Be Prepared to Be Unprepared
In Isaiah 16 the Moabites, fresh from their whipping from the Assyrian Empire in the north, are seen begging Judah to take in their refugee women and children.  They are calling out for asylum, hoping that their long-time rivals will have mercy and let them in as casualties of war.  Judah is already girding up for their own attack from Assyria, and some of the women of Moab begins to sing a song of future deliverance for both countries as they continue to plead with Judah to let them in:
4b When oppression and destruction have ended
and enemy raiders have disappeared,
5 then God will establish one of David’s descendants as king.
He will rule with mercy and truth.
He will always do what is just
and be eager to do what is right.
The promise from God to the nation of Israel (and Judah) was that they would be blessed by God, and that they would be a blessing to the nations. Â I’m sure that few would have guessed that they would have that chance to be a blessing in the midst of their own impending doom. Â But as the Judeans offered hospitality to desperate Moabite refugee women, they were fulfilling their destiny to be a blessing to the nations…even as they stared down the barrel of Assyria’s nuke aimed right at them!
It isn’t easy to be hospitable when you are frantically trying to keep your own house from falling apart. Â But then again, when is it ever a good time for a crisis to land in your lap?
The question isn’t “How ready are you for the stranger to show up at your doorstep?” But: “What will you do with the plates you are busy spinning when that stranger arrives?”
How ready was Naomi ready to take in Ruth, two widows tied together by pain and loss, but nevertheless gave Ruth a second chance at life and became the grandmother of Israel’s King David! Â How convenient was it for a teenage, unwed Mary to receive the Holy Spirit’s gift of a baby that would one day adopt the whole world into God’s family – only to be threatened with stoning and divorce by her village?
Hospitality is never convenient – but for those with hands open to both give and receive, it can be the door through which God changes the world.
