A Fair Price

Genesis 23

In Genesis 23, Abraham negotiates for a field in which he can bury Sarah, and we can see several important principles for business transactions here. First, the transaction was public and therefore, transparent. Abraham wasn't trying to hide anything from the Hittites or from the person who owned the field. Second, Abraham offered a fair price. He wasn't trying to cheat or swindle the other party. Third, he didn't want to be indebted to another person. He wanted to buy the property rather than receive it as a gift, presumably because he did not want to owe anything to Ephron (the seller). Consider your business transactions. Are they transparent? Would you be ashamed if they were? Are they fair? Do any of your transactions put you in debt to another? I don't think this passage is saying that Abraham's way of doing business is the only way to conduct yourself. Perhaps it's better to think of these as best practices of sorts.