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
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 down 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