These verses introduce readers to the Creator as a divine gardener. God breathes life into the nostrils of creation and equips image-bearers to be gardeners. In this passage, we see God’s desire to create lands and abundant gardens where divine love is cultivated.
This should make modern readers ask: What are we doing to care for our lands and the people who inhabit them? Are we aware of our sacred calling to be good stewards of creation? Are we truly loving and compassionate gardeners like our Creator?
There’s not a single speck of dirt or atom that is beyond God’s care.
If God tends to the lilies of the field, how much more will God protect the poor and oppressed (Matthew 6:25-34)? This is the correct definition of divine providence: God cares for, loves, and empathizes with the meek who will one day inherit the earth. This is the providence that theologian James H. Cone imagined in his seminal work God of the Oppressed“God has not ever, no not ever, left the oppressed alone in struggle. He was with them in Pharaoh’s Egypt, is with them in America, Africa, and Latin America, and will come in the end of time to consummate fully their human freedom.”
So Ephron’s field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were [j]within all the confines of its border, [k]were deeded over 18 to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field at Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 So the field and the cave that is in it, [l]were deeded over to Abraham for [m]a burial site by the sons of Heth.
According to Genesis, the Hittite Ephron sold Abraham the cave of Machpelah in Hebron for use as a family tomb. Later, Esau married wives from the Hittites. In the Book of Joshua 1:4, when the Lord tells Joshua "From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border", this "land of the Hittites" on Canaan's border is seen to stretch between Lebanon and the Euphrates, and from there toward the setting Sun (i.e., to the west).
According to the Book of Judges 1:26, when the Israelites captured Bethel, they allowed one man to escape, and he went to the "land of the Hittites" where he founded the settlement of Luz. In King Solomon's era the Hittites are depicted in the Hebrew Bible along with Syria as among his powerful neighbors.
From around 1900, archaeologists were aware of a country established in Anatolia and known to Assyrians as "Hatti". Because it was initially assumed that the people of Hatti were identical to the Hetti of the Hebrew Bible, the term Hittite Empire is still today used to describe the Anatolian state. Their language is known to have been a member of the Indo-European family. Because its speakers were originally based in Kanesh, they called their language "Neshili". The former inhabitants of Hatti and Hattusas are now called Hattites; and their Hattic language was not Indo-European, but is of unknown linguistic relationship.
After the fall of the Hittite Empire around 1178 BC, a remnant of them, still using the name "people of Hatti", established some city-states in the region of northern Syria. Therefore these are usually assumed to be the Hittites mentioned in Solomon's time.
Some scholars take the view that the two peoples are identical.[1] Apart from the similarity in names, the Anatolian Hittites were a powerful political entity in the region before the collapse of their empire in the 14th-12th centuries BC and so one would expect them to be mentioned in the Bible, just as the ḤTY post-Exodus are. Moreover, in the account of the conquest of Canaan, the Hittites are said to dwell "in the mountains" and "towards the north" of Canaan, a description that matches the general direction and geography of the original Hittite Empire, which had been influential in the region prior to the Battle of Kadesh.
Modern academics propose, based on much onomastic and archaeological evidence, that Anatolian populations moved south into Canaan as part of the waves of Sea Peoples who were migrating along the Mediterranean coastline at the time of the collapse of the Hittite Empire. Many kings of local city-states are shown to have had Hittite and Luwian names in the Late Bronze to Early Iron Age transition period. Indeed, even the name of Mount Zion may be Hittite in origin.[1]
GENESIS 23:20
So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.
PROVERBS 4:14-15 ENTER NOT UNTO THE PATH OF THE WICKED, AND GO NOT IN THE WAY OF EVIL MEN. AVOID IT, PASS NOT BY IT, TURN FROM IT, AND PASS AWAY.
PSALMS 37:1-10 BE STILL BEFORE THE LORD AND WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM; DO NOT NOT FRET WHEN PEOPLE SUCCEED IN THEIR WAYS, WHEN THEY CARRY OUT THEIR WICKED SCHEMES.
REFRAIN FROM ANGER AND TURN FROM WRATH; DO NOT FRET-IT LEADS ONLY TO EVIL. FOR THOSE WHO ARE EVIL WILL BE DESTROYED, BUT THOSE WHO HOPE ON THE LORD WILL INHERIT THE LAND.A LITTLE WHILE, AND THE WICKED WILL BE NO MORE.
PROVERBS 5:12 AND SAY , HOW HAVE I HATED INSTRUCTION, AND MY HEART DESPISED REPROOF; AND HAVE NOT OBEYED THE VOICE OF MY TEACHERS, NOR INCLINED MINE EAR TO THEM THAT INSTRUCTED ME.
PROVERBS 9:8 DO NOT REPROVE A SCOFFER, OR HE WILL HATE YOU; REPROVE A WISE MAN, AND HE WILL LOVE YOU; REBUKE THE WISE AND THEY WILL LOVE YOU.
EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD. THE LORD INHABITS THE PRAISES OF HIS PEOPLE.
FOLLOWING THE LORD IS WISE. RECEIVING COUNSEL IS WISE. BEING DOERS OF THE WORD IS WISE. TURNING AWAY FROM REBELLION IS WISE. MAY WE WALK IN THE STEPS OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR. HE IS NEAR TO THE BROKENHEARTED.
A DOUBLE-MINDED MAN IS UNSTABLE IN ALL OF HIS WAYS.
