Acts 10:9-23a
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. 18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”
21 Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”
22 The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” 23 Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. [1]
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What strikes me in today’s passage is Peter being rather dramatically led to embrace a huge change. As he said in his vision, he had always been meticulous about following the dietary laws. But God called him to abandon those practices, and embrace a new viewpoint.
I don’t think we can understate how big of a change this was for Peter. And other changes were to come, including the law on circumcision and the practices regarding eating with Gentiles. It’s easy for us to look at the New Testament ethos as we know it now and wonder how the early Christians could have struggled to drop circumcision, Levitical diets and even the Sabbath. But the changes were huge and they struggled with them. (See Galatians 2 for Peter’s struggle.)
The point for me is that God has no qualms about calling His people to dramatic change, to make bold new starts, to go in new directions. Think of Abraham called to move. Moses called to leave his shepherding. Nehemiah to leave his ”cupbearing” for the king.
In this case, God used a dramatic presentation to facilitate this change: the vision and the angel. But even if God doesn’t use such means in our life, He may still be calling us to radical change and new ventures. The point for me today in reading and meditating on this passage is a reminder that God doesn’t mind upsetting the status quo. So when I open myself to God’s leading, when I look for His direction, I should decide beforehand that God may call me to something surprising and radically different. If God would change the worship laws, dietary laws, and circumcision laws, certainly He wouldn’t have problems changing things in my life.
So my prayer is for God’s guidance today. I pray “You will be done” and “Your kingdom come.” I pray that God reveal His will for me, but also that He prepare my heart to accept His will, whatever it may be.
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
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[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Ac 10:9–23). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
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