Nov 03 2009
Abraham & Hospitality - P1
When you think about hospitality, what comes to mind? A gorgeously appointed dinner table with fresh flowers, classy place cards, china, and cut crystal? A perfectly prepared five course meal served on silver platters? A relaxed hostess with not a hair out of place?
If this is your idea of hospitality, I can almost guarantee you cringe when you hear the word. Furthermore, I suspect you do not practice hospitality. After all, which one of us can live up to that standard? Thankfully, that is not biblical hospitality. Granted it may be the standard our world would require, but it is not even close to the biblical definition of the word.
Here’s another picture. The stage: a tent under a shade tree in the middle of a hot, dry land. The time: mid-day with the sun burning high and hot overhead. The characters: A past prime man fanning himself in front of his tent and three hot, weary, dusty travelers coming on the stage.
I don’t know about you, but the idea of entertaining strangers while living in a tent - well, that is definitely not my idea of hospitality. Yet this is the setting for the second example of hospitality given in Scripture. You’ll find the story in Genesis 18:1-8. Here we read:
“Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.”
I have read this story many times but never really looked at it from a hospitality perspective. However when I did, I found some valuable lessons.
First: we see Abraham sitting in his tent door. Why? Most likely, since it was the hottest part of the day, he sought to catch any breeze which might pass his way. John Gill also says he sat there, “partly to cool and refresh himself, and partly to observe if any passengers passed by, to invite them in; this being a time of day when such needed refreshment, and it was proper for them to lie by a while, and not proceed on their journey until it was cooler.”
So the first principle we gain from this passage: A righteous man (or woman) looks for opportunities to be hospitable.
How often do we look for opportunities to practice hospitality? For that matter, how often do we even think about hospitality - in particular, being hospitable to people we do not know?
Matthew Henry suggests we are more likely to be comfortable with good works which we practice freely and frequently. In other words, we are more likely to be hospitable if we practice hospitality. Furthermore, he adds. “Where, upon a prudent and impartial judgment, we see no cause to suspect ill, charity teaches us to hope well and to show kindness accordingly. It is better to feed five drones, or wasps, than to starve one bee.”
Second: we should share what we have more than willingly - eagerly. When Abraham saw the three men, ‘he ran from the tent door to meet them.’ Now this is an interesting picture. Here you have a past-prime man in the hottest part of the day running to greet his guests. Was he that eager for company?
Not likely. John Gill says he did not wait for them to come to him, “but, to show how ready he was to entertain them, he arises from his seat at the tent door and ran to meet them, and gave them an hearty welcome to what he would provide for them.”
Let’s change the scenario a bit. You are standing in the vestibule of your church. In walks a young couple you have never seen. They wear decent clothes. Their smiles are pleasant. They seem a bit shy, but maybe it is just walking it a crowd of people they do not know.
What is your reaction? Do you promptly head their way? Do you shake their hand? Do you offer your name and inquire of theirs? If so, you’ve done the ‘norm’ - maybe even a bit more. However, is this really the modern-day equivalent to Abraham’s response to these strangers who entered his ‘space’? Hardly!
John Trapp reminds us, “Charity is no churl. “The liberal man deviseth liberal things”; {#Isa 32:8}“
Yet you may object. I don’t know those people. They could be scammers or thieves, robbers or rapists. True. However, do you really think it was safer in Abraham’s day? I doubt it. Yet he didn’t treat his proposed guests to anything less than a hearty and prompt welcome. Remember Matthew Henry’s words above - “Where, upon a prudent and impartial judgment, we see no cause to suspect ill, charity teaches us to hope well and to show kindness accordingly.”
If this is the way a righteous man acts, what does that make us to be if we do less?
Next time we will dig deeper into this passage. However, lest you are thinking you are off the hook (as it were) because Abraham knew who his guests were and thus treated them well because of who they were, I will close with these words from John Calvin:
“they appeared to be nothing else than men. And this was done designedly, in order that he, receiving them as men, might give proof of his charity. For angels do not need those services of ours, which are the true evidences of charity. Moreover, hospitality holds the chief place among these services; because it is no common virtue to assist strangers, from whom there is no hope of reward. For men in general are wont, when they do favors to others, to look for a return; but he who is kind to unknown guests and persons, proves himself to be disinterestedly liberal. Wherefor the humanity of Abraham deserves no slight praise; because he freely invites men who were to him unknown, through whom he had no advantage, and from whom he had no hope of mutual favors.”
