Daily Lift – December 14, 2018

Must Cost Us Something

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The Twenty-Third of Genesis records Abraham’s purchase of the Cave of Machpelah, as well as the field in which it was located. Abraham desired the cave for a tomb in which to bury his wife, Sarah, who had died at the age of one hundred twenty seven. Ephron the Hittite offered to give the cave and field to Abraham. However, Abraham seemed unwilling to accept it as a gift, and paid Ephron four hundred shekels of silver for them. It seems Abraham was unwilling to bury Sarah in a tomb that cost him nothing. Nearly nineteen hundred years later, Matthew’s Gospel records the burial of the Savior in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, who, according to Mark’s account, also purchased fine linen in which to clothe the body. John adds that Nicodemus brought an hundred pound weight of myrrh and aloes to anoint the Lord for burying. These, also, provided nothing that cost them nothing. The Sixth of Romans teaches us that it is our old sinful self that is to be buried in baptism. The death and immersion of the former man of sin is also a burial that must cost us something.

Written and voiced by David Hayes Prophater