He Was Gathered To His People
Genesis 25:7-10
I find it interesting what people put into obituaries.
You can tell not just a lot about the deceased but also about the family they leave behind.
Sometimes there are family feuds going on and parts of the family are not even mentioned.
Sometimes someone will go way overboard making someone out to be a saint that was far from it.
I think the saddest are the ones that list so many hobbies and activities and achievements but have no mention of God or their family.
Some are also just funny.
In 2014, the obituary for Johanna Scarpitti went viral on the internet.
It opened with these words: “Ding dong the witch is dead, but the memory of our mother lives on.”
Her daughter said it was a joke because she loved The Wizard of Oz so much, and was even buried in ruby slippers.
I think they could have found a better quote to use, personally.
You might say that our text is part of Abraham’s obituary.
He was 175 years old.
This chapter records much of his family records surrounding our text.
It tells of his wife Hagar’s son Ishmael and his family.
It tells of his wife Sarah’s sons Isaac and his family.
It tells of a later wife named Keturah and their children together.
We find the details of his funeral, that Isaac and Ishmael were pallbearers.
We see the place of interment, in the family plot at Machpelah where he would be laid beside Sarah.
If you have been trying to keep up with your daily Bible reading this year, it is this kind of chapter that can discourage you.
So many names, so many details that just don’t seem to matter.
But even the genealogies are mines with rich veins if you take time to look.
As I was going through this passage, I was struck by the words of vs. 8:
Gen 25:8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
It is an amazing testimony for a man greatly used by God.
Abraham did not fear death nor did he fight it.
When his time came, he peacefully let his soul slip from his body.
He had a lived a long and good life.
He was content in all that he had seen and accomplished.
It is such a beautiful picture of the ideal death.
Someone has lived a long and happy life and they move on to Heaven.
Too often for me God in His wisdom takes folks home in other ways.
I can only trust that His way is best, and I can only be somewhat jealous of those that get to Heaven ahead of me.
I want to pause for moment here.
Death has two parts – a departure and an arrival.
I want to talk about the departure for just a few moments before we look at the arrival.
One of the themes I see in Genesis is the progression of death.
We begin in chapter 1 with a brand new, perfect world unmarred by sin’s touch.
In chapter 2 is the first mention of death -:
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17 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.
In chapter 3, the serpent lied to Eve and said “ Ye shall not surely die”
She was tricked and broke the divine law of God.
Adam was not tricked, but willingly and soberly chose to do the same.
Part of the curse of sin that God pronounced is this:
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
The world that knew no sin and death was not broken by sin and death.
In chapter 4 there is the first human death, as Cain killed his brother Abel.
In chapter 5 there is the genealogy from Adam to Noah.
There is a pattern there: “So-and-so was so old when they had a son and then lived for so many more years, and he died.”
Methusaleh held that fate off for 969 years but in the end he died too.
We read in chapter 6 how the world grew so corrupt that God destroyed human civilization, killed them all in a global flood, but saved Noah and his family alive to being anew.
All those men and women and animals perished in the flood, but death was not satisfied.
We get to chapter 11 and there is another genealogical section, linking Noah’s son Shem to Abraham.
It is a similar formula to chapter 5, saying they had a son at such an age and live so much longer after that.
You can even trace here the shrinking life spans.
Death was coming for all and it was coming quicker and quicker!
We could continue on and see how Abraham’s line through Isaac and Jacob all lived their lives before dying and being buried.
I think one of the most startling verses in Genesis is the very last.
Remember how it all stated:
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Then look at how it ends:
Gen 50:26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
From Creation in Eternity Past to a Coffin in Egypt.
That is the hold of sin and death.
That is the testimony of their destructive power.
But I am also glad to tell you that those two are nor the only things on the rise in Genesis.
There is also a seed of hope that is planted.
I think you first see it back in 3:15 – in the middle of Sin’s Curse the promise of the Savior’s Coming:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
We can trace the lineage from Adam to Seth to Methuselah to Noah to Shem to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Judah.
Remember what Jacob said when he blessed his son Judah:
Gen 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Shiloh means “man of peace”
That is talking about the Prince of Peace there, the Messiah.
We see the picture of the salvation of Christ bearing us safely the floods of God’s wrath in Noah’s Ark.
