Peter’s Vision
10: 9-23a
38-42 AD
Peter’s vision DIG: How did God prepare Peter to take the gospel to Cornelius? Why was this necessary? Look at Leviticus 11:4-7, 13-19 and 29-30. With these restrictions, how do you think Peter must have felt when he heard the voice telling him to eat those animals? Why was it repeated three times? What would the new principle given in verse 15 mean to him? How does it fit in the context of Cornelius? What might Peter be feeling when the men sent by Cornelius showed up? How might the example of Yeshua in Luke 7:1-10 also encourage Peter to listen to these men?
REFLECT: What are some principles or beliefs you have held onto that have blocked your ability to reach out to people “different” from you? How would others around you feel if you moved beyond those limits? What new relationships has God given you recently? How has He brought these people into your life? How have you influenced each other? Has God opened your mind about some form of prejudice in your life? How has he led you to correct these tendencies? What might happen if you followed through on them?
While Peter was at Joppa, events were moving towards a new stage in his ministry as God prepared for the entry of Gentiles into the Messianic Community/Church (to see link click Ah – Jewish Good News for Gentiles). Two events led up to the decisive encounter. First, a Roman centurion, a God-fearer, was praying when an angel appeared and told him to send men to Joppa and call for Simon, also named Peter (10:6), and the second, Peter was prepared to receive these men by a vision in which he was shown that he was no longer to distinguish between ritually clean and unclean foods (and therefore by implication, that he could feel free to eat with Gentiles).
The sheer length of this story (10:1-48) and the way in which it is in effect told twice (see the summary in 15:7-9) indicate the very great importance that Luke attaches to it in the context of Acts as a whole. It deals with the decisive issue in the history of the early Messianic Community, namely the recognition that the gospel is for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews. And it makes clear that this was not merely a human decision, but that it was the result of God’s clear guidance.218
Meanwhile, back at Joppa, ADONAI was preparing Peter for his monumental encounter. The primary question would be how God would deal with him. How would He succeed in breaking down Peter’s deep-seated racial intolerance? The principle subject of this chapter is not so much the conversion of Cornelius, as it is the conversion of Peter.219
The next day at Simon the tanner’s house, as the messengers sent by Cornelius (see Be – The Centurion’s Vision) were traveling and approaching the city, Peter went up to the rooftop to pray, at about noon, or the sixth hour (10:9). The group of men appear to have set off for Caesarea immediately for them to reach Joppa about noontime (10:8). A gemara (a rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Oral Law) on Shabbat distinguishes two times for mincha (afternoon prayer) – the major, or early afternoon prayer time, which was recited around 12:30 pm, and the minor, or late afternoon prayer time, was recited sometime between 3:30 pm and sunset (Shab. 9b).220 According to this view, Peter was praying an early mincha. The rooftops of their houses were flat, sloping slightly away from the center. They were used for a variety of purposes by day, including prayer. He became very hungry and wanted to eat something. Noon was not the usual meal time. The custom was to have a light mid-morning meal, and a more substantial meal in the late afternoon. If Peter had missed his mid-morning breakfast, it would explain his drowsiness all the more. However, while his hosts were preparing for the late afternoon meal, there was an unexpected delay, he had a vision (10:10). As ADONAI was speaking to Cornelius, and as Cornelius had sent messengers to call for Peter, ADONAI was also speaking to Peter.221 He was praying. He was hungry.
He saw the heavens opened, and something like a great sheet coming down, lowered by its four corners to the earth. So Luke is using figurative language here. It wasn’t a great sheet, but it was like a great sheet. The TaNaKh frequently uses the phrase the four corners to symbolize the whole world (Job 37:3; Isaiah 11:12; Revelation 7:1). Apparently, because he was hungry, Peter’s vision involved eating. In the vision (Greek: ekstasis) were all sorts of four-footed animals and insects and birds of the air (10:11-12). Leviticus 11 specifies that only those four-footed animals that chew the cud and have split hooves are kosher (fit) for Jewish people to eat. Peter’s vision did not contradict any of the mitzvot regarding kosher eating; it corrected the rabbinic prohibition regarding eating with Gentiles.222
A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat” (10:13). The rabbis taught that when God speaks in heaven, “the daughter of His voice” the bat-kol, or an echo, is heard on earth. After the last of the prophets, it was considered that God provided the bat-kol to continue to give guidance to the people (Tractate Yoma 9b). How does ADONAI speak to us? He can speak to us through our circumstances, through mature believers, certainly through His Word. Yet, Ha’Shem can also speak through a still small voice (First Kings 19:11-13). The prohibition against eating unclean animals constitutes a central Jewish belief, and devout Jews frequently chose martyrdom rather than eating forbidden food. Many in Isra’el were fully resolved and confirmed themselves not to eat any unclean thing. So, they chose rather to die, that they might not be defiled with meats, and that they might not profane the holy Covenant, so then they died (First Maccabees 1:62-63; also see Ezeki’el 4:13-14; Dani’el 1:8). As any pious Jew would have been, Peter was horrified. He was hungry, but not that hungry to eat non-kosher food, so he immediately protested.
