Acts 12:6-19

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

18 In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19 After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.


Dig Deeper
I have noticed an interesting phenomenon amongst many dictators and tyrants in the world. They tend to rule by very harsh measures when need be but most of them also seem to thrive on the approval of their people. They seem to deeply need to believe that their followers love them and they will force the situation if necessary. In fact there is one dictator in Northern Africa right now who is experiencing great unrest in his country. The country is basically in full out revolt against him and has instituted a full-scale and grass-roots civil war against him. Yet, when interviewed he blindly holds to the belief that his people love him and that the violence is simply a result of terrorist groups from outside of his country. He continues to seek the favor of his people and live in the belief that they love him even though that myth is being quickly exposed to the outside world. What it reveals is that this man, like most dictators, seem to be more like spoiled children deeply in need of the approval and support of others. When they don’t get it or they are embarrassed they can lash out in very violent and dangerous ways.

Luke has already been drawing a contrast between King Herod Agrippa I and Jesus, the Messiah, the one whom his followers were claiming to be the true King of the entire world. During the Passover week the people of Jesus were preparing to celebrate the ways in which God had freed them from the slavery of sin and truly brought blessing into their lives. He did this not through violence or coercion but through the death and suffering of the Messiah himself. But Herod was a stark contrast to this. He gained and kept power through political maneuvers, violence, intrigue, and any other necessary means. Rather than celebrating God’s deliverance during Passover, Herod observed the holiday by imprisoning Peter and seeking to crush the very movement of God’s people that was designed to be the true fulfillment of the promise of Passover.

Now in Herod’s prison cell, where he had locked Peter away, the power of these two kings would come to a showdown. Who was truly in control and sovereign? Whose way of doing things would win out? Whose power would truly last? Would the prayer of the Christian community be able to overcome the power and force behind Herod’s rule? These are all valid questions that will be addressed in one strange and miraculous incident.

As we pick up in verse 6, Luke has moved ahead to the night before Herod would bring Peter to trial and have him executed, something that usually happened on the same day. Remarkably, Peter was so at peace and so comfortable with his trust in God that he was deep asleep. There seems to have been absolutely no worry on the part of Peter. Surely he reasoned that either God would rescue him somehow or that he would die like James and go to be with Christ. This was a no lose situation for him. It was as Paul would write in his letter to the Philippians, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). If Peter were rescued he would continue to boldly serve God and preach the good news but if he died, then that would be fine too because his work was done and he could finish the race with a clear conscience. So he slept soundly.

Herod was clearly taking no chances by having Peter chained to to soldiers and guarded by sentries at the entrance. Herod was making sure that there would be no great escapes, miraculous or otherwise. He was not about to lose his great prize and miss out on the chance of further cementing his popularity with his people.

Deep in the middle of the night when people just start to reach the deepest reaches of sleep, Peter was startled back to the world of the awakened by a sharp jab in the side. The angel told Peter to grab his stuff and follow him. They would not be coming back and he surely didn’t want to catch a chill in the middle of the night. Peter was so unprepared for this and so startled that it took him a few moments to fully wake up and realize that this was for real. This was no mere vision or dream. God had chosen to hear the prayers of the faithful believers who were petitioning God for Peter’s release. God had no doubt planned for Peter to be released all along but as the believers prayed humbly for God’s will to be revealed, they were allowed to be part of God’s plan. It was not yet Peter’s time to depart and be with the Lord.

At each point, it is clear that Luke is driving home the point that this angelic release was nothing short of supernatural. The chains fell off of Peter’s wrists without so much as disturbing the soldier on either side of him. They went through several guards, doors, and the outer gate without disturbing anyone, culminating in that large iron outer gate swinging open all by itself. If he hadn’t already been convinced that this was a miraculous escape, the gate swinging open by itself must have cemented that reality in Peter’s mind.

Then in the blink of an eye, the angel was gone. I’m sure Peter’s heart was racing by this point, but he needed to think clearly. First he needed to realize that this was the Lord that was at work. It was the Lord’s angel who had rescued him from Herod’s foolish clutches. Herod and his supporters wanted to put Peter to death which might have made Peter begin to question whether he was doing the right thing. Normally you might think that going to prison would make someone question the rightness of their cause all the more but his imprisonment and subsequent release had been used by God to bring even more clarity to Peter. God had opposed the desires of the Jewish people and Herod who wanted Peter dead. Peter had more work to do. Now that he realized that this was none other than the work of God, Peter continued to shake out the cobwebs and determine what must be done next.

He quickly decided that he must go to the the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother, where many Christians, perhaps Peter’s own house church, had gathered to pray for Peter’s deliverance. In the midst of these harrowing and very real events, Luke brings a bit of sly humor that has the ring much more of a true event as opposed to manufactured myth.

When Peter arrived and knocked on the door, the fulfillment of the very thing that the believers were praying for, a servant girl named Rhoda was so filled with joy that she literally left Peter out standing in the cold. We should not miss the details here that this seemingly insignificant servant girl was not only described as being overjoyed but also that she was named by Luke. Both details add up to the strong probability that she was a believer and a sister in the community. It’s further proof that this movement was a family that was open to all, whether they were rich and powerful or lowly servants. She was just as much a member of the family as anyone else.

When she ran back to tell the others, they thought she was out of her mind. There’s a humorous irony in that she went back to tell them the very thing that they were praying for, but that they didn’t believe her. It’s somehow comforting, though, to know that the early Christians could be just as full of faith and clarity at some times while struggling with doubt, confusion, or muddled thought at other time, just as we can surely be. Someone, in their confusion, threw out the idea that perhaps it was Peter’s angel. This was probably a vestige of a sometimes held Jewish belief that people had guardian angels that sometimes looked much like the person themselves. That belief was more of a Jewish superstition than it was solid theology or Luke’s endorsement of that belief (the early Christians still had things that they needed to work through and grow in their understanding just like we do), and Luke’s recording of it is another of those small details in this passage that give it the ring of truth.

After finally being let in and telling them all that had happened Luke tells us that Peter told them to inform James and the other brothers and then “left for another place.” Peter no doubt knew that he would be a wanted man in the morning and didn’t want to bring any other danger onto the other believers, as well as likely realizing that God had further work for him to do and knowing that he should get to safety so that he could carry that work on. Luke doesn’t tell us where he went and it is likely that Peter “disappeared” so well that no one knew for sure where he had gone, including Luke.

When the morning dawned, chaos ensued. No one could understand what had become of Peter. Herod furiously searched for him, no doubt finding this a major embarrassment. What was supposed to be his great moment of further endearing himself to the people and increasing his stature was about to blow up in his face. His response looked much more like a petulant child throwing a fit than a mature king leading wisely. The guards bore no fault in this situation but someone had to pay for this in Herod’s mind so he had them killed. He would certainly not open us mind to the idea that he his true opponent was God not Peter and the Christian community and that his true need was repentance and not public popularity. It also seems, according to the text, that Herod left Judea to go to Caesarea, quite possibly to escape the scrutiny and embarrassment of this situation. People do strange things when what men think of them becomes more important than what God knows of them.


Devotional Thought
What is more important to you? Is it what other people think of you or what God knows of you? Are you truly determined to live a life of honesty, confession, and integrity despite what other people might think so that you can stand blameless before God?