Act 12:5-17 | KingComments | STEP | In the following verses, Luke draws attention once more to Peter before he disappears from the stage in Acts except for one more performance in Acts 15. The Jews have not yet lost any of their hatred of Christians. They welcomed the death of James. When Herod notices this, he wants to take political advantage of it. In order to be even more favorable to the Jews, he continues his campaign of purification. He then arrests Peter, which is the third time he is arrested. Just like Pilate, Herod also acts with the favor of the people in mind. Common feelings of hatred bring Herod and the Jews together. The hatred of the Jews concerns the worship of the Lord Jesus as God. According to them, this is apostasy from God, because to them He is only a human being and the worship of a human being is punishable by death. Because of the feast, the execution does not take place immediately. The reference to the days of Unleavened Bread means that the Passover was celebrated. It was a reminder of the time when the people were under foreign domination, but from which God delivered His people. Here the Christian people of God are oppressed by political power, as will be the case in the end times with the faithful remnant. But just as God delivered His people at the time so that they might serve Him, so He is delivering His own now and in the future. In all times political powers have tried to prevent the serving of God. In this case of Peter, Herod leaves nothing to chance. He will certainly have heard of the previous imprisonments of Peter and how he has been delivered from them twice. That will not happen to him. So he will keep those weak Christians with his security measures from plans to deliver Peter. Only, the question is not what Herod is doing. What matters is what God can do. Herod’s security measures are firm. Peter is guarded by four squads of soldiers. That means that he is guarded by four men every three hours, to the four periods of three hours in which the night is divided. Two soldiers of each squad are chained to Peter and two soldiers are on guard at the door. So the guarding is all right. But there is a battle going on in another area that nullifies all security measures of any kind. That is the battle of prayer. This is what the church is involved in. The church has come into being in an atmosphere of prayer ( ) and persists in this attitude. The postponement of the execution of Peter is used by the church to pray for him. This is indeed what may be called a prayer meeting! The imprisonment of Peter, with the terrifying death of James still fresh in memory, drives the church to fervent prayer. The power of prayer is greater than the power of Herod, yes, than the power of hell. Several days are spent in prayer with only one subject: Peter. It is a fervent communal prayer, it is addressed to God and it is a concrete prayer: for Peter ( ; ). An initial effect of the prayer can be seen in the peace Peter has. While he knows what Herod intends to do with him, he is not restless, but asleep. This sleep is a victory of faith. He sleeps the sleep of the righteous. On the one hand he knows what happened to his good friend James. On the other hand he has the experience that the Lord has delivered him from prison before. He has put everything in the hand of the Lord. What He decides is good and that gives him the rest to sleep. He has slept at times where he had to remain awake, such as at the transfiguration of the Lord on the mountain ( ) and at the Lord’s prayer in Gethsemane ( ), but now he sleeps in peace ( ).

‏ Acts 12:5-17

Peter Arrested

In the following verses, Luke draws attention once more to Peter before he disappears from the stage in Acts except for one more performance in Acts 15. The Jews have not yet lost any of their hatred of Christians. They welcomed the death of James. When Herod notices this, he wants to take political advantage of it. In order to be even more favorable to the Jews, he continues his campaign of purification. He then arrests Peter, which is the third time he is arrested.

Just like Pilate, Herod also acts with the favor of the people in mind. Common feelings of hatred bring Herod and the Jews together. The hatred of the Jews concerns the worship of the Lord Jesus as God. According to them, this is apostasy from God, because to them He is only a human being and the worship of a human being is punishable by death.

Because of the feast, the execution does not take place immediately. The reference to the days of Unleavened Bread means that the Passover was celebrated. It was a reminder of the time when the people were under foreign domination, but from which God delivered His people. Here the Christian people of God are oppressed by political power, as will be the case in the end times with the faithful remnant. But just as God delivered His people at the time so that they might serve Him, so He is delivering His own now and in the future. In all times political powers have tried to prevent the serving of God.

