Abraham's Hospitality — A Mirror for Our Lives

A Reading Full of Challenging Facts

Reading the book of Genesis is always a wonderful and a challenging experience. Every time that I read any part of the Word of God I am challenged, and I always learn something new. But, Genesis is the sum total of my enlightenment, because every one of the stories that are normally used in churches to entertain the children with "Bible stories" is so full of challenging facts. In fact, I am surprised that these stories are used to teach children in Sunday school, and oftentimes not used to teach the adult Bible studies.

This week is one of these Torah readings — the portion of Vayera, Genesis 18:1–22:24. The opening statement after which the name of the parasha is taken starts with the word "Vayera", translated into English as "appeared":

This opening statement is already of great impact. Up until now God had talked to and had revealed Himself to Abraham in a dream, in a vision, and in a conversation, but this is so much more than any previous occasion in which the Lord had communicated with Abraham. In this appearance, the Lord together with two angels simply appears unannounced and so to speak just knocks on Abraham's door! There was no previous announcement, and under normal circumstances, this would not be appropriate. For a king, for the Lord, for the creator of the Universe, to just drop in without fanfare, or to at least have hundreds of angels preceding the entourage of the King of kings and welcome Him with flowers and a red carpet, is highly unusual, and I would say shocking!

Abraham and the Three Strangers

There is Abraham by the oaks of Mamre with his camp — a very large camp with at least 318 men who are trained in war, and are between the age of 20 to 50 years old. Three strangers appear in Abraham's camp. These guests are total strangers. He doesn't know them at all.

This is what the text says:

My first reaction to this text is that Abraham was not a typical Israeli from the 21st Century. If Abraham was a typical Israeli living in tents in the northern Negev today, he would pull out his gun and tell them to go away, and in a polite but clearly hostile voice ask them to leave, gun in hand. Today the violence in the Negev desert is so rampant and so out of hand that even the Israeli police and everyone else are uncomfortable with any strangers running around the neighborhoods of the city of Beersheba and the other towns of the northern Negev.

But, back to our text. Abraham, with such untypical humility, welcomes these three strangers. Let us consider the basics of hospitality from this story:

Welcoming the guests and honoring them humbly and bowing to the ground as a sign that they are more noble. They were strangers and Abraham didn't know what they wanted. As a part of his welcome, he begs them to stay. Abraham immediately follows the protocol of the Middle East and offers to wash his guests' feet. They have been walking on the road and washing their feet is like the gesture of taking your shoes off when you are in the Far East. It is the welcoming convention. The next thing that Abraham did was to immediately offer the guests food.

It bears mentioning that meat was not eaten every day in this part of the world. Meat was only eaten on holidays and on special occasions like weddings and feasts (this custom is described in the first chapter of 1 Samuel). We must remember that Abraham still doesn't know who these three men are! He is treating strangers, just passersby, with such hospitality. The important lesson for me was that Abraham and Sarah themselves did the service, and they themselves welcomed these three total strangers.

Hospitality — Then and Now

As a child I had the privilege of going with my father to the northern Negev desert to visit Sheik Suleiman of the Negev. Sheik Suleiman was one of the most important sheiks of the Bedouin Arabs in the whole land of Israel. He welcomed my father, not like a supper guest, but like an emissary of the Israeli government. Yes, there was coffee served within a few minutes of our arrival, and food was served after a few hours — a whole baby lamb served over a mountain of rice laced with nuts.

This is why the book of Hebrews says:

It is clear that the writer of the book of Hebrews is referring to our portion of the Torah and encouraging hospitality. In fact, being hospitable is one of the qualifications of being an elder in the congregation:

The texts from 1 Timothy 3 and from Titus 1 are from the qualifications for anyone who wants to be an elder in the Lord's congregation. This is important nowadays because of the modern western culture that has overtaken the body of disciples of Yeshua worldwide. Hospitality is at a premium and not as common as it was in the early 1960's when I was a young 16-year-old homeless believer.

I can honestly say that my brothers and sisters in the Lord in the early 1960's were more than hospitable. In fact, I can witness to the fact that even Jewish people who were not believers in Yeshua, just regular Orthodox Jews, were super-friendly and hospitable to me. The first suit of clothing that I had in the USA was purchased by a dear Methodist sister who lived in southern Kentucky. The second suit that was for winter was purchased for me by two Jewish religious brothers who ran a rag and wool business in Cookeville, Tennessee. I managed to offend them and challenged them to make Aliyah (immigration to Israel), and in response to my typical Israeli hutzpah they took me to the local department store and bought me my first winter suit. I would say that hospitality is one of the more important qualifications for someone who wants to lead Jews and Arabs to the Lord.

The Theological Challenge

Let me pass the hospitality of Abraham and get to the theological side of our Torah portion. Abraham didn't recognize the fact that one of his three guests is the Lord Himself. This is a major challenge, for me personally and for most of the Jewish commentators of the Torah. Just accept it and ignore the problem, and essentially agree and confirm that God (Jehovah) Himself came down in the flesh and had His feet washed and ate butter and meat, and talked to Abraham, and allowed Abraham to challenge God's morality when God revealed to Abraham His plan to destroy Sodom.

There are two events in this reading that actually have changed our view of God and His character. The first event is the interesting meeting of three "angels" with Abraham at the oaks of Mamre. The Oak of Mamre is near the city of Hebron — the place where Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah as a burial place for Sarah, his wife. In fact, our patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Joseph, are all buried in the same cave in Hebron. The second, even more dramatic, event is when Abraham, in obedience to God's command, takes his son Isaac to be sacrificed on the top of the hill of Moriah. This is the same hill where Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, and today the Dome of the Rock stands.

From the meeting with the three angels, here is what we can all learn:

Men, especially righteous men, can face God and have a conversation with the Almighty. God is willing to have a conversation with righteous men, and I would add that at times the Lord is willing to have a conversation even with evil men, like Balaam, and Cain. The righteous men (of course including women) can change the course of history. God is willing to take into consideration the righteousness of men and withdraw His Hand from punishing a city, if there is a significant number of righteous people in that city. The Lord is willing to accept logic and is sensitive to His reputation among men. Like in Jerusalem's Old City today, merchants give you a high price, but they are willing to reason with you, and oftentimes come down in price up to 70%, and still make a good profit.

The story of Abraham and the three angels at the oaks of Mamre is a monumental example of God’s understanding and consideration of the top of His creation – the human being, the Homo sapiens. We must always remember how much God loves us and that He gave us two of His most pronounced characteristics - image and likeness.