We see the picture of Christ’s substitution – dying in our place – in the ram provided when Abraham was sent to offer Isaac.
I think we see Him pictured in Joseph, the son that “dead” but returned to bring salvation to his family.
We could go on and on.
Just know this – Yes sin and death entered this world through Adam’s sin:
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” – Romans 5:1
Know that the natural consequence of sin is death, both physical and spiritual:
“Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” – James 1:15
But also know that God has provided hope for us:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” – Romans 6:23
You know how Abraham found salvation?
He trusted in the work that Christ would do.
How are we saved
We trust in the word that Christ has done.
There is no other means of salvation but through faith in Christ!
Now, that is all about the departure that death brings.
Let’s look now at the arrival it also brings.
God has made it so that there are two destinations for the departed souls of men.
Which destination you arrive at is determined by if you found forgiveness through faith in Christ on this earth before your final breath.
There is a place of wondrous peace and blessing ahead for the child of God.
There is a place of horrible torment ahead for those that reject Christ.
That is the Gospel truth.
If it is not so Christ came and died in vain.
If it is not so we might as well pack up and go home, all the missionaries quit their labors, and all the churches shut down.
But it is true.
There is hope beyond death’s embrace.
Look back with me at our text in vs. 8
Gen 25:8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
That is such a beautiful phrase.
We find the same or similar wording used for the deaths of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron – I’ll let you track down those references.
It is also used in Judges 2:10 – the final time this phrase appears – to talk about the passing of the generation that conquered the Promised Land under Joshua.
All these “were gathered to their people”
That is not about the departure of death, it is describing the arrival in the Blessed Hope that awaits the child of God.
Yes, I know it is a little different before the Cross and Resurrection, and that the Old Testament saints had to wait for Christ’s victory to enter Heaven.
But they still had a wonderful place to be.
David said in II Samuel 12:23 about his infant son that died –“But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
Christ gives us a glimpse into this in the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
I do not think this is a parable, I think that his Lazarus was a real person, and not the same one that He raised from the dead later.
Luk 16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom…
You know what these Old Testaments saints did after they died – “They where gathered to their people”
The same can be said about Christians.
For example, Paul wrote:
1Th 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Th 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
We too will be “gathered to our people”
Now quickly, I want to note a few things about this phrase before we draw to a close.
First, this proves that we, our persons and personalities, continue beyond death.
Matthew Gage will not cease when his heart stops.
No, I will only move on through death’s door into live everlasting.
I like to use the word “graduate” – I just graduate from this life to the next.
I will be gathered to my people, and so will you if you know Christ.
Second, we will not be alone.
Think about Abraham, he left his ancestral home, left his family behind and went to Canaan land.
He had only Lot, and probably should have left him behind.
He was a pilgrim and stranger amongst people who were not like him, did not serve the trust God as he did.
But there came a day when God gathered him to a place filled with family and friends.
He would never be alone again, and neither will we.
Third we will be “our people”
That can be family – I have many I wish to see again or meet for the first time.
That can also be people like us.
Heaven is a place filled with the children of God, all will love and serve Him.
CONCLUSION
One day if Christ does not return soon, all of use will stand at the departure gate of death.
I speak here metaphorically, but there will be great sorting that takes place there.
We can read in the Bible of the sorting out of the wheat and the chaff or the goats and sheep.
God knows His own and no mistakes will be made.
There is no space given to change your fate, that time has passed.
To the child of God this morning whose sins have been washed white as snow in the blood of the lamb, what a happy day that will be to be gathered to our people.
What a reunion that will be – friends, family, and most importantly our wonderful Savior.
Do not fear the departure of death because that arrival lies beyond it.
If you do not know Christ, if you have not fully trusted in Him, if you are still holding out hope that your good deeds, your baptism, your family, or anything other the Christ and Christ alone – get ready now.
Christ loves you, died for, rose again and conquered death so that we could be with Him forever.
He alone can forgive our sins – He alone can make us righteous and whole in the sight of God.
Come to Him today.
Call on Him – put your faith in Him!
Be ready for that day when death comes creeping in.
Don’t be gathered with the lost and doomed by rejecting Christ.
Be ready to be gathered to your people with Him.