{"id":4087,"date":"2022-07-08T07:12:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T12:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4087"},"modified":"2022-07-08T07:12:19","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T12:12:19","slug":"devotional-on-genesis-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-genesis-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Genesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-YoW2M6VdTjg\/XMieHJ3M1nI\/AAAAAAAA6-Y\/k05AvHlhjzAWIMux3Le3kvoncWHbjX1DACKgBGAs\/s1600\/100_3130.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Pacific City, OR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sarah\u2019s burial<br \/>\nGenesis 23: That\u2019s how Ephron\u2019s field&#8230;became Abraham\u2019s property.<br \/>\nThirty seven years have passed since Sarah gave birth to the miracle baby. When she dies, Abraham, in his mourning, makes burial arraignments. He\u2019s become a very wealthy man as he\u2019s lived in Canaan but his wealth is in livestock and other belongings. Abraham doesn\u2019t own a square foot of land. When he goes to the locals to secure a burial site, they\u2019re kind to him, but beyond the kindness is what might be called old fashioned horse trading! Abraham is offered the use of their burial sites, but everyone knows he won\u2019t do that. He\u2019s lived among them all these years and has kept an identity distinct from them. They know that he\u2019s not going to lay the body of his wife in one of their graves. Abraham asks about a certain piece of land and the owner offers it to him for free. However, that\u2019s part of the bargaining process. There\u2019s nothing Ephron would like better than for Abraham to be indebted to him over a small patch of land. Abraham responds that he wants to buy the land at full price so Ephron initiates the bargaining by offering it at a very high price. He expects Abraham to dicker with him but instead, he simply accepts the offer. The Hittites must be shocked to silence at Abraham\u2019s response. They know Abraham\u2019s a shrewd business man so they may think he\u2019s so deep in grief that he isn\u2019t thinking clearly. Now, for the first time, Abraham and his descendants possess land to call their own in the territory the Lord had promised decades earlier. That field and cave becomes the epicenter of the Promised Land for them. Ultimately Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah will all be buried in that place. Isn\u2019t it interesting that the place where God\u2019s promise to give Abraham possession of a land to call his own is first realized at a cave turned into a tomb! I\u2019m probably not supposed to make the connection, but many years into the future, another of God\u2019s promises: the promise to deliver lost humanity from sin will also be first realized at a similar tomb.<br \/>\nTake away: Sometimes God\u2019s promises to us are first realized in totally unexpected ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarah\u2019s burial Genesis 23: That\u2019s how Ephron\u2019s field&#8230;became Abraham\u2019s property. Thirty seven years have passed since Sarah gave birth to the miracle baby. When she dies, Abraham, in his mourning, makes burial arraignments. He\u2019s become a very wealthy man as he\u2019s lived in Canaan but his wealth is in livestock and other belongings. Abraham doesn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,7],"tags":[127,379,485],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13722,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4087\/revisions\/13722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}