Chayei Sarah (Life of Sarah): Genesis 23:1-25:18
Weekly Torah Studies for 2025/26 ( 5786).
On the road to Emmaus, Yeshua met with two of His disciples and, beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:27). For our Torah studies this year, therefore, week by week we will seek to discover how all of Torah prepared the way for the coming Messiah.
15th November 2025 (24 Cheshvan)
Chayei Sarah (Life of Sarah): Genesis 23:1-25:18
Our reading begins with the death of Sarah and ends with the death of Abraham. Their long lives on this earth ended. They fulfilled their part in God’s covenant plan, growing in faith as they walked before Him and passed into their eternal life in dignity and honour. God’s purpose moved forward into the next generation.
When Abraham and Sarah were visited by angels at the time of Sodom’s judgement (Genesis 18), this was said of Abraham (Verses 17-19):
Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.
Abraham was chosen as the father of people from all nations who would join his family through faith in the God of Abraham. The responsibility of fatherhood was to beget children and teach them to live in the way of the Lord. That was his life’s purpose and his relationship with God was to bring this about. Thus, it is not surprising that once their earthly task was accomplished, both Sarah and Abraham left this world.
Our study in the central chapter of this week’s Bible portion (Genesis 24) is strengthened for us through understanding this. The final important purpose in Abraham’s life was to find God’s choice of a wife for his son Isaac. What is described is the model arranged marriage, which still speaks powerfully and beautifully to us today. The task was entrusted to Abraham’s oldest and loyal servant, whose name is not mentioned in the passage. What follows is a wonderful arranged marriage in the tradition of those days. A bride for Isaac was chosen carefully, not from the nations around who followed many gods, but from Abraham’s own family who lived in Mesopotamia.
Abraham was now old and mature in his walk with God. It was under God’s guidance that the decision was made as to where a bride for Isaac would be found. This was a marriage arranged by God, who was with the servant at the well when he prayed for God’s confirmation (verses 12 -14) that Rebekah was the chosen bride. This is the beautiful account of the faithful servant bringing back God’s choice of the bride for Isaac. It is full of the traditions of those days and filled with depth and meaning. Just as God chose Abraham and Sarah, so He now moved His covenant purposes forward in His choice of Isaac and Rebekah. The account is filled with the pure intent of God for His chosen people. The climax is when Isaac sees his future bride in the distance while meditating prayerfully in the field, meeting her graciously, and taking her to his mother’s tent where she became the wife whom he loved.
Such marriages in the covenant purposes of God can still go on as they have for many generations, as God seeks those fathers and mothers who live by faith like Sarah and Abraham, bringing their children up and building up the household of God. Jewish parents in particular are conscious of their responsibility before God in this matter, including such sabbath prayers for their children as the following - for their daughters:
May you be like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.
יְשִׂימֵךְ אֱלֹהיִם כְּשָׂרָה רִבְקָה רָחֵל וְלֵאָה
Yesimech Elohim k’Sarah Rivka Rachel v’Leah
In seeking to live by the faith of Abraham, all parents would be wise to seek God for wives and husbands for their children. All parents, like Abraham and Sarah, are privileged with the responsibility to bring up godly offspring (Malachi 2:15). This principle is in the mind of all who study Torah carefully and would certainly be behind the Apostle Paul’s teaching on marriage, including Ephesians 5. Here Paul showed how marriage is a human representation of God’s relationship with all His people through Yeshua.
The account of Isaac and Rebekah sets the foundation for the New Covenant teaching about marriage. We are, therefore, intended to discover the fulfilment of Torah in the eternal family of God.
Yeshua used imagery of bride and bridegroom in His teaching. He spoke of Himself as the Bridegroom when asked about fasting:
Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. (Matthew 9:15)
We might easily recall Isaac’s taking Rebekah to Sarah’s tent when we read about Yeshua preparing a place for His bride:
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? (John 14:2)
The account of the arranged marriage between Isaac and Rebecca rises to a higher level, helping us to understand the ways of God in the preparation of a bride for Yeshua.
The imagery continues into the Book of Revelation (Chapter 22, verse 17):
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
It is with this fulfilment of God’s purposes that we should study our Bible this week. The servant who goes at the command of Abraham to find a bride for his son is a pattern that can be followed in all marriages, and also models God’s purpose for all His chosen covenant family as a bride for His Son Yeshua. The Holy Spirit, like Abraham’s trusted servant, is sent to prepare the bride of Yeshua to be with Him at His coming:
A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. (John 14:19-21)
These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. (John 14:25-28)
The account of Abraham and Isaac is a study through the lives of human beings pointing to God the Father and Yeshua His Son. Rebekah, Isaac’s bride points, to the bride of Messiah. The servant bringing the bride to Abraham’s son points us to the Holy Spirit preparing a bride for Yeshua. This is not a drama invented by man to be played out on a stage, but history woven into God’s covenant people, waiting for the greater fulfilment in the eternal family of God.
The teaching of God is full of layers of truth and interacting themes of God’s covenant purposes in Yeshua HaMashiach.
Dr Clifford Denton
Founder and Director
Tishrei Bible School
www.tishrei.org
