Gen 23:4, "I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a burial site among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight." 
	We have spent much time with Abraham in our readings. There is very much to consider with regard to this great patriarch of God’s faithfulness. He was a friend of God in whom so much was characterized in a living relationship between man and God. He was by no means perfect, as we have seen over and over again. However his heart and his faith in God to provide are so indicative of how we each should be considering our place in the heart of God’s manifest love. Now we come to a point that should also be a very real attribute of our relationship with God. Here, in this passage regarding the burial of his beloved wife, Sarah, we see the reality of how Abraham considered himself in this world. I am a stranger and a sojourner among you…
	Just like Abraham, we are to see ourselves as sojourners in this world. We are to have no roots that would anchor us to the things of this age. We are not to even consider this to be our home. We are to have no affections or desires after the things of this world and its attachments which would draw our hearts away from the every source of our life, God Almighty!
I realize that this is a hard thing to consider and to accept as we have our earthly provisions set in our physical responsibilities and hard work. We have our homes and our places of earthly security within the confines of banks and investments. We participate in the delights of this material realm which serve to distract us from the daily grind of earning a living and dealing with the stresses and strains of such a modern society. We feel such an affinity to the ease and comforts that we find within our communities and our associations. 
	Yet, let us go back to the promise made to Abraham all those centuries ago. Please turn again to Gen 17:5-8. Gen 17:5-8, "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I will make you the father of a multitude of nations. "And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." 
	Many take this to mean the physical land centered in the Middle East, the land of Canaan. At that time, the land represented to Abraham, an eternal inheritance within the confines of his understanding of God’s plan and intentions. As Abraham sojourned on the earth, he was never able to settle down in a prescribed area because to do so would be to limit the vast promise of God. As long as he wandered, he was expanding the territory of promise.
	This was carried forward as we find in Gen 37:1, Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned, in the land of Canaan. Again, there was no settling down because there was so much land to be wandered. It became the natural habit of these forefathers to not just become attached to a single area of land, but to investigate and to wander the whole area that was given them under God’s promise. Listen again to Jacob as he discussed this with the Pharaoh of Egypt in describing the manner of his and his fathers’ way of life. Gen 47:9, So Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning." 
	The Children of Israel held onto a return to the Land of Promise even as they were enslaved and made part of the lowest of the social structure of Egypt, slaves at the whim and discretion of the wealthy. Thus the physical land became the symbolic representation of the great promise of deliverance and hope for a better life. They were incorporated into the Egyptian culture but only as those who would do the menial tasks. They had no inheritance in the land or in the social structure. They were simply tolerated as a means of doing the work required for the betterment of their masters.
	God knew the plight of their lives and He sent Moses as the means of their deliverance with the promise of the land of Canaan as their place of safety and refuge. Ex 6:2-4, God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I did not make Myself known to them. And I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. 
	Even while God removed His people from the land of Egypt, it took 40 years of wandering in the desert to remove the longing after Egypt from their hearts. They had been the lowest of the low and yet they clung to the desires after what they had known in Egypt rather than that which was their promise and inheritance in the Lord. 
	So often, that is the case with us. There is nothing wrong with owning property and with working for the means to feed and to clothe ourselves. To do any less would be disgraceful in the eyes of both God and man. We do have those physical needs that require from us certain realities of how to survive in this hostile environment. And that is how we are to see our time on this earth, as we consider it in greater depth as we continue onward. However, we are not to set our hearts and our minds on these things! That is the great issue at hand. Where are our allegiances and our interests centered? Are we caught up in the daily struggle after the wealth of this age, owning more and more of the things that would draw us away from God? Or, do we just deal with the daily requirements that are before us and while earnestly yearning and seeking after God for those truths of our real home with Him? 
	Even as they were brought back to Canaan, the Israelites were told by God that the land was not really theirs to own permanently. It was all to be seen as the provision of God for the needs at hand, while their minds and their desires and their affections were to be centered in Him rather than in the land. Lev 25:23+24, 'The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. 'Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land. 
