The argument that Peter received the “Kill and eat” command from Yahuah as a prompt for him to visit a gentile is an empty argument. It is wrong and is easily proven wrong. Proof provided by the King of Kings Himself, by Yahusha, Yeshua, Jesus – the Savior of the world. One risks much to deny Yahusha as the teacher.
My respect for every reader who had the courage to step up on this marvelous teaching point and make your warmly received comments below, generally charging me with one error or another. You make my life much, much richer and we will drink the finest wine ever made together at our great feast in Heaven. Praise Yahuah, and thank you.
First, a little background. In a writing I published April 21st, 2023, I asked if Yahusha was double-minded, banning unclean “food” while simultaneously declaring:
Yahusha Teaches That Nothing We Eat Or Hear Or See Can Defile Us
Mark 7:14 And calling all the crowd near, He said to them, All hear Me and understand.
Mar 7:15 “There is nothing from outside the man, having entered into him, which is able to defile him. But the things going out from him, those are the things defiling the man.
Mar 7:16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
Mar 7:17 And when He entered into a house from the crowd, His disciples questioned Him about the parable.Mar 7:18 And He said to them, “Are you also so undiscerning? Do you not perceive that all which enters from the outside into the man is not able to defile him? “
Mar 7:19 “This is because it does not enter into his heart, but into the belly, and goes out into the waste-bowl, purging all the foods.
Mar 7:20 And He said “That passing out of the man, that is the thing which defiles the man.”Mar 7:21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of men, pass out the evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, greedy desires, iniquities, deceit, lustful desires, a wicked eye, blasphemy, pride, recklessness. All these evil things pass out from within and defile the man.”
So clearly there is nothing we can eat which makes us impure or defiled, or unrighteous in any way. This is the Word of Yahuah. This necessarily includes bacon, cat, raccoon, crawfish, rabbit, etc. All formerly forbidden and many, many more.
YAHUAH states in Leviticus 11:43-44 “43 Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them. 44 I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. 45
So we are defiled by eating or touching creatures defined as unclean according to Yahuah, but Yahusha comes and states that touching or eating any creature formerly called “unclean” will never again “defile” the man, that only wickedness coming from the heart of the man can defile him.
Therefore, something changed, and Yahusha was also still walking the earth and facing crucifixion. Who changed it? Yahusha only came to “do the will of my Father in heaven”. It was the Will of Yahuah which changed. Yahuah changes His mind.
The mercy to the adulteress is a perfect example of how Yahusha informed us that the Torah teaching to kill is no longer mandated. By Torah standards, she should have been stoned to death, and Yahusha should have thrown the first stone. He did not, and no one else, though all were qualified under Torah, threw a stone either.
He turns in new directions. He keeps the game interesting. He is Yahuah. Praise Him.
Peter, the disciple to whom Yahusha said in Matthew 16:18 – “Also I say to you, that you are Kaypha, and upon this stone I shall build my church, and the gates of Sheol will not withstand it.” is a cornerstone of the faith. He accompanied Yahusha everywhere yet also denied Yahusha three times after Yahusha was arrested. Poor man. The torment must have been searing to him.
One afternoon after Yahusha was cruxified and dwelling on the right hand of Yahuah, ruling all of heaven and earth, Peter was on the roof of the house waiting for lunch and praying. He was praying and it was about noon. As he prayed, he became “exceedingly hungry”…
Act 10:9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Kepha went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:
Act 10:10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
Act 10:11 And saw את heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
Act 10:12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 10:13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Kepha; kill, and eat.
Act 10:14 But Kepha said, Not so, Adonai; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
Act 10:15 And the voice spoke unto him again the second time, What Elohiym has cleansed, that call not common.
Act 10:16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Act 10:17 Now while Kepha doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Qurnelius had made inquiry for Shim`on’s house, and stood before the gate…
So Peter became very hungry and is waiting for lunch when these creatures were lowered to him from Heaven (“unclean” from Heaven and offered as food by Yahuah) and Yahuah commanded Peter to kill them and eat them. Three times Yahuah commanded Peter to kill them and eat them, a reminder to Peter that He had denied Yahusha three times, no doubt.
Peter would remember his denials forever, and three commands to kill and eat would be taken absolutely literally in spite of his Jew upbringing. Still, he struggled to do even this, kicking against the goads.
Then the Spirit tells Peter that he has visitors about to knock on his door. The food is taken away and Peter goes downstairs from the roof. The next day Peter and his visitors go see a gentile for some healing, and Peter says
Act 10:28 “And he said to them, You know how unlawful it is for a man, a Jew, to unite with or to come near to one of another race. Yet God showed to me not to call a man common or unclean.
