BLESSED EXHORTATIONS (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

Hebrews 13:2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How well do you practice hospitality, even to where you are comfortable welcoming strangers into your home?

I’m afraid not many people would score well if graded today and this is what makes today’s blessed exhortation, the second in this current series, so convicting in nature. In His infinite wisdom, God knew His people would need a constant reminder in regard to His expectations for being hospitable and so He made sure these words for today ended up in the scriptures. Look again at what our Lord commands us in verse 2 of Hebrews 13:

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

It’s important to note that during biblical times, the matter of extending hospitality to others, familiar or otherwise, was very commonplace. It was largely the norm vice the exception, for sure. For when people traveled from the days of Adam through the ministry of Jesus and beyond, there weren’t plentiful accommodations to choose from. Travelers would arrive in towns and villages – weary, hungry, and dirty – in need of a place to stay, wash off, and nourish themselves. What makeshift inns were available weren’t really fit for people to stay in.

And so it was culturally appropriate to invite strangers into one’s home where they would be fed and given a nice place to rest until they continued on their journey the following morning.

Need an example of this, one that also ties to the assertion of our Lord through His word that we might entertain angels unaware by caring for those we don’t know?

Go back to chapters 18 and 19 of Genesis and you fill find, first Abraham and then Lot, encounter angels of the Lord, and in both instances, show immediate hospitality to them, unaware of who they really were.

Look at these scriptures, first at Abraham in chapter 18 and then Lot in chapter 19:

The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”

“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”

Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. Genesis 18:1-7

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”

“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door. Genesis 19:1-11

Both Abraham and Lot showed us what extending hospitality to strangers looks like as they attended to the visiting angels. In both instances, there wasn’t some internal debate as to whether or not the strangers could be trusted. Rather, both Abraham and Lot simply placed their faith in God and extended His love and caring to those who needed it.

In the first message in this series, we looked at the matter of extending love to one another and how we can do just that when we first give God all our love with total investment of our heart, mind, and soul. As we do this, then God’s love fills us and we can then extend His love, the only perfect love there is, to others, even strangers.

My prayer is that we will write the words of verse 2 of Hebrews 13 on our hearts so that the next time we get a chance to be hospitable to someone, we will do just that, knowing that the Lord leads people into our care in life, even His blessed angels.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.