CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 25:1. Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. “Keturah is called a concubine in 1 Chronicles 1:32. It is usually assumed, but merely on the assumption of the history following in chronological sequences, that Abraham espoused Keturah after Sarah’s death. And the words ‘Then again,’ of the A.V. leave this impression on the English reader. But there is nothing in the original to bear this out. The literal sense is, ‘And Abraham added and took a wife.’ i.e., took another wife besides Sarah: but when is not said. Indeed, from Genesis 25:6, which says that he sent away the sons of his concubines during his lifetime, it would be most improbable that they should all have been born after Sarah’s death.” (Alford.) Murphy and others hold that Abraham took this wife after the death of Sarah. “These sons were in any case born after the birth of Isaac, and therefore after Abraham was renewed in vital powers. If this renewal of vigour remained after the birth of Isaac, it may have continued some time after the death of Sarah, whom he survived thirty-eight years. His abstinence from any concubine until Sarah gave him Hagar is against his taking any other during Sarah’s lifetime.”—
Genesis 25:2. Shuah.] The tribe to which Bildad, Job’s friend, belonged. (Job 8:1.)—
Genesis 25:3. Sheba.] These were probably the Sabeans who plundered Job. (Job 1:5.)—
Genesis 25:6. Eastward, unto the east country.] Arabia, which was east of Beersheba, in the south of Palestine, where Abraham dwelt.—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 25:1-6
THE LAST YEARS OF ABRAHAM
Abraham’s eventful life was now drawing towards its close. The former part of it is described with much detail, as it was necessary to show how the Church took its beginning and how carefully it was separated from the world. The line of history on which the Messiah was at length to appear had also to be clearly laid down. The proportions of this history are regulated by God’s redeeming purpose. In this chapter, the remaining portion of the life of Abraham is described with great brevity. The events of many years are crowded into a few sentences. The last years of Abraham, as their story is told here, may be considered from two points of view.
I. On their natural side. We may consider Abraham simply as an ordinary member of the human race, who by a life of moral purity had preserved his health and was spared to old age. His old age, we find, was marked by great natural vigour. It is true, that when, in the words of the Apostle, “he was as good as dead” his strength was miraculously renewed so that he became the natural fountain of life to the chosen family. But that, we find, was not a transient gift. This renewed strength was continued to him to the end. We have a proof of this in the fact that he contracts a second marriage, and begets a numerous offspring (Genesis 25:1-4.) As a proof also of the energy of health that remained in him we find that he had power to recover his feelings after the shock of Sarah’s death. His natural strength triumphed over the prostration caused by his great grief. Abraham had also full energy for the business of life. We find him active to the last in the management of all his concerns. He arranges the portions of his children, giving all his principal property to Isaac, and unto the sons of the concubines gifts. Thus he was able to arrange his family affairs before his death. All this is the picture of a hale old man whose mind and faculty remain clear and strong to the last. But the latter years of Abraham may also be considered:—
II. On their Spiritual side. We are here dealing not merely with the life of a man, but also of a saint. And all the way through his life, since God first called him, Abraham appears as a saint. He had the glory of God and His covenant purposes ever in view. By these he regulated his disposal of family matters. Therefore he “gave all he had unto Isaac,” but only “gifts” to the sons of the concubines. For Isaac was the Covenant child in whom his seed should be called. He never forgot the relation of this line to God’s redemptive purposes. The will of God had been clearly made known to him in this matter, and he carried out the purposes of that will with devotion and a strong sense of duty. It was in this spirit that he provided for the purity and peace of the chosen family. As to the sons of the concubines, “he sent them away from Isaac his son.” He did this
(1), to prevent confusion of race. He would prevent intermarriages, and thus preserve the stream pure along which God had determined the life of the chosen nation should flow;
(2) to avoid disturbance and quarrels. He took every possible care to preserve peace. “The particulars of Abraham’s final settlement of his affairs are not here detailed. The Divine decree constituted Isaac his principal heir, but the other parties having claims upon him were by no means overlooked. The patriarch was careful, not only to make suitable provision for them during his own lifetime, but also to leave such instructions as might prevent uncertain disputes and heart-burnings after he was gone. Thus the patriarch passed the latter stage of his troubled journey—in privacy, apparently, and in peace, waiting till his change came.”—(Candlish).
