Abraham Dies at 'a Ripe Old Age,' Just as God Told Him (Genesis 25:1–11)

Two brothers stand at the mouth of a cave near Mamre. Isaac is seventy-five and Ishmael is eighty-nine. The last time Genesis put them in one place, Ishmael was being sent into the wilderness of Beersheba with bread and a skin of water. Now "his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah" (Genesis 25:9).

The man they are burying had been told how he would die.

What does it mean that Abraham died at a ripe old age?

It means Abraham lived out the full, long life God had promised him and died at peace, just as God had told him he would. "And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people" (Genesis 25:8). He was 175.

Set that beside an evening in Genesis 15. Abraham had asked God, "how can I know that I will possess it?" (Genesis 15:8), and God answered with a covenant and a look down the years, including the end of Abraham's own life: "You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age" (Genesis 15:15). He was eighty-five at most when he heard that, with no son yet and a barren wife. He carried that sentence for at least ninety years. When his life ends, Genesis uses God's words.

Who inherited Abraham's estate?

Isaac inherited it all, and Abraham settled the matter himself before he died. "Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac" (Genesis 25:5), and he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away east while he was still alive. God had told him, "through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned" (Genesis 21:12), and Abraham made sure nobody would argue it at his graveside.

Everything he owned, though, came to very little land. The cave sat in "the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites" (Genesis 25:10), paid for thirty-eight years earlier when Sarah died. It was the only ground he ever held in the country God had promised him. They laid him there beside her, and the promise went on to the next man: "After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac" (Genesis 25:11).

How does Abraham's death point to Jesus?

Abraham died with part of the promise still ahead of him, and Jesus is the One that promise was about. Jesus, arguing with a crowd who claimed Abraham as their father, said this about him: "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad" (John 8:56).

Hebrews says of Abraham and his family, "God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:16). That is where knowing God leads. Abraham heard Him, held what He said for a lifetime, and was still known by Him on the far side of the grave. Jesus makes the same true for anyone who trusts Him: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies" (John 11:25).

Hold it until the day comes

God told Abraham a son was coming, and Isaac came. He told him he would die at a ripe old age, and he did. He told him the land would belong to his offspring, and Abraham saw that only from far off.

Some of what God has said to you is already behind you. Some of it is for a day you have not reached yet. Record what He says in the Doxa app with the date, and read it again when that day arrives, so you can set the day beside His words and see that He meant them.

What has God said to you that is still waiting for its day?

Deeper study today in the Doxa Deeper Dive: why Genesis says Abraham was gathered to his people before anyone buried him, and how the sons of Keturah turn up in the life of Moses. Read it here.