anymore on this earth.
Our stories are like that too. Psalmist says in Psalm 39, verse 5, that our days are a mere handbreadth before you. About three inches. That's how long your life is. In the big scope of human history, it's about three inches long. It's so short, fleeting. It's a breath.
And yet God's story keeps on going. And if your hope and your trust is in him, his promise to you extends throughout all the generations that follow you. That's what Exodus chapter 20 says. That God is a jealous God, and he visits the sins of the fathers on the third and fourth generation, and he extends his steadfast love and faithfulness to the thousandth generation of those who trust him.
So your trust and your hope in Christ extends, the blessings of that extend way beyond the close of your life here, way beyond the close of your story, on into the stories of all those who will follow you. And so follow him. Follow him. It has eternal blessings for you. It also has lasting earthly blessings for those who follow.
Would you pray with me?
Father God, we thank you for the example of Abraham who was faithful to you. Not perfectly. He stumbled lots of times. We see so many of those even in the short chapters that look at his life. And yet he came back to faith in you, to trust in you, to be faithful even when he faltered and failed.
And so, Lord, we trust that you will do the same thing in our lives. You will be faithful even when we are faithless. But, Lord, we don't want to be faithless. We want to act in a way that's honoring to you, that brings blessing into our lives and brings blessing upon those whom we love, and ultimately that brings honor and glory to the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we pray now in his precious name. Amen.
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