Chapter 13-Funeral for a Friend (Genesis 23)

...[S]hare in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel...

(2 Timothy 1:8-10 ESV)

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

(1 Corinthians 15:54-58 ESV)

In our text for this lesson, we see Abraham burying his beloved wife, Sarah. She who was with him from the beginning of his journey out of Ur was laid to rest in a cave in the land of promise. In verse 2, Abraham mourns and weeps for the loss of Sarah. And this is as it should be. Our Lord wept upon arriving at the tomb of Lazarus, even though he was about to raise him from the dead. As Dr. Duguid alludes to in our chapter, death is a result of sin; there is a sense in which death is not "how things are supposed to be." Death is profoundly saddening, on many levels, and it is right for us to grieve.

But consider the texts above. Christ has won the victory over sin and death. Therefore, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess 4:13). This is not the end. As Christians, we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ (1 Peter 1:3), and we know that not only will we see those whom we love that die in the Lord again, but that we will one day be with them in the presence of Him who set His love upon us from before the foundation of the world.