The Hospitable Leader DevotionalSample

This passage about a unique appearance of God before Abraham is marked by extreme humility. Abraham, in the oppressive heat of the midday sun, had three men appear before him. The Hebrew spelling of Lord indicates that Abraham recognized that one of his visitors is a divine manifestation.  Seeing the importance of this moment, he requests to give them water and food. However, he doesn’t just provide a “little” bit of water; he runs to his wife and asks her to be “quick” in making cakes, then gets an especially good calf, curds, and milk, and prepares a lavish meal.

What’s immediately striking is that Abraham “ran from the tent door to meet them,” “bowed” before them, “went quickly” to Sarah, and “ran” to find the calf. In Abraham’s culture, all of these actions were extremely unexpected. A respected man would never run anywhere, especially to accomplish menial tasks like food preparation. Yet, eager to show hospitality to those around him, he rushes off to serve them. And not only does he serve them, he serves them way beyond what he alluded to in the beginning. And on top of that, he stands next to them while they rest in the shade and eat the food, meaning he doesn’t join them, which was a mark of servitude.

Abraham, though a well-respected man and the leader of God’s redemptive plan in the world, exemplified incredible humility in order to serve his guests. In positions of leadership, it can be difficult to find a balance between exemplifying strong influence over those around you and humbling yourself at the same time. However, Scripture is full of examples of leaders going to great lengths to visibly show their humility in serving those around them, especially through lavish hospitality.