Thursday 2020.02.18
Reading from Acts Chapter 10
What did Peter learn from his vision at Jaffa?
Peter saw a disturbing vision one day while praying at the house-top in Jaffa. A large sail cloth full of unclean animals was lowered from the sky by ropes tied to its four corners.
"Rise, Peter, kill and eat." a voice told him (Acts 10:13).
Peter refused to do so, saying that he had never eaten anything unholy and impure in his life, to which the voice said, "What God has purified, you must not regard as unholy". This was repeated three times (Acts 10:16) before the large cloth was drawn up.
Peter subsequently told Cornelius at Caesarea, that the vision he saw back in Jaffa the day before taught him that no one is to be called unholy or unclean. Most probably, the words, "What God has purified, you must not regard as unholy" were still ringing in his ears.
Perhaps we can say that from that day onwards, Peter, in his ministry of the gospel, stopped looking at the Gentiles as unclean or impure people.
Acts 10:28 WNT
He said to them, "You know better than most that a Jew is strictly forbidden to associate with a Gentile or visit him; but God has taught me to call no one unholy or unclean.
Further on, in verses 34 and 35, Peter elaborated that God makes no distinction between one man and another, that in every nation anyone who lives a good life and fear God is acceptable to Him.
Acts 10:34 - 35 WNT
Then Peter began to speak. "I clearly see," he said, "that God makes no distinctions between one man and another;
but that in every nation those who fear Him and live good lives are acceptable to Him.
