The Treasure In the Field
September 1, 2013

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Abram, the father of the faithful, has a life history that parallels the overall plan of God from Genesis to Revelation.

• Let us follow his life story considering Isaac and Sarah, also, in order to show the wonderful plan of salvation.
• Isaac was born of Abram and Sarah in Genesis 21.
• In Genesis 23 Sarah died.
• Throughout the 23rd chapter, we read much detail of Abram's possession of a field in which was a burial place he sought to purchase for his family.
• The entire field was to be purchased since it contained the burial place.

Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a man who finds a treasure in a field and buys the entire field to obtain the treasure.

This is a pattern showing the plan of salvation.

Sarah's death parallels the spiritual death of mankind when Adam and Eve disobeyed God's word and brought death into the world.

Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Man died in the Garden.

So God set out to have a new man.

All humanity born since Adam were born dead... and are walking dead people.

Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

The means by which God was able to QUICKEN and MAKE ALIVE people who were DEAD in sin is by first uniting them to HIS DEATH so they would resurrect in His following resurrection.

God set out to put away all the dead humanity by uniting them to his death of the cross, and then get himself a new humanity through the resurrection.

Abram's wife, Sarah, depicts the human race as the Bride of God, so to speak.

• God sought to fill Adam with His Spirit through the means of the eating of the fruit of Life.
• And God would reproduce His nature through mankind's actions by actually indwelling man and living through man.
• God set out to come into union with mankind by His Spirit indwelling mankind.
• This is similar to Abram marrying Sarah and desiring to bear sons and daughters.

When Sarah died, Abram insisted on paying for a burying place.

• A price had to be paid.
• Throughout chapter 23, the people who owned the land did not want to make Abram buy it, but sought to simply give it to him.
• But Abram would not take it without paying for it.
• Regardless of the charity of the owners, who was to say in years to come whether the descendants of the owners would not bury their own dead there, too?
• And who could say that there would not arise trouble contesting the right Abram had to the field?
• So Abram sought to buy it that it never be contested.
• And the payment would also make it sure.

The place of burial represents the means by which God chose to save mankind.

• The cross and the burial of Jesus Christ.
• The blood of Jesus was a price God paid in order to save mankind and make salvation sure!
• We stand on the Blood of Jesus whenever the devil comes to contest our salvation.
• Like the kingdom of God compared to the man buying an entire field to obtain the treasure, the place of death in Christ through the cross was a treasure to God!
• The Garden was the place where God placed man in hopes of man becoming His place of indwelling.
• And when mankind died, the garden became vacant.
• He lost His love, mankind.
• Mankind is God's greatest love.
• Man was made in His image!
• In the same chapter as the parable of the treasure in the field, the Bible tells us in a parable that the FIELD IS THE WORLD.

Matthew 13:38 The field is the world;

For the whole world, God would do a work.

• In the parable of the tares and the wheat the field is said to be the world.
• In thinking of that parable, we can see that the treasure is the wheat.
• Jesus died for the entire world.
• The wheat are those who accept Him, and the tares are people who are insincere and are false believers.
• Jesus died for the tares and the wheat, though only the wheat will accept that salvation.
• Abram's treasure was the burying place of Sarah.
• So he purchased the entire field to obtain it.
• Through the cross, God had the dead put away.
• A burying place is a removal of the dead.

Genesis 23:4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

When mankind died, God's heart was broken and the Garden was made vacant.

• A plan was made to fill the vacancy and obtain a bride for the Lord.
• Through the cross Adam is crucified.
• The old man is removed.
• When we were born, we were born "in Adam."
• All in Adam shall die.
• And the only way to "exit" Adam from whom we were born is to do die.
• And Christ's death on the cross was accomplished as our deaths.
• We exit Adam and enter Christ through the death of the cross.
• This cross of Christ and His burial was the treasure God sought for.
• He wanted a CHURCH through the cross, and the Church would be His greatest desire.
• So the death and burial of Christ would remove Adam and bring about the new creation and a new bride, making that place of death God's treasure.

