An Old Man's Humility

If you’re anything like I am (and I’ll pray for you if you are), you know how easy it is to find an application or a lesson from some scriptures. You also know that sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get something out of a chapter or passage. Today’s reading plan fits into the latter category.

Basically the entire chapter consists of Abraham, after Sarah’s death, asking to buy land to bury her. The people he asks want to give him the land, but he insists on paying. That’s it.

3 Then Abraham rose from before his dead one and spoke to the sons of Heth saying, 4 “I am an outsider and a sojourner among you. Give me a gravesite among you so that I may bury my dead from before my presence.” 5 The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Listen to us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our graves. None among us will withhold his grave from you, to bury your dead one.”

7 Then Abraham got up and bowed down to the people of the land, to the sons of Heth, 8 and spoke with them saying, “If you are of a mind to let me bury my dead from before my presence, listen to me. Plead with Ephron son of Zophar on my behalf, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him, that is at the end of his field. At the full price let him give it to me in your midst for a gravesite.”

10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the sons of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the ears of the sons of Heth, all those who enter the gate of his city, saying, 11 “No, my lord, listen to me. The field—I hereby give it to you. Also the cave that is in it—I hereby give it to you. In the eyes of the sons of my people, I hereby give it to you. Bury your dead one.”

12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land, 13 and spoke to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land saying, “But if only you would please listen to me. I hereby give the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead one there.”

16 Abraham heard Ephron. So Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had spoken of in the ears of the sons of Heth—400 shekels of silver at the merchant’s rate. 17 Now Ephron’s field that is in Machpelah next to Mamre—the field and the cave that is in it, and all the trees that are in the field in all its surrounding territory—was handed over 18 to Abraham as a purchased possession in the eyes of the sons of Heth, before all those who enter the gate of his city.

19 Afterward, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah next to Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan.

Know what really strikes me in this passage? The folks wanted thought of Abraham as a rock star, and they wanted to give him special treatment by giving him land on which to bury Sarah. (There’s nothing wrong with accepting gifts – unless you’re under the thumb of the NCAA.) But Abraham reacted with humility because he wanted to do the right thing and pay the fair price for the burial ground.

How do you exhibit humility? We don’t have to turn down gifts to show humility, but we all should examine our lives to see what place humility takes in our daily existence. You may find areas where you need to change, and if you do, pray to seek God’s help in developing humble habits.

Photo by Mykyta Martynenko on Unsplash