Strangers

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: 

for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 

Hebrews 13:2 (King James Version)

Abraham was stunned to see three strangers standing in front of him when God came to him by the oaks of Mamre. Was Jesus, the Son of God, one of them? Did they have the disposition of travel weary ordinary men or did they have an angelic demeanor? Abraham asked his servants to wash the stangers' feet and he personally served them their food. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,” is how Hebrews 13:2 says we should entertain itinerant Christians who depend on the support of Christian community. Is this not what Jesus reminded us would be His question on Judgment day (Mathew 25:31-46)? There is a profound spiritual dimension to our deeds of kindness and love to those in need, performed in Jesus' name. Abraham's hospitality to total strangers is the heart of the gospel message. 

 The strangers' appearance and their identity have piqued the curiosity of many of God's people for the last thousands of years. When Abraham saw them, he ran to greet them and welcome them into his home. He treated them like visiting royalty and threw them a worthy feast. When they enquired about his wife Sarah, he told them that she was around and in her tent. They then told him that in due time they would return and that Sarah would have a son. Sarah who was listening at the tent entrance, started to laugh. Here they stood, a couple well into their eighties or nineties, and these men were telling them that they would have a child very soon. 

Yet the promise of a child was the greatest blessing the couple had longed for. When the child was born, they named him Isaac, which means laughter. Yet in the midst of the good news, they also conveyed some bad news to the couple. They said that Sodom and Gomorah would be destroyed. The decadent lifestyle and inhospitability of these cities had upset God tremendously. Abraham was shocked and pleaded for the people and the cities. Knowing that his nephew lived there, he prayed to God to spare the city if there were at least 50, later 45, and finally 10 righteous people living there. Listening to God and Abraham negotiate, we are thankful that our God is compassionate and merciful. He is always waiting for us to return to Him and seek His forgiveness. We are glad that we can approach Him with our prayers and petitions. 

 Abraham's nephew, Lot, was probably the only one in the two cities who knew about God. Yet he was so in love with the city that at first he was not willing to listen to the warning of the three strangers. Sin had overrun this city. The men of the city were so far gone that they even craved for carnal relations with the three strangers. Finally as the city was being destroyed the three men had to drag Lot and his family away from the city. The family's love and attachment to the city was so intense that Lot's wife turned to look at the city as it burned down, although the three men had expressly forbidden them from doing so. She was turned into a salt statue for her disobedience. Lot and his two daughters escaped, only to go back into their sinful ways. 

 Do we, like Lot, find ourselves so absorbed in our own lives that we have no time to think and reflect on whether our attachment to our material possessions is greater than our love for God? Are we in awe of God's Word and His commands? Although Lot's behavior was far from perfect, God still delivered Lot. The judgment on the people of Sodom and Gomorrah was probably executed by completely natural means, but it is stunning that Abraham has recorded the incident as God working out His purposes. What do we understand about the nature of God from this incident? When Lot was told of the coming fiery judgment of God why did he continue to linger in the city? He had to be physically dragged away from the city. Do you think Lot feared being consumed by the punishment of God?

Christ in a Stranger’s Guise, 

I met a stranger yest’re’een;

I put food in the eating place,

Drink in the drinking place,

Music in the listening place;

And, in the sacred name of the Triune,

He blessed myself and my house,

My cattle and my dear ones,

And the lark said in her song,

Often, often, often,

Goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise;

Often, often, often,

Goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise

(A Celtic poem of hospitality)