SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/17/2018 11:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 The Preparation of Peter
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 10:9-20
Message of the verses: “9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!" 14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." 16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. 17 Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; 18 and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. 19 While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 “But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself."”
There is a lot of drama in this story as now we see that
the scene shifts to Joppa where Peter is and before the men come to see Peter and
we see that Peter also has a vision of his own.
Peter becomes hungry as he goes up onto the rooftop to pray. This would have been around noon as the text
says the sixth hour. Being hungry was
something that was useful for the vision that the Spirit of God was going to
give to Peter. We see that Peter falls
into a trance while up on the rooftop.
John MacArthur writes “God not only sovereignly called Cornelius to
salvation but also prepared Peter as the means, humanly speaking, to accomplish
that. God’s sovereign call of
individuals for special service is well-documented in Scripture (Isa. 49:1;
Jer. 1:5; John 15:16; Gal. 1:1).”
Peter is now in a trance up on the rooftop and while in
this trance he is also hungry and so he sees “the sky opened up, and a certain
object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,
and there were in it all kinds of four-footer animals and crawling creatures on
the earth and birds of the air.” Now
since Peter was hungry his vision involves eating, however that this sheet
contained both clean and unclean animals this reflects the Old Testament
instruction in which God had given certain dietary restrictions for the nation
of Israel. In the book of Leviticus
20:25-26 God gives His reason for giving those restrictions: “25 ’You are therefore to make a distinction
between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the
clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by
anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean.
26 ’Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy;
and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.” The book of Leviticus is the book about being
holy as the word holy is seen 76 times in that book.
MacArthur concludes his thoughts by writing “It was
imperative that Israel be kept separate from her idolatrous neighbors, and such
restrictions would hinder social intercourse with them.” We will conclude this section concerning the
preparation of Peter in our next SD.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Judah” (1 Kings 12:20).
Today’s Bible
question: “Was Paul a Sadducee or a
Pharisee?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/17/2018 11:36 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment