As we find ourselves in chapter 23 of Genesis we find our word for today which is the first time it is used in the Bible. סְפֹּ֥ד mourn for someone, sing the lament for the dead, bewail. It is used 30 times in the Old Testament. We see our word used surrounding the deaths of key figures in the Bible like the death of Jacob. Genesis 50:10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of סְפֹּ֥ד mourning for his father. 1 Samuel 25:1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and סְפֹּ֥ד mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. 2 Samuel 1:12 They סְפֹּ֥ד mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. 2 Samuel 3:31-32 Then David said to Joab and all the people with him, “Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and walk in סְפֹּ֥ד mourning in front of Abner.” King David himself walked behind the bier. They buried Abner in Hebron, and the king wept aloud at Abner’s tomb. All the people wept also. God identifies mourning as having an important place in this life. Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to סְפֹּ֥ד mourn and a time to dance.
Mourning is a form of sadness. It is important because it was part of the way people did and still bury their loved ones. All emotions are gifts from God to help us connect with him in the without corruption place while we still live here in the corruption place, this fallen messed up world. Sadness leads us to acceptance. God allows us to feel this emotion of sadness to lead us to acceptance. Ecclesiastes 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
A great example of this is when God used sadness to move Nehemiah and the foreign king he served to rebuild the wall that Jerusalem needed for protection. Nehemiah 2:1-3
In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Nehemiah was able to use this gift of Sadness that God had given him to accomplish the mission that God sent him on. Because Nehemiah trusted God with his emotion of sadness by allowing himself to feel it in prayer to God. Look at what happened. God moved him to acceptance and then to gladness with the success of the completion of the wall and protection for God’s people.
Now let's go back to our chapter. Genesis 23:1-2 Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to סְפֹּ֥ד mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. God used the mourning process which again is a form of sadness to move Abraham and his family to acceptance. As with all grief God is working in it to ultimately bring us to gladness. Abraham's family was able to move forward in a healthy way toward God's purposes for their lives.
