February 18, 2014 (Tuesday)
Genesis 23 gives us an insight into a much different culture than we know as 21st Century Americans. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, died, and he determined to buy a certain tomb for her. It was the cave of Machpelah owned by the Hittites. Abraham approaches their leader and asks to buy it, but was given the reply that it was his for the taking at no charge. Abraham insists that the owner, Ephron, to sell him the tomb for which he is willing to pay the full price. Ephron is called and tells Abraham there is no charge. Abraham insists that he pay. “Well,” said Ephron, “it’s worth 400 pieces of silver, but what is that between friends? Go ahead and bury your dead.” So Abraham paid the full price, as agreed. It became his permanent possession because it was decided publicly. That was how they did business in that ancient culture far away and long ago.
We folks in the USA in 2014 don’t do it like that. The seller sets the price, and the buyer either agrees to pay the price or forget the whole matter. Oh, some transactions are negotiated to an agreed price, but an offer to give the property to the buyer at no charge is not the way we do business. We Americans are taught to be straight forward in all our relationships.
We are taught that each person should value his own worth, speak the whole truth even if unpleasant, to spill the beans and not to spread little white lies. “What you see is what you get” is our guideline. Any other approach is probably devious and dishonest, and indeed there are plenty of such business dealings like that; however, crookedness eventually catches up with dishonest people. The point I’m making is that there is a vast difference between the culture of Canaan thousands of years ago and the forthright methods of today in our country.
Likewise there are two different ways for people to live today: with God or without God. If we are wise, we will choose to live God’s way, obeying His moral law and allowing His Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. The smart thing for us to do in a culture that has forsaken God’s ways is to follow steadfastly in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.