In this case of Peter, Herod leaves nothing to chance. He will certainly have heard of the previous imprisonments of Peter and how he has been delivered from them twice. That will not happen to him. So he will keep those weak Christians with his security measures from plans to deliver Peter. Only, the question is not what Herod is doing. What matters is what God can do.

Herod’s security measures are firm. Peter is guarded by four squads of soldiers. That means that he is guarded by four men every three hours, to the four periods of three hours in which the night is divided. Two soldiers of each squad are chained to Peter and two soldiers are on guard at the door. So the guarding is all right.

But there is a battle going on in another area that nullifies all security measures of any kind. That is the battle of prayer. This is what the church is involved in. The church has come into being in an atmosphere of prayer (Acts 1:14 ; Acts 2:42) and persists in this attitude. The postponement of the execution of Peter is used by the church to pray for him.

This is indeed what may be called a prayer meeting! The imprisonment of Peter, with the terrifying death of James still fresh in memory, drives the church to fervent prayer. The power of prayer is greater than the power of Herod, yes, than the power of hell. Several days are spent in prayer with only one subject: Peter. It is a fervent communal prayer, it is addressed to God and it is a concrete prayer: for Peter (Heb 13:3; Rev 5:8).

An initial effect of the prayer can be seen in the peace Peter has. While he knows what Herod intends to do with him, he is not restless, but asleep. This sleep is a victory of faith. He sleeps the sleep of the righteous. On the one hand he knows what happened to his good friend James. On the other hand he has the experience that the Lord has delivered him from prison before. He has put everything in the hand of the Lord. What He decides is good and that gives him the rest to sleep. He has slept at times where he had to remain awake, such as at the transfiguration of the Lord on the mountain (Lk 9:32) and at the Lord’s prayer in Gethsemane (Mt 26:40), but now he sleeps in peace (Psa 4:8 ; Psa 3:5-6).

Peter Delivered

While Luke, in Acts 12:6, has once again drawn attention to how firm the guarding of Peter is, we now see how the Lord is mocking it. He sends one of His angels to the prison cell in which Peter is sleeping. With the angel He brings heavenly light there. Peter doesn’t wake up because of it, so the angel has to strike him (cf. 1Kgs 19:5).

Then he gets the command to get up “quickly”. The fact of the supernatural deliverance doesn’t mean that Peter doesn’t have to do the necessary things himself and also do it quickly. God has set a certain time for deliverance and within that time it must happen. God’s intervention and what man has to do coincide here again.

To enable the quick rise, the chains fall from his hands. The chains are not a problem to God, just like closed doors or tombs. The falling off of the chains will be accompanied by noise. We can assume that the guards have been put into a deep sleep by God. Just as the guards who had to guard the tomb of the Lord Jesus were put aside, so these guard are put aside by God. There, at the appearance of an angel, the guards “became like dead men” (Mt 28:4). Here, they notice nothing about it. God treats them as if they were not there. They do not wake up from the light or the noise.

The angel then gives Peter practical directions for his escape. The angel has unfastened the chains, but he must put on his sandals himself and also wrap his cloak around himself. To put on his sandals he has to bend down and after that he can walk. Wouldn’t Peter, every time he put on his sandals afterward, often be reminded of this extraordinary deliverance? Wouldn’t his trust in the Lord be encouraged by it?

Peter does what the angel says and follows him outside. That is all he has to do at that moment. He experiences it as if he is dreaming. This is a reminder of the experience the faithful remnant will also have when they are delivered by the Lord from the greatest need in the last days (Psa 126:1).

On his way to freedom, following the angel, they pass two guards without them sounding the alarm. The iron gate that forms a final hindrance to freedom opens by itself, that is, God’s mighty arm opens the way to freedom. When they have passed through it, they are in the city. The angel goes on one more street and then his service is over. He disappears without saying anything else and returns to heaven to stand before the Lord, ready to be sent out for the next service.

