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Everyday Saints Devotional 17

by David Joynt on January 18, 2022


GENESIS 18:1 | 1 The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 

Hebrews 13:2 | 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Matthew 8:11 | 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,

Abraham’s hospitality is gracious but customary, he does not know his guests are angelic messengers. One reason given in the New Testament for radical hospitality is based on this story, when we entertain a stranger we may be entertaining an “angel unawares.”

Abraham has a divine encounter through ordinary hospitality. But all moments of genuine hospitality have a divine element or a measure of holiness. True hospitality anticipates the great feast of the kingdom, when “many will come from the east and west and sit at the table.”

Have you sensed God’s presence while receiving or offering hospitality?

Tags: hospitality, presence, god's, sensed

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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