Entertaining Angels

Hebrews 13:1-2
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2007 Harold Dinsmore

Though the doctrine of angels holds an important place in the Word of God, it is often viewed as a difficult subject because, while there is abundant mention of angels in the Bible, the nature of this revelation is without the same kind of explicit description we often find with other subjects developed in the Bible.

We are going to look at a few passages this morning, but the main focus of our time together will be on Hebrews 13:2.  “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”  Think about that for a second.  We can and probably have already entertained angels and not known that the person standing in front of us was an angel.  J. Hampton Keathley, III , Th.M. has said, “Every reference to angels is incidental to some other topic. They are not treated in themselves. God’s revelation never aims at informing us regarding the nature of angels. When they are mentioned, it is always in order to inform us further about God, what he does, and how he does it. Since details about angels are not significant for that purpose, they tend to be omitted.”[i]