Acts
10:9 ¶ On the morrow, as they went on
their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to
pray about the sixth hour: 10 And he
became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell
into a trance, 11 And saw heaven opened,
and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at
the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12
Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild
beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter;
kill, and eat. 14 But Peter said, Not
so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15 And the voice spake unto him again the
second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was
received up again into heaven. 17 Now
while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean,
behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon’s
house, and stood before the gate, 18 And
called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.
Housetops in the
Ancient Near East were places where people spent the hotter parts of the day
and the evening. There are many references to housetops throughout the Bible.
Proverbs
21:9 It is better to dwell in a corner
of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.
2Samuel
11:2 And it came to pass in an
eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the
king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman
was very beautiful to look upon.
Mark 13:15 And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house:
Peter was praying about
noon, the sixth hour of the day which started at six a.m. or thereabouts.
Psalm
55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon,
will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
Peter was awake, was
hungry, and wanted to eat, but fell into a trance while praying. A trance is
defined as a state where one sees a vision.
Acts
11:5 I was in the city of Joppa praying:
and in a trance I saw a vision.
In Balaam’s blessing on
Israel in spite of Balak note that his eyes were open.
Numbers
24:4 He hath said, which heard the words
of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having
his eyes open:
While a vision can come
in a dream as in Job 33:15 a trance as the vehicle for the vision is a
wide-awake state of consciousness.
Peter is being told
something shocking. This was one of the cornerstones of the Jewish separation
from the Gentiles, their dietary restrictions. The vision Peter sees and the
command he is given are in direct violation of a thousand and more years of
instruction from the Law given to Moses. This gives the lie to the Christian
who refuses to eat pork because it is forbidden in the Mosaic Law or who
imposes some other dietary restriction on themselves or others using the Law
given to Moses as a reason. Dietary restrictions not of a medical nature should
be a matter of conviction for that person and not imposed on others although we
are also not supposed to deliberately try to offend someone who has those
convictions. Read Romans 14 and 1Corinthians 8.
Verse 15 suggests to us
that Christ’s resurrection accomplished a change in dietary restrictions
formerly commanded under the Law. Remember how man’s diet changed through history
under God’s command?
Genesis
1:29 ¶ And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and
every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall
be for meat.
Indeed, this has been
supported in a small way by investigation outside of the Bible for the earliest
humans whose remains man has found.
“Dentition suggests an
omnivorous diet, in which nuts and fruits, grubs, and perhaps some kind of
vegetable shoots were more important than animal flesh.”[1]
But, after the Flood
mankind was permitted to eat the flesh of beasts.
Genesis
9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of
you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air,
upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into
your hand are they delivered. 3 Every
moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I
given you all things.
Then, under the Law
given to Moses there were dietary restrictions to set the Hebrews apart from
the Gentile world as well as, so some speculate, to protect them from some
food-borne diseases. See Leviticus 11. But, we can see by this episode on Acts
Peter’s vision shows that God regards no food as unclean. There will be only one exception, the
ingestion of blood, prohibited before the Law, under the Law, and after the
Law.
Genesis
9:4 But flesh with the life thereof,
which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
Leviticus
3:17 It shall be a perpetual statute for
your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor
blood.
Acts
15:20 But that we write unto them, that
they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things
strangled, and from blood.
There are some sermon
possibilities on that regarding Christ’s blood, God’s own blood, with which He
purchased us.
Romans
14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the
Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth
any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
But, read that entire
chapter to understand how we are not to abuse this privilege.
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