Bible Study Seattle

“Now Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.” Genesis 23:1-2

Sarah is the only woman in the entire bible whose age at death is given. Why? God is trying to show us something.

There is some debate about why Abraham was living a three days’ journey from Sarah. Evidently Sarah did not accompany Abraham and Isaac to the near-sacrifice of Isaac. Did Abraham tell her that there were commanded by God to travel for a special sacrifice? Probably. In any case, Sarah evidently dies shortly after the Isaac sacrifice. Since Sarah was 90 when she had Isaac, Isaac was 37 when Sarah died (90+37=127). In Genesis 24 we see:

“and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.” Genesis 25:20

Isaac took a wife three years after his near-sacrifice! We know from Moses in Psalm 90 that a day is as a thousand years in the Lord’s sight. And we know from Daniel and Ezekiel that a day is as a year. “For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year.” Ezekiel 4:5-6

Therefore, from Isaac’s sacrifice to his taking a wife is three years – three thousand years. Jesus told us that: “The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” John 2:18-20.
Jesus meant that he would build the heavenly temple within three prophetic days – 3,000 years. But that was over the heads of the Pharisees.

If Sarah died shortly after the sacrifice of Isaac, it’s possible she modeled the Jewish polity.  40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Israel was destroyed by the Romans (by 73AD).