Peter protested immediately: Certainly not, For never have I eaten anything unholy or unclean (10:14). He had zealously kept the dietary commandments all his life, believing that YHWH required eating kosher. His strict adherence reflected his devotion to pleasing ADONAI. Yet, he had put God in a box. How could Peter throw that lifelong habit away? What was he to think? It is important to understand that Yeshua was not abolishing the dietary commandments in the Torah. That would not be consistent with His own words: I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah – not until everything that must happen has happened (Matthew 5:18; Luke 16:17 CJB). In the Dispensation of Grace, we have freedom in Messiah. Today there are many Messianic Jews and Gentiles who choose to keep kosher. There is nothing right or wrong about doing so. It is merely a matter of personal choice.
Peter resisted the message so strongly that the bat-kol came to him, a second time saying: What God has made clean (kosher), you, you Peter, must not consider unholy. God had made all animals kosher fulfillment of the statement of Yeshua found in Mark 7:18-19. And because the context is eating food it shows that the vision included both food as well as its application of Gentiles later in the passage. ADONAI has made Gentiles clean, but also in the immediate context, He has made unkosher animals kosher.
Now in Matthew 15:15-20, Messiah predicted that He was going to make all meats clean. Yet in the Matthew account this was particularly addressed to Peter at that time, and now Peter must learn the lesson once again. All meats are now clean. In other words: What God has made clean (kosher), you, you Peter, must not consider unholy. The dietary regulations were so ingrained into his life that he still could not comprehend what was happening. Those unclean animals would cause contamination. This happened three times for emphasis, and suddenly the sheet was immediately taken up to heaven (10:15-16). At this point, Peter believed that God was speaking to him only about food. But this was only the first part of an analogy that the Lord would apply to the Gentiles shortly. Why was ADONAI making those changes at that time? Because the Gentiles were coming into the Church, breaking down the wall of division as symbolized in the Temple (Ephesians 2:14).
As Peter was coming out of his vision, he didn’t have it all figured out. He was puzzled about what he had seen might mean. Just then, the men sent by Cornelius found the tanner’s house and appeared before the gate. The arrival of the men at this point is clearly providential. They called out and began to ask whether Simon, also called Peter, was staying in this place as a guest (10:17-18). Peter did not hear them because he was still on the roof of the house puzzling about his vision, his puzzling, however, was short-lived.
But while Peter was mulling over the vision, the Spirit of God spoke directly to him and said: Look here, three men are looking for you. So get up at once, go downstairs, and go with those men without hesitating, because I Myself have sent them (10:19-20). At this point, God had not told Peter that his visitors were Gentiles! God used an angel, the bat-kol, the Ruach ha-Kodesh, and two visions, one to Cornelius and one to Peter so that nothing was left to chance. Here was the situation that the vision was meant to prepare Peter.
As had Cornelius, Peter obeyed, although he probably still didn’t fully understand what was happening. Nevertheless, he went down to the men. He was probably shocked when he opened the door and saw three Gentiles standing there! Nevertheless, he said: Here, I’m the one you’re looking for. What is the reason for your coming? Because of what the Ruach ha-Kodesh had told him, he was quite willing to listen to them. Nevertheless, their reply must have astonished Peter, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man well-spoken of by all the Jewish people, was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear a message from you” (10:21-22). This was new information for the reader, Luke having saved it up for this point to add to the literary and dramatic effect of the story. Peter began to see the ramifications of his vision. He was to witness to this centurion whom Ha’Shem had directed to him.
Notice how perfectly YHVH coordinated the entire episode. For while Peter was praying and seeing his vision, the men from Cornelius were approaching Joppa (10:9-16); while Peter was puzzled about what he had seen might mean, they arrived at the house (10:17-18); while Peter was mulling over the meaning of the vision, the Ruach told him that the men were looking for him and he must not hesitate to go with them (10:19-20); and when Peter went down and introduced himself to them, they explained to him the purpose of their visit (10:21-23).223
Because it was too late for them to return to Caesarea that day, Peter invited them to spend the night as his guests (10:23a). Under normal circumstances, a truly scrupulous Jew would never invite a Gentile to stay with him. Jubilees 22:16 reads, “Separate yourself from the [Gentile] nations, and do not eat with them. And do nothing according to their works. Do not associate with them, for their works are unclean. And all their ways are a pollution and an abomination and uncleanness. So, the fact that Peter invited them to spend the night as his guests hints that he was beginning to understand the message of the vision. By entertaining those Gentile guests, Peter went against the customs and traditions of Isra’el, but not against the Word of God. Possibly, at that very moment, the Ruach ha-Kodesh flooded Peter’s heart with an understanding that although the TaNaKh said that His people were not to become like their pagan neighbors, it also said that YHVH wanted His people to be a light to their neighbors who didn’t know Him.224 Through the descendants of Abraham, all the families of the earth [would] be blessed (Genesis 12:3b). There may also be some intended irony here, since Peter had earlier protested how meticulous he was about food while staying in the house of a tanner who in trade made him unclean!
