WE come now to the record of the death of Abraham. Death is the one great certainty of life, yet so few prepare themselves for this inevitable experience. People live for this life alone, and have no thought for their existence beyond the grave. Only in the Bible, and in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ, is there any certainty or safety in death. Jesus said for all that believe on him as their sin-bearer and Saviour, that he had gone before them to prepare a place for them in his eternal and glorious realm. It is through him alone that we receive eternal life. For the rest there is only eternal conscious existence in hell.

Abraham lived around 40 years after the death of Sarah, and we are told in verses 1-4 here that he took another wife called Keturah, with whom he had several children. However these children, and Keturah, had no inheritance in the promises of God, and God's covenant of salvation promised by God to Abraham. Because of this we read in these verses before us, that Abraham left all his inheritance to his son Isaac, and although he provided for the family he had with Keturah, he sent them away before he died, so that Isaac may alone inherit the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants. (v.5,6).

Altogether we are told in verse 7 that Abraham lived until he was 175 years old. Even though he was a child of God and inheritor through Christ of eternal life, he still had to suffer physical death, and this is the experience of all people of faith in Jesus as their Saviour, but Jesus made clear that through him, Abraham still lived, for God was the God of Abraham, and He was the God of the living, not the dead.

It is recorded here that Isaac and Ishmael buried their father in the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham had bought for the resting place for Sarah his wife. After the burial of Abraham in the same resting place as his wife Sarah, we are told that the blessing of God upon Abraham through his life, was now transferred to his son Isaac, marking Isaac as the one through whom God would keep his promises to Abraham, not only to give his family the promised land, but to preserve the promise that out of his family the Saviour of the world would be born.

We are told in verse 8 that Abraham was gathered to his people. This was an Old Testament expression which probably expressed that even after death the family was kept together in a common burial place. However there is a significant message bound up in this expression.

There are two families who live on this earth. There is the family of humanity, which are born perishing, and under the dominion of Satan; and there is the redeemed family of those are chosen for eternal life, who are in due time in this earthly life are called, justified and glorified through Christ and his work for them, and through the faith given to them to believe on him as their Saviour, Lord and God.

Therefore the phrase 'was gathered to his people' at death reminds us that in the end there are only these two families, and at death we are gathered to the family to which we belong, either to the family of Christ who inherit the eternal life he won for them, and the rest of humanity which are gathered to their people in and eternal existence with the devil and all his angels in hell.

Paul speaks of this in a most telling way in Galatians 6: 7,8. He tells us that 'Do not be deceived: God can not be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life'.

Sowing to please his sinful nature simply describes the ordinary life of human beings while they live their earthly life. They live to please themselves, and to gain the pleasures and the good things this life offers. They live for themselves and not to please God, and this is true for all those who claim to be Christians, but reject the saving truth of the Bible that Jesus came to give his life a ransom for sinners. They are also living to please the themselves, because they chose to reject the truth of Christ's saving work because it does not suit how they want things to be, and so raise up a belief in God which is an idol, because it does not conform to the revelation of God he has given of himself in the bible.

On the other hand those who sow to please the Spirit speak of those who have been born again of the Spirit of God, who have thereby been raised to new life, and live by the Spirit, and hold fast to the Bible as the infallible revelation of God of his person and his saving work through his only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ.

Whatever the words in verse 8 of this passage in Genesis 25 actually signify, in the totality of life there are only two families that we human beings can be gathered to in life beyond the grave. If we live for this world and the things of this world, even though we may be counted a celebrity by the world, and have done much that is praiseworthy in our lives, and receive the praise of the world, we will be gathered with the people of the world into everlasting damnation in hell. It is only those, who have found eternal life through the faith granted to them to believe on Jesus Christ as their Lord, God, Saviour and sin-bearer, that will be gathered into everlasting bliss and joy in the presence of God for the life of everlasting joy and peace.