Indeed. Just when did “God” show Peter this? Perhaps it was a year earlier, when Peter was with Yahusha and Yahusha healed the Roman Centurion’s servant. The Romans were obviously gentiles, and were resolutely hated by the Jews for the ongoing Roman crucifixion of over 2000 Jew rebels. But this is a believing gentile, a man of significant faith.
Mat 8:5-13 And when Yahusha was entered into Kapharnachum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Adonai, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
Yahusha said unto him, “I will come and heal him”.
The centurion answered and said, Adonai, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it.
When Yahusha heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, “Amein I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Yashar’el. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Avraham, and Yitschaq, and Ya`aqov, in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then Yahusha said unto the centurion, Go your way; and as you have believed, so be it done unto you. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
Yahusha, in the presence of His disciples and including Peter stated point blank that He would go to the gentiles home, and that this gentile before him possessed more faith than any in Israel, including His own disciples and including Peter himself.
Therefore Peter very plainly saw that his God was more than willing to go to the gentile home, and that the gentile had faith which overshadowed the faith of all in Israel. Peter plainly learned a humiliating lesson right there on that very ground that the gentiles were fully worthy of fellowship. He did not learn that from a blanket of creatures lowered to the ground and which he was commanded to “kill and eat”.
The entire context of “kill and eat” is predicated on the fact that Peter was hungry and waiting for food. “Food” was then delivered to him from heaven itself, with the explicit command of God three times to kill and eat.
Peter learned to fellowship with Gentiles from Yahusha Himself, not from a change in food classification.
Peter would know that Yahusha stated Himself that many Gentiles (from the “east and the west”) will eat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob while the children of Israel will be cast out to burn. When Peter said to the gentile man “You know how unlawful it is for a man, a Jew, to unite with or to come near to one of another race. Yet God showed to me not to call a man common or unclean.” the “God” he speaks of is the God he watched offer to go to the gentiles house, watched that God heal the gentiles servant, and heard that God proclaim that the gentiles’ faith was great, the greatest in Israel and that many gentiles will eat with Abraham in heaven while Jews were cast into hell for their rebellion.
Praise Yahusha. He teaches the way of the Spirit. He came to gain as many of us as Yahuah gives Him. Salvation is the goal of heaven. I have not seen a single soul saved in any church, Christian or Torahn in many years. Not one single soul. If your fellowship is not winning the lost, fix your fellowship. Invite the lost and teach them. Separate the Righteous from the Self-Righteous.
Our Father can do whatever he wants to do, but scripture clearly says as Kapha was thinking about the vision, the Ruah said to him “See THREE men seek you. It is never good to twist His Word or to make light of the burdens of others , example what you related the 3 to, and also what you said about Yahudin burning in hell. And your comment on not knowing of a single person being saved in your list of assemblies:; #1 how would you know such a thing and #2 doest Scripture tell us we work our salvation out daily! With so much observance of others status, maybe you should look at your own self and you might look at others differently! Even our Father does not want that any should perish and thinking of anybody in that light is not a pleasurable thought. Just sayin. Just remember the 12 disciples who will have there names written on the 12 foundations and the twelve gates has written on them the 12 tribes of… Read more »
Jhonda, you posted a great set of comments. Here is the link to what I wrote today. The preceding posts were only preliminary posts as I discussed some of my concerns and observations on the topic. Today I think I made my point and proved it, too. https://www.jerrywdavis.com/kill-and-eat-a-command-of-yahusha-the-gentiles-were-no-more-unclean-than-any-other-human-beings-and-yahuah-never-made-any-race-unclean/
You are totally right about the Ruach teaching us. It is He who taught me when I was turned from my life of sin. I took a year off from my job and completely wore out a new Bible. It was wonderful. “Work out our salvation” – that requires actions, you do realize that? And Yahusha said Himself that belief in Him “authorizes one to become saved” – Salvation then is a process of actions. Faith without works is dead. Remember that? Certainly we must honor Torah while evangelizing the world. We must endeavor to find the lost and turn them toward Truth. Nice meeting you.
Thank you for sharing this .
I have been wrestling with this issue for a while now.
I know the Jews have issues with fat as well;
Knowing if someone was to live on rabbits they would eventually
die of starvation because of the lack of fat.
I guess they would eat olive oil instead.
Still wrestling with this to find the truth.
Shalom
Thank you, Enoch. It is a struggle to face this, but there is more that I will publish this weekend (I hope) that makes the case for all food even stronger. Yahusha changed things. He seems to have removed a lot of complexity from the system. More good proof is coming up in a day or two. The subject will be that Yahuah does change. He has changed His mind in very big ways several times. Therefore, He can also easily change or remove the dietary requirements, and that fact that dietary requirements are different among Yahusha, Peter and Paul seems to prove that all animals were declared clean. So a legitimate question to ask is this: Would Yahuah change His mind about anything?