A closer look at visions and dreams: God uses a variety of ways to communicate with humans such as through visions, signs and wonders, angels, Biblical shadows and patterns, and many others. One of the most common means used in the Bible to convey His will is through dreams (Numbers 12:6). The word dreams and its singular version occur the most times in the book of Genesis (33 total occurrences) followed by the book of Dani’el (27 times). Both words occur only eight times in the entire Covenant. Interestingly, only Joseph (Genesis 40:12, 13, 18, 19, 41:25-32) and Dani’el (Dani’el 2:16-23, 28-45, 4:16-24) were blessed with the ability to correctly interpret dreams.
Dreams occur when a person sleeps while visions usually happen during waking hours. Scripture, however, is sometimes not fully clear whether God is communicating with someone via a dream or a vision. For example, Dani’el 2:19 states that a secret was revealed to the prophet in a ‘night vision.’ It is unknown whether Dani’el was or was not sleeping when the event occurred. Another example of dreams is found in Dani’el 7:1-2. Did Dani’el see visions just before he fell asleep and then experienced dreams, both of which came from God? On the other hand, while he was dreaming, did he see vivid visions of four great world empires that he then wrote down when he awoke? The Bible seems to indicate visions can happen both during waking and sleeping hours.
The dreams of several people in the TaNaKh are recorded in Scripture. They include Ha’Shem telling King Abimelech in a dream that Sarah was a married woman (Genesis 20:3), Jacob had a dream at Bethel where he saw a stairway with the angel of God going up and down on it (Genesis 28:12-15), and twenty years later, ADONAI spoke to him in a dream, saying: Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you (Genesis 31:11-12); Laban had a dream warning him not to harm Jacob (Genesis 31:24), Joseph had dreams of his brothers bowing down to him and his whole family doing the same (Genesis 37:5, 9); and the cupbearer and baker both had dreams in prison with Joseph (40:1-19); God spoke to a man through a dream that the Israelites would defeat the Midianites (Judges 7:13-15); Job had dreams and visions from ADONAI (Job 7:14); and King Saul had a terrifying vision of the prophet Samuel described to him by the medium at Endor (First Samuel 28:6-19).
Still others whom the Bible records as having special dreams include Egypt’s Pharaoh dreaming of seven good-looking cows and seven ugly emancipated cows (Genesis 41:1 -7, 15-32); the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream to allow the king to ask for anything he wanted (First Kings 3:5); in the year of King Uzziah’s death, Isaiah saw a vision of ADONAI sitting on His throne (Isaiah 6:1-2); Ezeki’el had a vision of the throne of YHVH (Ezeki’el 1:1-28), he also had a vision of the Temple in Jerusalem (Ezeki’el 8:1-18), a vision of the Millennial Temple (Ezeki’el Chapters 40-48), and a vision of the return of the Sh’khinah glory returning to it (Ezeki’el 43:3); King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a huge statue representing the four kingdoms of the end times (Dani’el 2:3-4) and Dani’el had a dream about four beasts that represents those same four kingdoms (Dani’el 7:1-8), and a vision of a ram and a goat depicting the rise of the antichrist (Dani’el 8:1-12).
In the B’rit Chadashah, the magi who came to worship Jesus dreamt of being told not to visit Herod the Great on their way back home (Matthew 2:12). The details of what Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather, dreamt on three different occasions is recorded in the New Testament (Matthew 1:20-23, 2:12-13, 19-21). And in a fourth dream, where he is warned not to live in Judea, is also referenced (Matthew 2:22). Pilate’s wife had a disturbing dream about her husband’s judgment of Christ (Matthew 27:19). The Lord told Ananias in a vision to go find Sha’ul of Tarsus and lay hands on him, resulting in Sha’ul regaining his sight (Acts 9:10-17), and Paul saw Messiah four times in visions (Acts 9:3-6, 16:10, 18:9-10, 22:17-18). Not only that, both Paul (Second Corinthians 12:4) and John (Revelation 4:1-11) took a trip to heaven in a vision.
But, some dreams or visions were false. Isaiah said: Say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us and speak smooth words. [You] prophesy illusions. “Get out of the way! Turn away from the path! Let’s hear no more about the Holy One of Isra’el (Isaiah 30:10)!
Jeremiah said the same thing: Thus say ADONAI-Tzva’ot, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into illusion, speaking a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of ADONAI (Jeremiah 23:16).
And Ezeki’el also warned against the false prophets, “They have prophesied emptiness and predicted falsely, who say, ‘ADONAI says.’ ADONAI has not sent them, yet they hope for confirmation of their word. Did you not see an empty vision and speak a false omen, when you say, ‘ADONAI says’ – when I have not said” (Ezeki’el 13:6-7).
Today, ADONAI speaks to us with a soft whisper of His voice (First Kings 9:11-12), circumstances in our lives, the counsel of mature believers, and, of course, the completed canon of Scripture, the Word of God.
Father, I take Your clear Word as a warning when You say: If, however, you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well. But if you show favoritism, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Torah as transgressors (James 2:8-9). I confess my sin of letting tastes and preference control my behavior toward other people equally created in Your image. May I not just realize my fault; may I act on the change in attitude.225
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