It is associated with humility, contrition and repentance. Thus we do not believe Abraham was speaking of ashes as if they were his constitutional elements. However, Scripture does reveal that man was indeed made from the dust. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Following this, we find burial to be the universal practice of dealing with the bodily remains of the righteous dead throughout Scripture.
Space forbids anything but a brief survey of the evidence.
Further, after His resurrection, many of those OT saints whose tombs had broken open, came out of the tombs and appeared in the city. It is exceedingly obvious to anyone reading Scripture that burial of the dead was regarded to be the unquestionable norm for the honorable disposal of the remains of the dead. The exceptions, however, are even more powerful in their instructional value. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire. God cremated them.