Acts 12:5 ¶ Peter therefore
was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God
for him. 6 And when Herod would have
brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. 7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him,
and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised
him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his
hands. 8 And the angel said unto him,
Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him,
Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. 9
And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which
was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. 10 When they were past the first and the second
ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to
them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street;
and forthwith the angel departed from him. 11
And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety,
that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of
Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. 12 And when he had considered the thing,
he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where
many were gathered together praying. 13
And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken,
named Rhoda. 14 And when she knew
Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how
Peter stood before the gate. 15 And they
said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so.
Then said they, It is his angel. 16 But
Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw
him, they were astonished. 17 But he,
beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how
the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go shew these things
unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place.
18 Now as soon as it was day, there was
no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter. 19 And when Herod had sought for him, and found
him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put
to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there abode.
Notice importantly first how God acted out of His own will but in concord
with the prayers for Peter offered continuously. This is a lesson for us. As
Paul said;
1Thessalonians 5:17 Pray
without ceasing.
Peter was imprisoned about as secure as you can get chained
between two of the soldiers. If they used four soldiers in a shift then the
other two would have kept guard. But, even with this seemingly secure method of
binding a prisoner an angel of the Lord, perhaps an appearance of Christ, came
to him, shining a light, hit Peter in the side, and with Peter’s chains falling
off he made his escape following the angel without disturbing the soldiers he
had been chained to. Amazingly, even a gate opened to him of its own accord.
Peter must have been in a trance-like state being led by the
angel. When he came to himself, got full control again of his faculties, he
acknowledged who had delivered him and why.
He then came to Mary’s house, the mother of John Mark, probable
author of the gospel that bears Mark’s name. Disciples were gathered there to
pray. Peter banged on the gate door but Rhoda, recognizing Peter’s voice, was
so beside HERself that she didn’t open the gate but ran to the disciples who
insisted she was nuts as Peter was secure in prison or dead.
Verse 15 shows that these Jewish Christians knew something that
most modern Christians don’t know. They knew what an angel was, an appearance
of someone who is someplace else, probably even dead. It is not that person
physically in the flesh they understood but his spiritual representative. We
all have a spiritual representative operating in creation where we are not, in
Heaven if we are here.
Psalm 104:4 Who maketh his
angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
Daniel 9:21 Yea, whiles I
was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the
vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time
of the evening oblation.
Luke 1:26 And in the sixth
month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named
Nazareth,
Matthew 18:10 Take heed
that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That
in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is
in heaven.
Hebrews 12:23 To the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and
to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Verse 17 can be confusing. There is a James, the brother of John,
who was murdered by Herod.
Matthew 4:21 And going on
from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his
brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called
them.
There was James the son of Alphaeus.
Matthew 10:3 Philip, and
Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and
Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
And Jesus’ brother James who most commentators say wrote the book
of James.
Matthew 13:55 Is not this
the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James,
and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
Galatians 1:19 But other of
the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
As was apparently customary guards who failed to keep a prisoner
under custody, especially a noteworthy prisoner, allowing them to escape, could
be put to death. Note the Philippian jailer’s terror at Paul’s deliverance when
he thought Paul and company had escaped in Acts 16:25-34 which we will come to.
He was ready to kill himself rather than suffer what would await him and
perhaps even his family suggesting the prison was part of his home like in the
ancient Egyptian Potiphar’s case of Joseph’s story. See Genesis 40:3 and
context.
Acts 12:20 ¶ And Herod was
highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to
him, and, having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend, desired
peace; because their country was nourished by the king’s country.
21 And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in
royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. 22 And the people gave a shout, saying, It is
the voice of a god, and not of a man. 23
And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God
the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. 24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.
25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from
Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them
John, whose surname was Mark.
There are other instances in history where men are said to be
eaten of worms. In particular, the Roman historian, Plutarch, in his Lives
of Illustrious Men notes that the Roman tyrant, Sylla, among others,
suffered this fate. Similarly, in the Apocryphal book, Second Maccabees, the
evil Antiochus Epiphanes suffers something very similar. This punishment, this
judgment was swift and sudden and the wicked Herod went to Hell.
Still, God’s word produced much fruit and Barnabas and Saul took
John Mark with them back to Antioch.
