Acts 12

There have been many contests recorded in the Bible between men of worldly strength and those of faith who are weak. We think of the patriarchs and the prophets, and of the Messiah himself. The apostles are in that train of unlikely victors; sometimes, like James the brother of John, finding their victory in losing their lives. Others find victory like Peter, remaining to fight the fight of love on earth another day. Here the one who would like to use Peter to please those who desire the apostle’s death is Herod. Emboldened by his murder of James, he seizes Peter and turns him over to a number of soldiers charged with guarding him. But something else is also going on in a different place of power. The church is praying fervently to God for Peter’s life.

What happens then is very unusual. An angel of the Lord is sent into the prison cell where Peter is sleeping, chained between two guards. The apostle receives a poke in the side and an instruction to get up and get going, his chains fall off, and they pass through two guarded checkpoints and are out on a side street that leads into the city before Peter finds himself fully awake, dressed, alone, and free! It was only then that Peter understood that this was not a vision but a heavenly visitation that brought about his freedom from prison. He was not only freed from the hand of Herod, but also from the expectation of many Jews who were against the Christian Jewish movement.

Meanwhile, when Peter made his way to a house where many were praying together, he had a hard time getting anyone to believe that he was there. They came to the conclusion that the servant who reported this was insane, or that it must be an angel somehow doing Peter’s bidding. But as he persistently knocked at the gate, they finally let him in, and there was no doubt that it actually was him, and everyone was shocked. Peter related the whole story, saying that it was the Lord who had done this thing, and instructing them to tell the news to James, the half-brother of Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem, and the others with him that he calls here “the brothers,” which may be a reference to the church as a whole, or the apostles and elders.

While this was very good news for the church, it was very bad news for the guards who were charged with keeping Peter in the prison. Naturally they were shocked to wake up without their prisoner, and his chains right there connected to two of their own men, but Peter gone from between them! Herod was not amused. When it was proved conclusively that Peter was not in custody, the guards who had been entrusted with this mission were led away, apparently to their own execution.

The verses that follow tell us the rest of the story of this Herod. He was angry with some of the people of the north in Tyre and Sidon. Herod was not a man to have as an enemy, it was thought, and so the rebels found a way to make peace with him, knowing that they needed the food that came to them from the countryside that was under his authority. When Herod came in all of his royal finery, and was seated in the place of power, he gave a great address. Whether through flattery, or because they were so impressed with the man and his voice, they shouted out the cheer, “The voice of a god, and not of a man.” In perfect fulfillment of Psalm 82:5-6, written against abusive judges and rulers, these words came to pass, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”

The man Herod fell like any man, perhaps faster than most. The words used to describe his death speak of his decay and of the judgment of heaven against him, since it was an angel of the Lord who struck down this god. Earlier in the passage, it was an angel of the Lord who poked a poor fisherman in the side and told him to get up, get dressed, and get going. Peter was freed from Herod’s prison, and soon after that Herod faced the prison of his own death.

The great words of the man who toyed with Peter’s life for the pleasure of his subjects had come to an end. The fact of death is before all of us, but not every death is entirely the same. James, the brother of John died. Peter would eventually die too. So would the other James, Barnabas, Saul, John Mark, and all the brothers and sisters who spent the night praying for Peter; but not on this day, and not with quite the same story. The story of these other apostles and of the church that they served would be the story of the Word of God moving forward into the world.

It is a story of the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. It is a story of His death for sinners, and of our life in Him. This Word of Christ increased and was multiplied. The pride of men has its moment of glory, and then it is gone. The Word of the Lord endures forever, because the King of kings, who died on a Roman cross, is reigning from the highest seat of power, and He will not allow tyrants and oppressors to have the last word.