Before we look at the verses in Acts chapter 10 let us give you a little back drop. This is where Peter went up to the house of Cornelius. It was the first time that Gentiles had been approached at all, and we'll see in another area how even the Lord Himself went only to the lost sheep of Israel. And this is in accord with what the book of Enoch (chapter 88 verse 20, he's the first Prophet of God) reveals about those who would come from the loins of Jacob, who became Israel, because beginning with him they were to be known as sheep and from the sheep would come goats, the false prophets and shepherds or religious leadership of Israel, which Esau was a type of. For even Jacob fled to Eber's house, the son of Shem, to seek refuge from Esau. This is also written as a witness in the book of Jasher, which is referenced in Joshua and 2 Samuel, in chapter 29 of that book.
But here Peter has miraculously been led by an act of God up to Caesarea, on the Mediterranean Sea coast, to go to a house of Gentiles. Remember Peter had a lot of trepidation about this. We've put it this way, that trip for Peter was like "Heel prints in the sand!" All the way from Joppa to Caesarea, Peter did not want to go to this Gentile household any more than Jonah wanted to go to the city of Nineveh. It was the same kind of a mindset. I can just hear Peter saying, "Surely God you don't have anything to do with Gentiles?", but God says, 'Peter get going'. All right when Peter got there, here's where we see that the circumcision is Jewish, and the uncircumcision are Gentiles. Now verse 44 of Acts chapter 10. And remember all we're trying to show here is the differentiation of these two words and how they relate to the two groups of people.
Acts 10:44-45a
"While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision..."
Now to find out who was in the house that were of the circumcision other than Peter, we have to jump across the page at least in my Bible to chapter 11, and look at verse 12.
Acts 11:12
"And the spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting, Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house:"
Luke here uses a descriptive phrase which is easily over looked “nothing doubting”, which means without unbelief or without question. Well who were the six brethren? They were Hebrews that came up from Joppa with Peter to Cornelius' house. Peter was in no mood to go to a house of a pagan Gentile, a dog, by himself. So we guess for purely religious protection he took those six Jewish believers, "Christians" with him. Now coming back to chapter 10 and completing verse 45.
Acts 10:45
"And they of the circumcision (Peter and those six other Hebrews. The Scripture calls them the circumcision. Do you see that?) who believed were astonished, as that on the Gentiles also was poured out (given) the gift of the Holy Ghost."
Now come all the way down chapter 11, again and verse 1. This was after the fact and Peter was heading back home.
Acts 11:1-3
"And the apostles, and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision (the Hebrew believers) contended with him. (why? Next verse) Saying, 'Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised (the Gentile, dogs), and didst eat with them'."
Remember that later on Paul scold Peter for his cowardliness of backing down when he had been among these Gentiles and his brothers, Hebrew believers from Jerusalem come to visit them, Peter and Paul (Galatians 2:7 and 14-17, then 19-21).
What were they called up in chapter 10, verse 45, Gentiles? Do you see that? Now that's all we're trying to show. The Hebrew over and over in Scripture is referred to as the circumcision. The Gentiles on the other hand are referred to as the uncircumcision. We refer to them as Hebrews and Gentiles or nations. In the Psalms and Proverbs and elsewhere the gentiles are called nations, seas, ocean, and other similar references. Now if we come back to Ephesians chapter 2, we hope we've made our point. It's just a matter of definition, that when we speak of the circumcision, it's the Hebrew people, it's Israel. When we speak of uncircumcision, it's the non-Hebrew or Jew, and that's all the Bible puts on it. A non-Jew is anyone not born out of the lineage of ( not Abraham or Isaac, but rather of) Jacob, but rather Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel, are the sheep and goats of the Lord's pasture. Not as many have forced it to mean by calling them the Church, or Believers and Christians. For even Paul in Galatians 2 tells us that he had forsaken his heritage of Judaism after he had received Christ into himself. Now verse 12, and we find Paul writes to those Gentiles, and to us where we came from, and what's the situation concerning our Gentile forefathers. Now of course we're about 2000 years removed from when Paul wrote, but nevertheless as we look back through human history it's still the same. Times and peoples may have changed but God's Word has NOT.