	This was proclaimed forcefully by King David to all the People of God as recorded in the prayer of 1 Chron 29:13-16, Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given Thee. For we are sojourners before Thee, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build Thee a house for Thy holy name, it is from Thy hand, and all is Thine. 
	Here is the proper attitude and heart after the way we are to consider all that we have in this realm. It is all the provision of God to use as He so deems appropriate. We may have plenty. We may have little. No matter what, it is all His to do with as He so chooses in our lives. We will not blame Him for our lack nor ignore Him in our abundance. In everything, with praise and thanksgiving, we will say that our hope and our trust and our every provision is from Him and not from the work and the efforts of our hands in this realm. 
	When we have no such attachment to the things of this world, we are freed from the need to acquire and to assemble more and more wealth unto ourselves. We will find ourselves less and less concerned about the transitory elements of this age and more inclined toward those things which are of eternal value in the great plan and purpose of God. 
We will view the great Promise in light of the very redemption and sanctification and glorification of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It will be from the perspective of how all eternity will not be able to contain all the glory of what God has done by the fulfillment of His great promise to Abraham. 
We will find ourselves echoing the Psalmist in Ps 105:7-15. Please read along with me. Ps 105:7-15, He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth. He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations, The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant, Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance," When they were only a few men in number, Very few, and strangers in it. And they wandered about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people. He permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes: "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm." 
Our entire emphasis of life will be transformed from that of amassing riches and physical possessions and worldly honor and fame and glory to all that would be pleasing to the heart of God. Our earthly life will become envisioned in the proper terms of how every step is to be unto the Lord in our increasing knowledge and expression of Jesus Christ alive and victorious! We will crave more and more after the spiritual reality that so far supersedes and transcends this earthly course of dust and anguish. 
We will proclaim the heart expressed in Ps 119:12-19. Blessed art Thou, O Lord; Teach me Thy statutes. With my lips I have told of All the ordinances of Thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies, As much as in all riches. I will meditate on Thy precepts, And regard Thy ways. I shall delight in Thy statutes; I shall not forget Thy word. Deal bountifully with Thy servant, That I may live and keep Thy word. Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Thy law. I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Thy commandments from me. 
	Our Promise land of Canaan is a very real place, but it is not of this realm. It is the eternal place of sweetness and contentment and joy and peace and satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ. The land of our home, the dwelling place of our rest and peace will never be completely realized on this earth. We will experience it to a degree as we sojourn with the Lord in the living reality that He is our everything, but we will never be able to state that we are at home on this earth. Ours is a constant wandering restlessness that can never be satisfied by anything of this realm. No matter how much we may amass, no matter how great our worldly reputation or power or honor, we will never know the true peace and contentment that is only found in the complete abandonment of all unto Jesus Christ. 
	The Writer to the Hebrews so declares this in the recounting of all those who lived by faith catalogued in Hebrews Chapter 11. Concerning Abraham and his generation, he writes the following in verses 8-16. Heb 11, verses 8-16, By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised; therefore, also, there was born of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. Amen.
	God has prepared a city for us, our true and certain home. It is there that all our wandering and restlessness will forever cease. Until that day of our home going from this earth, we are so encouraged to keep our hearts and our minds and our souls from settling down and taking root in the dry and dusty soil of this age. We are to maintain, with all earnestness and clarity our sojourn with Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. We are to be in absolute submission to His guidance and direction by the Holy Spirit in complete line with His Living Word as we walk with Him on this earth. 
When we are so anchored to Him and not to the things of this world, we will not be aimlessly wandering around in a state of confusion, gone astray. We will be fully guided into all truth and reality. We will then be enabled to see the world for what it is, filled with all its vanity and false promises and snares and deceits. We will be very heartened by the fact that we are strangers and aliens in a vile and hostile environment, sojourners through this realm unto the welcoming arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. So be it!
"I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a burial site among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight." Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 145:2-6. Every day I will bless Thee, And I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Thy works to another, And shall declare Thy mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, And on Thy wonderful works, I will meditate. And men shall speak of the power of Thine awesome acts; And I will tell of Thy greatness. Amen.