Detours can shake the faith of people who obeyed God and still ended up sidelined. Today’s Daily Cup turns to Peter’s vision in Joppa and shows how God works on both ends of the story, even while we are still trying to understand.
By Dianna Hobbs
A road bends out of view beyond a dark tunnel, a picture of the path God sees when we cannot. (Roger Lisenko/Getty Images)
I always imagined my 50th birthday a certain way. I pictured doing something special to mark the milestone, and in part, that vision has come to pass. God gave me the strength to finish writing my book, Finding Gratitude in the Dark, and the green light to release it on my birthday, November 2.
But then came a stubborn infection that wiped out my voice, drained my strength, and brought my plans for sharing the book to a screeching halt.
Yesterday, I was praying about it, feeling perplexed.
Lord, You told me to write this book and release it. I obeyed. Now, at the very moment I need to be out sharing it, I’m confined to my home. With my compromised immune system, I can’t even be around people.
I knew God hadn’t caused the infection, but He had allowed it.
What are You doing, Lord? I asked.
He answered by bringing Peter in Joppa to my spirit. I knew He was directing me to His Word, and what He showed me was so good, I have to share it with you.
Light falls on a stone stairway in Old Jaffa, the ancient port city known in Scripture as Joppa. (Dan Porges/Getty Images)
In Acts 10, Peter is staying in Joppa at the home of Simon, a tanner (Acts 9:43). Tanners worked with animal hides, often handling carcasses that could render a person ceremonially unclean under Jewish law (Leviticus 11:39-40). Peter’s choice to lodge there is fascinating in light of what God was about to teach him.
Around noon, Peter went up on the rooftop to pray. He got hungry, and while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw Heaven open and something like a great sheet descend by its four corners. It was full of four-footed animals, creeping things, and birds, including creatures the Law of Moses forbade him to eat (Leviticus 11).
Then a voice spoke: “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat” (Acts 10:13 KJV).
Peter answered immediately. “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean” (v. 14).
The Greek word translated “Not so” is mēdamōs. It is an emphatic refusal meaning “By no means” or “Absolutely not.” Peter had spent his entire life observing the dietary laws handed down through generations. Now the Lord was instructing him to do something that seemed to contradict everything he understood about faithfulness.
God answered, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (v. 15). This exchange happened three times before the sheet was taken back up into Heaven.
To be fair to Peter, he was sincerely trying to honor God according to what he understood. Yet God was expanding that understanding, preparing him for a truth about the inclusion of the Gentiles that he had not yet grasped.
We can be absolutely convinced we understand how God intends to work and still be mistaken about what He is doing right before our eyes.
While Peter was still thinking about the vision, men showed up at the gate asking for him. The day before, an angel had visited Cornelius, a Gentile Roman officer in Caesarea, and told him to send for Peter (Acts 10:1-8). So while Peter was trying to figure out what he had seen, Cornelius’s men were already on their way to him.
God was working on both ends of the story. Peter could only see his rooftop, yet every detail was coming together according to God’s purpose.
Before Peter even came down to meet them, the Spirit told him, “Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them” (Acts 10:19-20 KJV).
“Doubting nothing” translates the Greek mēden diakrinomenos, meaning without hesitating or wavering. What jumps out at me most is the reason the Spirit gave for Peter to go without hesitation: “for I have sent them.”
God had already given Peter clear instructions for his next step. He didn’t have to understand everything God was doing. He could move forward with confidence because he knew the Who before he understood the what.
Look at God.
Peter obeyed and left with the three men the next day. When they reached Caesarea, he found Cornelius’s relatives and close friends already gathered to hear him (vv. 23-24). Standing inside this Gentile home, something he never would have done without that vision, Peter began preaching Jesus.
Remains of the Roman aqueduct at Caesarea Maritima, the coastal city where Cornelius lived. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
While he was still speaking, the Holy Ghost fell on everyone listening (v. 44). The Jewish believers who came with him were astonished to hear the Gentiles speaking in tongues and magnifying God (vv. 45-46). The man who had emphatically protested on that rooftop had yielded to the Lord, and now he watched the Holy Ghost fall on people he would have called unclean.
The location also preaches to us. Joppa was the same port city where Jonah boarded a ship to flee God’s assignment to the Gentiles of Nineveh (Jonah 1:3). Hundreds of years later, in that same city, God directed another of His servants toward the Gentiles. Peter fought it at first, as Jonah did, but later went, and souls were saved (Acts 11:14).
As I sat with that account, the Lord began dealing with my heart. I had been so focused on what wasn’t happening according to my plans that I was overlooking what I know about the God who gave me the assignment. He sees the whole picture. He is fully capable of accomplishing His purposes through circumstances I cannot understand.
That is the message He desires you to receive today. The enemy wants to use detours to dash your hopes and dampen your faith. But the Lord sent me to tell you that His hand is working even through the pivots that made you say mēdamōs.
Absolutely not, Lord. This cannot be how things are supposed to go.
When our plans appear to be falling apart, God’s plan is coming together. And His plan is greater.
I understand the frustration of detours. I promise you, I do. Praying, preparing, and obeying every instruction you received, only to face an unexpected interruption, is deeply disappointing. You may be asking the same question I asked. Lord, how does this fit with what You told me?
Wait on Him, friend. He will reveal His good plan in due time. The words you are reading right now would never have been written without my detour. God’s good work is still being accomplished, even in this.
Glory to His name.
To remind you that the Lord directs your steps even when your plans change, I’m stirring this verse into your cup of inspiration today: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9 KJV).
As you drink down the contents of your cup, know this: God sees far beyond the plans you’ve made and the circumstances you’re facing. Just as He was preparing Cornelius while Peter prayed in Joppa, He is working on both ends of your story, in places you cannot see.
As you wait for the fullness of His plan to unfold, rest in His wisdom, follow His leading, and trust Him with the outcome. He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20 KJV).
Now, let’s pray.
God, thank You for reminding me that You are sovereign and Your wisdom exceeds my understanding. I release my plans and declare that Yours are better. Forgive me for the times I have resisted Your leading because I could not understand Your methods. I trust that Your supernatural power is at work, accomplishing far more than I could ever do on my own. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
