Imprinted into My Heart

9^th  Breakfast

A heart after God

Imprinted into My Heart

Genesis 23

As I Read the whole Chapter of Genesis 23, It came to me about 1 thing that I couldn’t understand.

                                

^{Genesis 23: 4-5}

⁴ “I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

⁵ And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, ⁶ “Hear us, my lord: You are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead.”

Now first, The sons of Heth are Hittites and they are an idolatrous nation. They are non Jews and that means they do not recognize with the God Abraham is worshiping.

So This question came to me, Why is These people Putting so much honour and respect to Abraham, a foreigner among them?

Look clearly at their answer, the Hittites respect Abraham as a Mighty Prince.

Why?

Yes  Abraham is wealthy and mighty even to be able to challenge Kings. But is this enough to command such respects from a whole nation to the extend that they are willing to break their commandments of Selling burial place?

In the ancient times, they have this law that state selling and buying of burial land have to at least pay the minimum. It shouldn’t be for free. Even selling a land to the poor, they have to charge a minimum amount.

Then why would they break their law and wanted to give the land to Abraham for free?

In Deuteronomy 4:5-6

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁵ “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. ⁶ Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

Through this, I learnt that because Abraham obeyed God’s voice, and he observed God’s safeguard, God’s commandments, God’s decrees, and God’s laws, Abraham Radiated True holiness. Which was keenly felt even by the idolatrous Hittites. The Hittites having recognized Abraham’s personal and spiritual greatness and together with his wealth, it was their natural behaviour to treat him in public with great honour even to the degree of lying about the terms of transaction. Because guest of honour receive gifts, not bills.

This story gives me an example of how people far away from God’s values relate positively to a personality who was indeed an authentic servant of God.

Deuteronomy 11:18-25

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁸ “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ²⁰ And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

²² “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— ²³ then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. ²⁴ Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea,^[a] shall be your territory. ²⁵ No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

Let us follow God’s words and allow God to do great things in our lives.

Prayers:

Pray that God will help us abide in his ways and keep his commandments.

Pray that God would send the right people into our live to guide and help us.

Pray for a humble heart and allow God to give us favour of man.

Pray that God would help us shine his glory and  be a great person for Him.

By:

Andrew Tham