Simon the Tanner by the Sea Bed and Breakfast

It's just a little bit interesting that Peter has a vision involving all kinds of animals and birds while staying with Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea. A tanner, of course, deals with all kinds of animals, dead animals no less.

The "living by the sea" theme is also an appropriate symbol for what follows. Way back in Genesis, God divided the dry land from the sea. This distinction symbolized the different peoples; those associated with the land and those associated with the sea. While the wicked were destroyed by the sea flood, Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Jonah was commanded to take the gospel to Ninevah, but he only thought of their judgment, because they were across the sea. Jonah goes into the depths of the sea and is delivered back to dry land, preaches to the Ninevites about God's judgment and repentance. They repent and Jonah is disappointed because God does not destroy them. (This is similar to the bad attitude, violent heart, wicked prejudice, and arrogance of many Jews in the 1st century).

Later, God's people left the bondage of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea on dry land, and the wicked Egyptians bent on destroying the people of God, were destroyed in the sea.

God's covenant with Abraham and his offspring involved the promised "land." The Israelites were associated symbolically in the Bible with the land, and the Gentiles with the sea.

In this regard note how the OT speaks much about shepherds and such things of the land, while the NT speaks much about fisherman and the sea.

About Jesus in the book of Revelation 10:2b;

"And He set His right foot on the sea, and His left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring."

In Acts 10 the themes of land, sea, and various animals speaks symbolically about what God had intended from the beginning; the universalization of His promised redemption and salvation.

DR