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 25:1. It was after Sarah was dead, and Rebekah had come to occupy her vacant tent, that Abraham lawfully, and for Godly ends, entered into a second matrimonial alliance. It would appear, indeed, that this marriage stood, in some respects, on a somewhat different footing from the first. At the sixth verse, Keturah, as well as Hagar, is referred to as Abraham’s concubine. But that name is certainly intended here, as well as elsewhere, according to the customs of these early times, to intimate merely inferiority of rank or condition on the part of the wife, in respect of her having been one of her husband’s household;—without necessarily denoting any irregularity, in the nature of the connection itself.—(Candlish).
Abraham may have taken this step because he was a lonely man, on the death of Sarah; and especially now that Isaac was married, and therefore separated from him.
There is no stain cleaving to this second marriage. Even the relation to Keturah promotes, in its measure, the divine scheme of blessing, for the new life which came upon the old exhausted nature and strength of Abraham, and the word of promise, which destined him to be the father of a mass of nations, authenticates itself in this second marriage.—(Delitzsch).
We remark here the arising of new hopes in the declining years of Abraham. Sarah is dead; and when Abraham bowed himself before the sons of Heth his heart seemed buried in Sarah’s grave. Isaac was married, and all Abraham’s care seemed to centre in him. Yet here we find Abraham contracting a new alliance, busied about life, entering with energy into a fresh sphere of duties. We collect from that the imperishable nature of hope. No natural sorrow is eternal. When Paul and Barnabas parted, one would have thought that their hearts so violently torn asunder would have been long ere they had healed, but soon we find each twining round a new friend with as much warmth of affection as before. Out of the grave fresh hopes bloom; for our affections are not meant to rest in their objects, but to pass on from one thing to another. They are prospective. They exist here in training for nobler uses. They are perennial, and unless exhausted by misuse grow fresher and stronger to rest on God at last.—(Robertson).
Genesis 25:2-4. The Abrahamites in the wider sense, who partially peopled Arabia, must form the broad basis for the theocratic faith of Abraham, and become a bridge between Judaism and Christianity on the one hand, and heathenism on the other.—(Lange).
In order that literally as well as spiritually the promise might be fulfilled, he became, by Keturah, “the father of many nations” after the flesh;—even as in Isaac, and his seed through Isaac,—the seed which is, “not many, but one, that is Christ” (Galatians 3:26),—he was destined to be the “father of many nations” by faith;—the father of the innumerable company, “out of all kindreds, and peoples, and nations, and tongues”—all of whom through faith are the children of faithful Abraham.—(Candlish).
Genesis 25:5. Abraham established the right of primogeniture. He gives all that he had unto Isaac, gifts only to the rest. Two nations only among the ancients kept up the notions of family, the Romans and the Jews. In all other nations a man rested on his own title to consideration, on his own merits. In these two a man gathered family associations and national ones, as his race went on. The Jews said, we are Abraham’s seed, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and there was an advantage in their feeling children of this long ancestry, because those who have a great past get out of self. They are pledged not to dishonour their ancestors. Many, by the mere stirring of such a memory are dignified. They who have no past have a certain vulgarity; or uneasiness, or else personal pride differs from the dignity which knows whence it comes. And this, in a way is the Christian’s advantage. We have a past. We stand upon a past; it is a righteousness not our own which has shed its lustre upon us. We do not make our own destiny or heaven. These are gifts given us, advantages and privileges, but we have no merit in possessing them. Hence the Christian’s sense of dignity is humble, for it is not personal but derived.—(Robertson).
Genesis 25:6. He gives portions to the sons of the concubines during his lifetime, and sends them away to the East. Ishmael had been portioned off long before. (Genesis 21:14.) The East is a general name for Arabia, which stretched away to the southeast, and east of the point where Abraham resided in the south of Palestine. The northern part of Arabia, which lay due east of Palestine, was formerly more fertile and populous than now. The sons of Keturah were probably dismissed before they had any children. Their notable descendants, according to custom, are added here before they are dismissed from the main line of the narrative.—(Murphy.)
Abraham is the man of faith all the way through. In the disposal of his family he has an eye to the prosperity of the Church of God.