Without Hesitation
Today’s reading: Acts 10:1-23
“Get up, go downstairs, and go with them without hesitation. Don’t worry, for I have sent them.” - Acts 10:20
No one knows what fallen humans are really like — except God Himself. He knows who He created us to be, and He knows what we have become as a result of our sin. In our fall state, it is natural for us to reject something that is different from what we are accustomed.
God was about to break down a barrier that had held for so long among Jews: NO GENTILES ALLOWED.
Plato was the first to speak of this, but this quote is revealing:
Tosefta Berakhot 6:18 teaches in the name of Rabbi Yehuda ben Ilai (mid-2nd c. CE) that every (Jewish) man is obligated to recite three blessings daily. These express gratitude for ones station in life through the negative statements: thank God that I am not a gentile, a woman, or a slave. - Ruth Langer
Prejudice is something that can run deep, undetected.
May we never hesitate to embrace every nation, tribe, people, and tongue! (Revelation 7:9)