Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Acts 10:9 - 10:16

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Acts 10:9 - 10:16


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The vision of Peter:

v. 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;

v. 10. and he became very hungry, and would have eaten; but while they made ready, he fell in to a trance,

v. 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,

v. 12. wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

v. 13. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.

v. 14. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.

v. 15. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

v. 16. This was done thrice; and the vessel was received up again in to heaven.

The journey from Caesarea to Joppa may well have taken some nine to ten hours, thus bringing the three messengers into the neighborhood of the southern seaport about noon of the next day. But it was necessary, meanwhile, for the Lord to prepare Peter for the coming visit, lest he draw back in horror at the thought of being the guest of a Gentile. While the men were pursuing their journey, walking their way, therefore, and nearing the city of Joppa, about noon, Peter went up to the flat roof of the house where he was lodging, for the purpose of praying, since this was one of the hours of prayer observed by the devout Jews. But while he was engaged in this service of worship, he became intensely hungry, unusually eager for food, for which reason he intended to have lunch, probably stating his wishes to that effect to the people of the house at once. But while they were preparing the meal downstairs, a trance, a condition of ecstasy, came upon Peter. Not that he was unconscious, but his mind and spirit were detached from ordinary thinking and feeling, and he was enabled to hear and see things which the normal person could not have perceived. In this condition he beheld the heaven opened and descending out of the opening a vessel, or container, shaped like a large sheet, whose four ends or corners were tied in order to hold the contents together, and to enable it to be lowered down. In the container thus held before Peter's spiritualized eyes there were all kinds of four footed animals and reptiles and fowls, the unclean mixed with the clean in a conglomerate mass, without regard to Levitical division or distinction. See Lev_11:9; Deu_14:9. And at this moment a voice came to him inviting him to rise, to slaughter, and to eat. But the impetuous Peter, still held by the tradition of the legal distinctions concerning animal food, rejected the invitation with great emphasis: By no means, Lord, for never have I eaten anything common or unclean. At first blush he may have regarded the entire vision as a temptation to evil. But the voice rebuked him, correcting his position, by speaking to him again the second time: What God has rendered clean do not thou render profane. By the act of offering them to Peter, God had Revelation ked the Levitical command, and cleansed the animals formerly regarded as unclean. Three times the Lord had this vision appear, three times the container was held before Peter, three times the invitation came to him, before the vessel was finally taken up to heaven again. By means of this vision God clearly indicated that the barrier between Jews and Gentiles had now been removed, that the Gentiles also should be admitted to the kingdom of God and of Christ. This lesson is necessary even today, when race prejudices sometimes seriously threaten to interfere with missionary efforts.