“Sarah dies and is buried in the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham buys from Ephron the Hittite.”
See Genesis 23:1–20.
President John Taylor said:
“You will find, every one of you, that, naked you came into the world, and naked you will return [see Job 1:21]; you can take nothing pertaining to this world with you, not if you were to possess the whole earth. If you possess any portion of this earth by right or title or authority, you will have to get it from God, and you will have to get it when the earth shall be renewed. Abraham had great promises of lands [Canaan or Israel], so had Isaac and Jacob [see Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 28:13]. And what did Abraham have? We are told by Stephen, who lived many generations after him, that God had promised Abraham that he should have this land; but nevertheless he gave him no inheritance in it, not so much as to set his foot on [see Acts 7:5]. Notwithstanding the promise of the Lord to him respecting his possessing that land, he had to buy a place in which to bury his wife [see Gen. 23:1–20], and in which he himself should be buried [see Gen. 25:8–10]. And yet, did God’s promise fail? No, he [Abraham] will yet possess that land and his seed with him, and the promise be literally fulfilled. While it is proper for us to seek after everything that is right and honorable, on the other hand it is quite as right and very proper that we should set God before us all the time and render obedience to His law, so that we may acquire an eternal inheritance in the kingdom of God. God is now establishing His kingdom upon the earth. If it is the kingdom of God, and He is establishing it, He expects us to be subject to His law, and to be governed by it, and to keep His commandments.”
(“Remarks,” Deseret News, Oct. 12, 1881, 578.)