Ephesians 2:12a
"That at that time..."
Well, at what time? When God was only dealing with the covenant people of Israel. From Abraham to begin with and then the nation of Israel, until the fork in the road when Paul was called or chosen to go to the Gentiles. Guess we'd better stop for we want to remember the time of the call of Abraham, and we've had this timeline in the second Psalm. That 2000 years before Christ was born, when God pulled out of this main stream of humanity, He pulled out what we now call the nation of Israel, by virtue of the Abrahamic Covenant. A people who were to be a peculiar people unto Himself, as a set apart people through whom He would come as promised in Genesis 3:15.
We'll be looking at that a little later, when we reveal the hidden secret of the LORD's Last Supper or the Marriage Feast of the Lamb of God. We always refer to this time as Hebrew only, but of course there were exceptions. We have already referred to Jonah going to the city of Nineveh although he didn't want to because they were Gentile dogs. And Rahab on the wall of Jericho, and Ruth out of Moab. But by in large all the way from Genesis chapter 12, which was about 2000 BC, it's all God dealing with Israel, and not a Gentile except those few exceptions. Now as we finally came to Christ's earthly ministry, it was really pointed out by Christ Himself that God was only dealing with the lost nation of Israel in Matthew 10:5. Now if He was only dealing with the nation of Israel, then where does that leave the Gentiles? We'll read on here in chapter 2.
Ephesians 2:12
"That at that time (from 2000 BC until Paul is sent to the Gentiles) ye (you, Gentiles) were without Christ, (now we don't have the word “Christ” in the Old Testament, but what is it? “Messiah!” The Prophet likened to that of Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18). But remember the Gentiles were never promised a “Messiah”, so these Gentiles were at that time) being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel..."
Now if we're an alien what are we? We're a non-citizen, we don't have any rights. We're not under the Law or the Prophets, we have no part in them what so ever. And for someone to say that we have is a boldfaced lie, and they are a false prophet, a prophet not of God. Take even today, even with the laxness that we're showing toward immigrants, basically according to our laws and constitution, how many rights does an alien have? None! So by right of law he has no reason to expect governmental aid, or help, he can't vote, he legally can't buy lands or hold title to anything and all because he's a non-citizen. Now this was the lot of the Gentile world all during those 2000 plus years or period of time, with those exceptions. We don't want anybody to come at us and say, "Well what about Nineveh?"
That was an exception, but the rest of the Gentile world was out there in their pagan darkness, for the most part. They were worshiping all of their gods, of the animals, sun, the moon and yes even the stars. Along with those of silver, gold, and wood, and what have you. That were fashioned after the likeness of a beast or fertility god, that is to say an egg, a many breasted image, mother of heaven, mother earth or a phallic symbol. All of which where household shines. All of that was tied to that same concept of gods and goddesses that begin long before the tower of Babel. They were the reason for the flood. That was the lot of the Gentile world. Only Israel had or was to have a knowledge and a contact with, and a belief in the One True God through Abraham to Paul. And this is what we have to understand before the Scriptures open up and begin to make sense. You simply can't lump them all together. Now with the prophets, God was trying to turn the Hebrews back in the right direction but they refused to listen to them and their warnings. They paid no heed to them and with a stubborn heart built their religious idolatry. They turned that which was good (revealed Christ) into many smaller gods or idols. Now read on in this verse 12. So not only were we (our Gentile forefathers) without a Messiah, the Christ. Not only were we aliens of the commonwealth of Israel, but what were we?
Ephesians 2:12b
"...and strangers from the covenants of promise,..."
As soon as God begin to deal with Abraham He made all those promises. In fact let's go look at it for a moment, and you'll see why Paul uses the word "promises." Remember the Gentiles were outside the covenants of promise. Genesis chapter 12, verse 2. Just look at the promises, and since God is speaking these are promises.
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