The Way - Day 036 (Acts 12)

Pastor Tom's Journal on Today's Reading:
Acts 12
About the time that all this was transpiring, Herod (king of northern Palestine) and the Jews displayed their hatred for the church.  Luke documents that Herod "stretched out his hand to harass some from the church...then he killed James the brother of John with the sword" (12:1-2).  History tells us that Herod sought to gain favor with the Jews by antagonizing the church, whom the Jews hated.  Seeing that his actions persecution and murder pleased the Jews, Herod "proceeded further to seize Peter.  Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread [week long feast immediately following Passover].  So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison...intending to bring him before the people after Passover (12:3-4).

The church was informed of what had happened to Peter so "constant prayer was offered to God for him..." (12:5).  The night before Herod was to take Peter before the Jews, an angel of the Lord delivered him from his chains and led him outside the city gates (12:6-10).  Luke records that Peter thought he was seeing a vision and did not know what was happening until the angel departed from him.  When he finally realized that his deliverance by the angel was real he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people" (12:11).

Peter flees to the house of Mary, who was the mother of John Mark, where "many were gathered praying.  And Peter knocked at the door of the gate,  girl named Rhoda came to answer" (12:12-13).  When Rhoda heard the voice of Peter, instead of opening the gate, she went back to the house and told all the people that Peter was there (12:14).  At first, the people who were gathered together praying for Peter's release did not believe it was him.  They told the girl, "You are beside yourself!  It is his angel" (12:15).  This whole time Peter continued knocking at the gate for someone to let him in and they finally let him in, being surprised to see him (12:16).  Although their only hope was in God, the people still didn't really believe He would actually respond to their prayers for Peter's deliverance.  Peter entered the house and explained how the Lord delivered him from prison and them he commanded them to go tell James and the brethren (12:17).

As day breaks, the soldiers discover that Peter is missing and Herod demands that the guards who were watching Peter be put to death (12:19).  Then Herod departed from Judea and went to stay in Caesarea.  It appears that during this time, Tyre and Sidon had done something to anger Herod so they decided to attempt to make peace with him "because their country was supplied with food by the king's country" (12:20).  Then one day while Herod was giving a speech to the people, they began honoring him as a god (12:21-22).  "Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God.  And was eaten by worms and died" (12:23).  In spite of the attempts of Herod and the Jews to silence the church, Luke writes that "the word of God grew and multiplied" (12:24).  It is pretty amazing that the church remains faithful in prayer and faith in the face of persecution.

Dear God, help the church to pray for those who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ and may we not be surprised when You choose to deliver Your servants from the hands of evil men.  May the message of salvation through Jesus Christ continue through trials and temptations that You may receive glory!      
 
Although the church was suffering persecution from all sides (Acts 12:1-4), God was still empowering people to do His work. Having seen the miraculous deliverance of Peter from imprisonment, the church grew and multiplied as the word of God was taught (12:24). There seemed to be no hesitation in carrying out the mission given to the disciples of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8). Luke switches his storyline from the happenings of Peter and now focuses his attention on Saul and Barnabas. The last time he mentioned them (Acts 11:27-30), they were being sent from Antioch to Jerusalem with financial support for the Christians who were experiencing a famine. They fulfilled this duty following the death of Herod (Acts 12:20-23) and then returned to the church at Antioch (12:25).