Chayah Sarah
Gen. 23:1 - 25:18
It is ironic that although this portion begins with the death of Sarah, the name of this torah portion, in English, is “the life of Sarah” ! Remember that the name of each Torah portion comes from the words in the first or second verse of the portion. The first verse of this portion says And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. (Gen. 23:1). After the death of Sarah, the first order of business for Abraham was to obtain land for a burial ground. Abraham approached the Hittites (sons of Heth) and said, "I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight." Abraham refers to himself as an “alien and a “sojourner”. This phrase is used in several other places in the Bible. In Lev. 25:23 we read The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. The words are used interchangeably in several verses, depending on the context. The first word “alien or “ger” is defined as a “stranger” - a person from another place. Today, the word is used to define a Gentile who converts to Judaism. The word “sojourner” or “Toshav” means a person who lives in a foreign place. When the two nouns are used together it means a person who is a “resident alien” (JPS translation). In the case of Abraham, he was from Ur of the Chaldees by way of Haran . (In fact, his native language was probably Akkadian). But God had called to live in the land of Canaan . At this time, the Hittites ruled Canaan . Of course, God had promised Abraham that the day would come when his heirs would possess this land. However, for now, Abraham was a “resident alien” in the land. By this time in his life, Abraham must have known that he himself would not live to see the day that a nation of his descendants would possess the land. Therefore the purchase of the burial site at Machpelah becomes the first installment of Israel ’s possession of the land.
There are valuable lessons for us to learn from Abraham’s statement regarding his status as an alien and sojourner. Although he lived in the land of the Canaanites Abraham did not identify with the values of the Canaanites - hence he was an alien. Throughout Jewish history, our people have wandered the planet without a homeland. It is only in the last 60 years that there has been a modern state of Israel . In all of the years of wandering, the Jewish people did not lose their identity while at the same time living as residents in foreign lands. It is when we lose our “status” as “resident aliens” that we assimilate into the culture in which we live. That is precisely why there is a crisis within Judaism in America today of many intermarriages and assimilated Jews. As Jewish believers, the problem is multiplied. Most Jewish believers live within a culture and people that are not Jewish. Most Jewish believers have been ostracized from the Jewish community and as a result do not form relationships with other Jewish people. Our children do not have many Jewish friends. These are the reasons why the messianic community is so important and why Jewish believers need to identify within the messianic community. God has called Israel to be a “peculiar people”. God did not call us to lose our Jewish identity because of our identity as Americans or our identity as believers in Yeshua. By maintaining a messianic Jewish identity we are always reminded that we are “resident aliens”.
As Jewish believers in Messiah we are called not only to maintain our resident alien status as Jews but as believers as well. This applies to Gentiles as well as Jews within the messianic community. Gentiles in the messianic Jewish community have a special and unique calling to identify with Jewish people and to worship in a Jewish cultural context. As “aliens and sojourners” they are often misunderstood by family and friends just like Jewish believers. In fact all believers in Messiah regardless of culture or denomination are called to be “aliens and sojourners. The New Covenant says that our citizenship is in heaven. We are told: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.(Matt. 6:19-20). May we never lose sight that our destiny is a city whose builder and foundation is God. As the writers of the book of Hebrews says regarding Abraham, By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Heb. 11:9-10) May we never stop looking for that city.
