This blog entry is about Acts 10:16 where Peter saw the vision of the sheet. The thing I questioned about this was the fact that the sheet appeared THREE TIMES to Peter in his vision. So I had to know what the significance of THREE is. It appears that the number THREE, in 2nd Temple mindset, means FINALITY or COMPLETENESS. I got that from reading various articles in books, such as ISBE, Numerology, etc. So I guess we can say that God was telling Peter that GOING TO MEET NON-JEWS WAS A COMMAND THAT HE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ARGUE WITH. In other words, God’s decision on the matter IS FINAL! Peter had no choice but to GO MEET WITH NON-JEWS. Here’s what the text has to say about it:
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. (Acts 10)
Now the question you have to ask yourself is, what was so SIGNIFICANT about Peter, a 2nd Temple Jew, meeting with NON-JEWS? First you need to know that Jews called non-Jews GENTILES (GOIIM). The other thing you need to know is, Jews considered GENTILES to be PERPETUALLY BAD. I say BAD, but that’s really not how the Jews would say it. They say it this way: GENTILES ARE INHERENTLY, PERPETUALLY ‘UNCLEAN’. We discussed UNCLEAN in a previous blog. Suffice to say ‘UNCLEAN’ = BAD!
In sum, JEWS ARE PROHIBITED, BY LAW, FROM CULTIVATING CLOSE RELATIONS WITH GENTILES. They consider it OK to ABUSE GENTILES. They even consider DESTROYING GENTILE NATIONS an OK thing to do (it’s called HOLY WAR). It’s that way even today for POLITICAL JEWS (but definitely not the nice Jewish people who may be in your neighborhood!).
So for Peter, FELLOWSHIP WITH A GENTILE WAS PROHIBITED BY LAW. He was NOT going to do it, NO MATTER WHAT! He was a ‘law abiding’ 2nd Temple citizen, and was bound and determined to make sure he did what God required of him. Only thing is, GOD DIDN’T MAKE THOSE ANTI-GENTILE LAWS, POLITICAL JEWS DID! They were the MAN-MADE LAWS of 2nd Temple Israel. But where they GOOD laws? All Depends! But that’s another discussion entirely.
Suffice to say, GOD COMMANDED PETER TO MEET WITH GENTILES, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. The reasoning is, WHAT GOD CONSIDERED ‘CLEAN’, PETER WAS OBLIGATED TO CONSIDER ‘CLEAN’. And that meant THE GENTILES WERE CLEAN TO PETER, THE JEW, BECAUSE GOD SAID SO! So Peter had NO CHOICE whether or not to go meet with the Gentiles. God commanded it, so Peter had to do it.
Now let’s QUALIFY this proposition. The ONLY Gentiles whom God ‘cleansed’ were those who BELIEVED IN JESUS. All the other Gentiles (AND Jews for that matter) who did NOT believe in Jesus, God considered UNCLEAN. That means, when Peter went to meet with the Gentile, he was really meeting with a human OF THE SAME MINDSET (because of Jesus). Not difficult to comprehend WHY God commanded Peter to go meet with THAT kind of GENTILE!
So that’s what the THREE SHEETS meant to Peter.
Incidentally, it had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with FOOD LAWS!
See you in the next blog!
Reality Bible 