In our passage from Acts today, Peter is hungry and wants something to eat. He has a vision of all kinds of animals in a sheet, and then hears a voice telling him to "kill and eat". He is repulsed by this and tells God he has never eaten anything impure. He then gets summoned by a centurion called Cornelius who has been spoken to by an angel. If Peter visits Cornelius it would break the Jewish rule of associating with Gentiles. He realises God has said through his vision that no man is unclean, and so he goes.
This flouting of Jewish Law by God could have been very confusing for Peter, but Peter had a close enough relationship to God to discern what was going on.
A few years ago I was looking to change job, and was praying about it at my desk. A few minutes later the phone went, and it was an old boss of mine asking me if I would consider a new post. This had to be God's doing, I thought. I applied for the job, but during the interview it didn't turn out to be quite what was promised, but I decided that I should still be faithful to what I thought was God's call. I was rather surprised by some fellow Christians' lack of enthusiasm at my story, and they advised me to proceed with caution. As it turned out they were right. I wasn't even offered the job. It wasn't God after all.
I find discernment difficult, as I expect most of us do. Today's passage makes it sound easy, but what we shouldn't do is give up trying. I am encouraged by Paul, who maybe had greater insight into the purposes of God than anybody except Jesus, and yet he says he strove to "know Christ" (Philippians 3:10). Discernment is obviously a lifetime's work.
Jon Seaton
Read the Bible in a year: Psalm 74: 10-17, 1 Kings 1:1-2:12, Acts 10:23b-11:18
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