What did God show Peter about the Gentiles before he entered Cornelius's house?
God showed Peter that the long-standing Jewish separation from Gentiles was not an absolute barrier. Through the vision let down before him and the command to kill and eat, Peter, who had refused anything common or unclean, came to acknowledge at Cornelius’s threshold that God had shown him otherwise, because God was now turning to the Gentiles.
Les explains that God had long emphasized Israel as a separated, covenant people who were not to co-mingle or intermarry with Gentiles, and they were not told to evangelize them. Even in Acts chapter 10, the Lord gave Peter the vision of what was let down and told him to kill and eat. Peter, a law-keeping Jew, replied, 'Not so, Lord... I have never eaten anything common or unclean.' Then at the threshold of Cornelius’s house, Peter told Cornelius it was unlawful for a Jew to keep company with another nation, but added that God had shown him otherwise. Les teaches that God now had something else in store: He was going to turn to the Gentiles, whereas up to that time it was predominantly only His covenant people.
More Questions
Why did God send Peter to the house of Cornelius?
The big reason God sent Peter to the house of Cornelius was not only for Cornelius's sake, but so that Peter would be mentally prepared to come to Paul's defense at the Jerusalem conference twelve years later.