JACOB'S DEATH #2 | THE BURIAL PLOT AT MACHPELAH IN HEBRON

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3676

JACOB'S DEATH #2

THE BURIAL PLOT AT MACHPELAH IN HEBRON

In Egypt, Jacob gave his sons a solemn command to bury him in Canaan on the family property: “Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites” (Genesis 49:29–32).

Why would Jacob make such a request?

The cave at Machpelah in Hebron was the family property.

It was the only piece of real property they legally owned.

By his prophetic gesture, he was reaffirming for his posterity that under the Abrahamic covenant the Promised Land was theirs to possess. Owning a small burial plot at Machpelah may seem like an insignificant step in realising God's covenant with Abraham's family but it is a major prophetic call for his future generations to inherit their possessions.

Is there a spiritual lesson from Jacob's deathwish to be buried with his fathers and Leah ( the first wife whom he did not love )?

Jacob remembered that that burial ground was special because it was the land that God promised.

As he lay dying, he still remembered the Covenant and thought about his post-death rituals in terms of the promises that have been made to his family by God.

This was a man whose identity was tied up with the Covenant which he did not forget, not even at the end!

As we read this, it is timely to consider our own identity, or what we think about ourselves today.

Often, we are too prone to compromise our identity and cling to our work, education, family background,  wealth, and social standing as self-validation.

Jacob reminds us that if we are true believers, we should be wrapped up in the identity given by God and God alone. 

This identity has implications in how we live and think about life, and how we think about death and how we die. 

For us, Romans 14:7-9 is a great reminder that "none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself." Both life and death belong to the Lord and we are His through and through.

Sometimes how we die counts even more than how we lived. God honoured Leah in death although Jacob did not love her as he did Rachel who was buried in Bethlehem. 

This is the transcendent aspect of God's covenantal love which even outlasts human love.