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BIBLE GEM

Bible Gem 2174 – Entertaining Angels and More (Hebrews 13:1-6)

1Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. 2Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realising it! 3Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. 4Give honour to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. 5Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” 6So we can say with confidence, “The LORD is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” 

Hebrews 13:1-6

Seven Personal Exhortations

  1. Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.
  2. Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers. 
  3. Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself.
  4. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. 
  5. Give honour to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage.
  6. Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have.
  7. Don’t fear, for God is your helper and has said He won’t fail or abandon you.

You have to admit the first two exhortations are succinctly put with a minimum of words yet impactful and deep in their simplicity. Love those in the family of God and love strangers – practise hospitality in order to reach those who are not yet in the family. Do this and you may well find yourself entertaining angels without realising it or the LORD Himself.

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “

Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

Matthew 25:35-40

I had not intended to do what I am about to do but I feel compelled by God to share the story below. I had thought of one particular story of ‘entertaining angels’ that I shared in the days of the Radio Rhema stories I told years ago on air. However after searching for those stories to no avail I was thinking of other approaches to use in this Gem when I heard the chime of emails which had come in and I opened my inbox. I found myself looking at an advertisement for Entertaining Angels: True Stories and Art Inspired by Divine Encounters by Anne Neilson. I sat for some seconds stunned by the serendipitous nature of the timing of the moment and decided I needed to buy a Kindle version of that book. I have speed read the book and was struck by one story in particular which I am going to share with you.

[Anne Neilson is an artist who paints and tells stories about Angels. She met Ron Hall (an international art dealer) and his friend Denver (a homeless man) and tells that story prior to this one I’m sharing with you, a profound story that had changed the hearts of many.] 

Ron and I (Anne) were asked to be spokespersons at a homeless press conference in New York City. It was to be held the week before Thanksgiving at a homeless shelter. My business partner, Wendy, and I would be joining Ron and his new wife, Beth, in New York City for a quick two-day trip. I had even convinced Clark to come for part of the time—escaping the duties of his business—and to join us the next morning. Wendy and I had been hopping all over the country, speaking and product developing, so a quick trip to New York City was easy for us the week before Thanksgiving. Ron had given us the name of the hotel where he was staying, so we booked two rooms for our stay.
 
At the risk of sounding like a diva here, I’ll admit: I have certain standards when it comes to hotel rooms. You know, things like soap in the bathrooms, central heat and air, towels, no mould or mildew—you get the picture. I trusted Ron and his suggestion of the hotel that cost one-hundred dollars per night in the heart of the city. We were up for an adventure. Wendy and I arrived and immediately started to question the state of the room we would be sharing before Clark arrived the next day. No soap in the bathroom, two very thin towels, a trash can that was propped in the window to circulate some air, a flat, yellow-stained pillow that I really did not want to lay my head on—we laughed so hard at our previous expectations. I thought to myself, We don’t have to do this; we can go across the street to the fancy hotel and lay our heads down. But instead we mustered up the confidence and agreed: we can do this.
 
We met Ron and Beth for a lovely dinner and a Rockettes show to put us in the holiday spirit. While walking back to our hotel, we stopped at a store to pick up the necessary and missing soap for our room. Walking out of that little store in the cold, dark night, our stomachs and hearts full, we saw a young woman in her mid-twenties sitting outside the doors. Bundled up in dirty blankets, she had the face of an angel. Ron spoke to her and learned her name was Ashley. I pulled out some money from my wallet to put in her cup but then said, “Wait! We have another room!” We asked her if she wanted to come back with us and stay the night in a warm bed. Then we shared with her what we were doing in New York City and invited her to come to the mission with us the next day. She gathered her things, mainly a backpack stuffed with essentials, and followed us back to the hotel.
 
Wendy and I had not seen the other room when we had checked in earlier; we had just grabbed the keys and chosen the first room for our stay that night. When we got to our second room and opened the door, we were stunned. It was a beautiful suite, complete with a large bed and fluffy pillows, a bathtub, soap, and towels. Ashley looked at us and through her tears said, “Oh, how I would love to take a bath.” We sat and listened to her story.
 
Every person experiencing homelessness has a story of how they came to be living on the streets and each homeless person is someone’s child; most importantly, they are a child of God.

I remember the one thing that struck me in telling the stories on Radio Rhema which listeners often asked me about was, why don’t these kinds of happenings occur here in New Zealand? My conclusion is that in the midst of intense persecution or shaking God works on another level to preserve and inspire His saints to remain true to their calling. With intense opposition comes a greater need for encouragement for the believers to hang in there. Hence angelic visitations and experiencing the miraculous are a more normal occurrence.

What exactly does entertaining angels mean?

[χενίζω – xenizō] means ‘to receive as a guest’, ‘entertain a guest’, ‘to lodge or reside with’, ‘host a guest’, ‘to surprise or be struck with surprise’, ‘be amazed by strange matters or novelties’ as in Acts 17:20. This verb is a derivative of the compound noun. It runs the spectrum from looking after or entertaining a guest to hosting a person or giving them lodging, protecting them or treating them royally. Based on the words of Matthew 25:35-40 we may be found carrying out the action of the verb for a stranger or for a fellow believer or alternatively for an angel or even for Jesus Himself.

Now let’s take a look at the next two exhortations.

3. Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself.

4. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. 

Have you seen that both of these have a reflexive sense to them. Remember those in prison and remember also those being mistreated. This is not merely prison ministry and visiting the abused. The sense here is that you are remembering your own experience, empathising with their pain. Either because you have felt that same pain yourself or because they have been considered worthy of suffering that which you too could have experienced. You can tell where I am getting those thoughts from and I am sure the author was thinking also of what he had written previously in Hebrews 10:32-34. These two exhortations are encouraging the Jewish Christians to remember those in prison and those suffering abuse which they themselves could just as easily have found themselves in similar circumstances. Hence the exhortation is to carry the burden for those fellow believers because you yourself can feel their pain to a greater degree. Suffice to say we have not left behind the context of chapters 10, 11 and 12. They carried the experience with them in their bodies, in their thoughts and the memories remained as they recalled the reason for their scars.

I will save the last three exhortations for the following Gem.

Since God and the angels are always watching us, the least we can do is be entertaining.

Ian

We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.  

Lucretius

But angels held their breath when God created people, seeing them turn their back on such a God of love. 

Ellis Deibler

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

1 Timothy 5:21

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