Hebrews 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. We often mistake the dispensations of God's providence. They come to us as angels veiled in sadness, or in strange forms; we think they are enemies, and wrestle with them; in the darkness, the struggle goes on, — we want our way, it is not till they touch us and teach us their Divine character; it is not till the day begins to break, that we find we are in the presence of God's messengers. We learn that we have wrestled with an angel, and then we seek to detain him, and earnestly ask for a blessing. Sorrow comes unbidden, unwelcomed; it takes its place at our fireside, sits at our table; its presence casts a shadow on us; but when we allow it to commune with us, when it touches us, our life seems changed, our thoughts and affections are transfigured. Death comes over our threshold, into our home; and life is never more the same. It reads us some lesson out of the black-letter book of God's providence. The lesson we bear in tears, but we never more forget it. "We confess that we are strangers and sojourners here." We begin to think of leaving this tent. "We declare plainly that we seek a better country." Death, so dreaded by us, acts in his ministrations only as an angel, who takes our loved ones into the everlasting home of the heavens. (H. J. Bevis.) Parallel Verses KJV: Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. |
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