Abraham and the Cave

Abraham knew what he wanted.  The cave near Mamre, where he was living.  A permanent burial place for Sarah, for him and for his posterity.

The interactions between men of great wealth are interesting. I have found that rarely do they carry cash. In the words of the great technology industrialist Bill Gates, “Money has no value to me”. Men in these circumstances do not think of value in the same terms as most people who are tied to some monetary system in order to function.

Ephron was wealthy and Abraham was wealthy. Ephron didn’t need the money. Abraham could have accepted a gift.

But he didn’t. He persistently refused.

God had promised to give the very land they stood on to Abraham and his descendants. But Abraham didn’t interpret this offered gift as coming from God. He was intent on paying for this small piece of land.

It is a curious, delicate, thing to reject generosity. Abraham was similarly careful not to offend Ephron’s generous offer. Two determined men who were used to having their way. There was a lot in this moment that could have gone very badly.

Abraham knew how the world worked. Value exchange means never something for nothing. But the cave where he would lay Sarah could not come with strings attached – a favor that could be forgotten in a generation, or two. A public, legal transaction, it was an indisputable claim, a stake in the ground, for every generation to come.

This moment was the beginning of the end of the nomad way for Abraham and his people. A somber, humble beginning.