Genesis 25:1-11

Abraham has taught us true faith by being one who took God at His word.  He has taught us faithfulness in that his faith was confirmed through his obedience.  

We are told briefly of another wife after Sarah, though neither Keturah nor her six sons would have any part in the furtherance of the covenant.  Isaac was and continued to be the son of promise.

Abraham was a man very much like us.  He was not perfect.  He trusted God in his heart, yet he often struggled to apply that trust to everyday life.  We ought not to be critical of Abraham for we are no different.  Our life of faith is a journey.  We do well to recognize and quickly acknowledge our doubts and failures.

At the same time we see that Abraham was faithful.  In life’s most critical issue he believed God’s promise concerning a son (15:6).  Then in life’s greatest test he gave that son back to God (22:10).  He knew God would not go back on His word and he acted accordingly.

Let us think about death for a few moments.  What is said about Abraham’s death?

v He breathed his last (v8).  This is said of several people in Scripture including Isaac, Jacob and Christ but also of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5, 10).  That moment will come for all of us.  Let us seek, by grace, to praise the Lord with every breath (Psa. 150:6).

v He was gathered to his people (v8).  Abraham’s body ceased to function, but the true Abraham lived on in that place called Abraham’s Bosom (Lk. 16:22).  Remember Jesus’ reproof of the Sadducees in Matt. 22:31-32: the God who names Himself as The God of Abraham is not the God of the dead but of the living.  Abraham lives on.  So will each of us: And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment (Heb. 9:27).

v God blessed Isaac (v11).  Abraham died, but the word of God endured and endures forever.  Abraham died having control of a well and owning the cave in which he would be buried.  But God had made a promise, and God would fulfill that promise.  The next installment would come through Isaac.  

          Let us store up treasure in heaven, living with eternity in view.  When we die there will be unfinished goals and dreams.  If God is in them, then He will bring them to completion.