Romans 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

We are baptized into Christ's death.

• Into the place of death.
• His treasure in all this world is the means by which He obtains for Himself His Church.
• In the tomb of Christ, his buryingplace, sinners would be put away through Christ's death and made into new creatures.
• His death is the central point of it all.
• The old must be removed in order to obtain the new.
• A price had to be paid in order to see this accomplished.

Ephron insisted that Abram not pay for the buryingplace.

• It was necessary, though.
• It may seem odd to you that God had to pay a price, but it does make perfect sense.
• We owed a debt due to our sin.
• The soul that sins must die.
• So God insisted on making the payment.

Genesis 49:29-32 And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of
Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.

We read that all the patriarchs used this buryingplace after Sarah was first buried there.

• Only those in the family were buried there.
• Nobody else would be buried there.
• Abraham became the beginning of a new nation.

Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

All that matters in this world in God's eyes is whether we are new creatures or not.

• In this buryingplace of Machpelah, only the offspring of the woman Sarah were  buried.

Genesis 23:20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.

Abram's payment made it sure.

The name Machpelah means "double."

• This reminds us of the truth of the dual deaths of Christ and each of us, who were baptized into Jesus Christ's death.
• Machpelah was in Hebron.
• The name Hebron means "association".
• We identify His deaths as our deaths.
• We associate with His death.
• As believers, we must make this association in our hearts and understandings.
• This is the entire beauty about the whole picture of Christ's death.
• Its what makes it God's treasure.
• The man in the parable of the treasure sold all he had in order to purchase the field.
• Christ gave His entire life for our salvation.

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

John 12:31-33 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.

He drew all men into the potential for salvation through His death.

• And all the while He knew only some would be saved.
• The entire field was purchased for the treasure.
• The treasure would be those in this world who would be saved through the cross.
• We leave Genesis 23 and the story of the field in Machpelah, and come to chapter 24 where THE BRIDE FOR THE SON IS SOUGHT.
• Eve died in the Garden.
• That special place of the Bride became vacant.
• Let's jump ahead and note what occurred after Rebekah married Isaac.

Genesis 24:67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

Sarah's vacant tent became occupied once again with the bride of the son, Issac.

• Through the son, Isaac, the restoration of an occupied tent of the bride took place.

Genesis 24:3-4 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the
daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

Genesis 24:15 And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

Genesis 24:61-63 And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahairoi; for he dwelt in the south country. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.

Genesis 24:65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.

In the field, the same field where the tomb was purchased, the new bride removed her veil.

The Garden is the place of the Bride for relationship with the Lord.

• Its the realm in the world where God chose to walk with man in the Spirit.
• "The cool of the day" literally means the "spirit of the day".
• It represents the realm of walking in the Spirit.
• Jesus died...

Matthew 27:50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

And at the time of His death and in the location of His death...

Matthew 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

The veil was removed.

We find that the Garden of Eden had an entrance at the east side.

• There, God placed cherubims to block the way.
• In the Tabernacle the Most Holy Place represented this Garden.
• And at the entrance to the Most Holy Place, cherubims were found embroidered in a veil that blocked the way.
• So when Christ died, the veil entrance to the Garden that blocked entry was removed.
• And that caused the Garden that was vacant to once again be open for occupying.
• Removal of Veils in marriage represent the removal of a barrier that separates a man and woman from becoming one flesh.
• Union occurs when the veil, so to speak, is removed.
• Intimacy occurs.

1 Corinthians 6:16-17 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

Union of male and female represents the union of God's Spirit with our spirits.

• So we become a Bride of Christ.
• Through the Son, Isaac, the vacant tent would be filled again.
• Through the Son of God, Christ, the vacant Garden would be filled again.
• At the cross, we experience the intimacy of union to Christ's death, causing new birth to occur.
• Never would a stranger be buried.
• Only those of the family.
• That is the reason for the payment.