Genesis 23:1-20, Genesis 49:29-50:26
A burial place became very important to Abraham after his wife Sarah died at the age of 127 years.
Abraham is described as a sojourner in the land of the Hittites, He had nowhere he could call his own to bury his dead. He was still an immigrant in Canaan even though he had gained rights to the well at Beersheba.
He was highly esteemed as a prince by the Hittites, and they were willing to give Abraham the choicest of their tombs to bury his dead, but Abraham would not accept land as a gift from men, because it had already been promised to him as a gift from the Lord.
Rather than return to the past and his ancestral home to bury Sarah, Abraham paid Ephron’s asking price for the chosen burial land in Canaan with the interests of his descendants in mind.
This desire to purchase rather than borrow land at Hebron demonstrates that he had no intention of his or his descendants being servants to the Hittites. It also demonstrates Abraham’s growing faith and confidence in the Lord’s promised blessings.
Abraham obtained the new family plot as a pledge of greater things to come. He buried his much loved wife Sarah in a small part of the Promised Land where he would later be buried. This bore witness to future generations of Abraham and Sarah’s faith and hope that the Lord would do so much more, even after their earthly lives were over.