10:11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the {g} four corners, and let down to the earth:
(g) So that it seemed to be a square sheet.
10:11-15 Saw heaven opened. The meaning of the vision is plain. Peter was hungry (Ac 10:10). He saw, let down from heaven, all kinds of animals, those ceremonially unclean and prohibited by the Mosaic law, as well as others (Ac 10:11,12), and was told to kill and eat (Ac 10:13). When he answered that he had never eaten anything common (as opposed to holy) and unclean (Ac 10:14), that is, forbidden by Moses, he was told that what God had cleansed was not common or unclean (Ac 10:15). This could only mean that the ceremonial distinctions of the law were abrogated (Le 11:2-45 De 14:3-21). It was at this time that the messengers from a Gentile, one of a class, with which even Peter would not eat, yet for which Christ had died, presented themselves (Ac 10:21). The object of the vision was to show Peter that it was the will of the Lord that he should go.
10:11 Tied at the corners - Not all in one knot, but each fastened as it were up to heaven.
10:9-18 The prejudices of Peter against the Gentiles, would have prevented his going to Cornelius, unless the Lord had prepared him for this service. To tell a Jew that God had directed those animals to be reckoned clean which were hitherto deemed unclean, was in effect saying, that the law of Moses was done away. Peter was soon made to know the meaning of it. God knows what services are before us, and how to prepare us; and we know the meaning of what he has taught us, when we find what occasion we have to make use of it.
