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What Could It Mean?

Peter. Ah, sweet, innocent, dumb Peter. We turn to Acts 10 to find him hungry and dreaming about food. Sounds reasonable, right? But this dream has a purpose and God shows Peter all sorts of animals that first century Jewish people would have said was unclean. God tells Peter to kill and eat, and in normal fashion for stupid people from the Bible, Peter tells God no and why he can't. 

God tells Peter why he can. Check it out... 

But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven. ~Acts 10:15-16

This happens three times! But the best part is found in the very next verse. 

Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? ~Acts 10:17

What could the vision mean?!? Are you kidding me?

What are you confused about Peter? I think it means that God doesn't want you to call anything unclean that He has made clean. I don't know that this was all that mysterious. Of all the many things God has kept hidden from us, He seemed pretty straight forward about this one. 

I guess we shouldn't be all this misunderstanding with ol' Pete. After all, Jesus picked him for His top 12. Oh, and I think the rest of us are just as dense as Peter most of the time. We take simple and clear truths of the Bible and we make it difficult. More difficult than it needs to be. More difficult than God made it. 

God has shown us truth countless times. Yet somehow we seem confused. Maybe we need to listen one more time to the voice of God. 

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