Machpelah – stepping into the promises God has for you in an unusual way.

This may simply be the worst season of your life. The loss that you have suffered can weigh heavily. Perhaps you are in need, and it is becoming quite desperate now. It is possible that, in your vulnerable state, people are taking advantage of you. If you know anything of this, then it is your Machpelah place. However, you might also know that Machpelah is the place where God uses the enemy to open a door into a new season for your life. This is the story of Machpelah; it is an unusual approach to being blessed.

This name refers to a sacred site in Hebron, in the West Bank. It is a cave and the burial site of the patriarchs, and Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all share its central religious significance as the place where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives were buried. It means ‘double’ or ‘two-layered’ and probably refers to the structure of the cave.

Here is how it was purchased.

^“ Ephron answered Abraham, ¹⁵ “Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekelsof silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” ¹⁶ Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants. ¹⁷ So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded ¹⁸ to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city. ¹⁹ Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.” (Genesis 23 v 14-20)

Let me bullet these points on what we have just read.

• Some believe that Ephron, a Hittite landowner, exaggerated the value of the land to Abraham, whilst at the same time saying, ‘don’t worry about it.’
• Abraham doesn’t try to talk Ephron down from the astronomical price; publicly, he just counts out the money and pays for the land.
• Abraham receives the deeds for the land and buries Sarah in one of the caves on the field – Machpelah.

Here’s what really happened. In one of Abraham’s worst moments of his life, he is knowingly taken for a ride with the value of the land, but he purchases it to bury his wife, and in doing so, he receives the first portion of the Promised Land that was promised to him by God.

There are times in our lives when the worst day becomes the doorway to the fulfilment of our promises.

Abraham wasn’t purchasing a piece of land with a cave for a burial site for his wife. He was going to own a portion of the Promised Land.

We need to think bigger and deeper.

Don’t take everything at face value. Abraham didn’t need a burial plot as much as he needed a stake in the ground, where he could anchor his story as a father to the nations. He purchased the Promised Land with grief.

At the end of the day, Abraham was 400 shekels poorer, and his heart was grieving for his loss, and yet on that day it was worth every shekel.

You may be paying a price today for something, and yet it could be God leading you to sacrifice yourself for something far bigger and in alignment with His promises for your life. That is the story of Machpelah.

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