The content of the vision

“And he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and on it were all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky.” (1) The sheet that descended to the earth was a large cloth, like a ship’s sail. It likely reminded Peter the boats he had been on at the Sea of Galilee. (2) Inside it were all kinds of animals found on earth. (a) Four-footed animals, (b) Crawling creatures (reptiles), (c) Birds of the sky. Fish were not included as they couldn’t swim in the sheet. (3) “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” This is a “bat kol” (a short message from God the Father). Paul heard a bat kol on the road to Damascus, and Peter heard one in Joppa. (4) The bat kol gave a command that contradicted the dietary laws. The kosher regulations are detailed in Leviticus 11. The permitted animals are four-footed animals that chew the cud and have split hooves, along with certain types of birds. All other animals are considered unclean. “But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.’” (1) Peter politely but firmly refused God’s command. He was hungry but was not that hungry that he would eat what was inside. He emphasized that he had never eaten unclean food before. (2) However, a second bat kol came. It declared that what God had cleansed should not be considered unclean. Mark 7:19 states, “‘because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?’ (Thereby He declared all foods clean.)” The latter part appears only in the Gospel of Mark, whose source of information was Peter. (3) This was repeated three times, but Peter did not change his mind. The large sheet was then immediately taken back up into heaven. In Peter’s training, the number three occurs often. (a) He denied Christ three times (Mark 14:66-72). (b) He confessed his love for Christ three times (John 21:15-17). (c) In this passage, the vision was shown to him three times. Peter likely felt he was being tested by this vision. However, the vision did not have a clear conclusion, leaving Peter to ponder its meaning. In our own lives, God may repeat the same message to us. Blessed are those who correctly hear God’s voice.