So now Peter stands there alone. Then he comes to himself. He realizes that he is free and that nothing of Herod’s expectations or those of the people of the Jews will come to pass (cf. Rom 15:30-31). We see that Peter is also aware of the close connection between these enemies of Christendom. As said, this close connection between Herod and the people of the Jews is a type of the connection between the antichrist and the apostate mass of the Jewish people in the end time. His deliverance does not make him careless. He knows he has to leave that place.

Now that we have before us the death of James and the deliverance of Peter, the question arises: Why is James killed and why is Peter delivered from prison? These questions arise, but cannot be answered by us. These are God’s ways of government that we cannot fathom. Here it suits us to fully trust God that He is not mistaken.

Peter Goes to the Church

Now that he is free, he knows where to go. He knows that the believers come together in the house of Mary, who is further referred to as the mother of John who was also called Mark. Of John Mark we will hear more. Regarding the meeting that was held there, we see that “many were gathered together”. No one will have been missing due to lack of interest. The pressure from outside drives the believers toward each other and together they seek the presence of God.

The fact that there are many does not mean that the whole church is there. After all, we read further on that Peter sends the message of his deliverance to James and the brothers (Acts 12:17). Apparently they are not there.

When Peter arrives at the house of Mary, he must as usual knock on the door. That door does not open automatically for him like the door of the prison. On his knocking a servant-girl comes forward. Luke mentions her name. Her name is Rhoda. He says nothing about her age, but it is clear that this girl has an important task in the church. She is expected to know those who want to enter and to warn if someone presents himself of whom she suspects he comes with impure motives. She is a real servant of the church.

Peter has apparently not only knocked, but also called softly, because she recognizes his voice. This also indicates her great interest in the things of the Lord. She will have heard him speak often. Earlier Peter was also recognized by a maidservant, but on that occasion he did not want to be recognized and denied his Lord (Lk 22:56).

In her enthusiasm for the appearance of Peter, she ran inside to tell that Peter was standing in the front of the gate, forgetting to open it. This forgetfulness gives rise to the manifestation of the unbelief of the church. Although Peter has been rescued by Divine intervention before (Acts 5:19), they do not believe that what Rhoda says is true.

We do not have to blame them, because how many times do we doubt, while the answer is already at the door. At the same time, their reaction makes it clear that wondrous deliverances and works of power at that time are generally not everyday events. The life of the believer is not a sequence of all kinds of wondrous events that deliver him from difficult situations or from annoying diseases.

In their reaction they first say that Rhoda is out of her mind. But Rhoda is not brought into doubt. She assures the believers that it is really Peter who is in front of the gate, but the believers don’t want to believe it. Then, they say, it must be his angel. By this they do not mean his guardian angel, but that his spirit has shown itself to her, that is to say that she has heard a supernatural being representing Peter. From the Old Testament they are familiar with the idea that angels can appear to people. Angels have a protective, guarding and serving function (Psa 91:11-12; Heb 1:14).

While all this takes place inside, Peter continues knocking. When they have all come to the gate and opened it, they see him. They can’t believe their eyes and are amazed. They have probably been more impressed by the power of Herod than by the power of God. They will have fired their questions at him.

Peter calms them by motioning to them with his hand to be silent, apparently without raising his voice. His deliverance does not make him careless. He exhorts them to silence. The noise they make carries far in the silence of the night and could betray where he is. He tells them how his deliverance happened. Not an angel gets the honor of his deliverance, but the Lord.

He asks them to report his deliverance to James and the brothers who will surely have prayed as well and will be curious about the outcome. He calls James especially, probably because together with him he is responsible for the church in Jerusalem. This James is the brother of the Lord (Mk 6:3) of whom we read further on that he is a leader in the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13 ; Acts 21:18). Paul acknowledges James, together with Peter and John, as one of the three pillars of the church (Gal 2:9).

After his deliverance, Peter does not go back into the city as in Acts 5 (Acts 5:20), but he goes to another place. Luke does not tell which place that is. With that, the history of Peter is almost over. In Acts 15 he comes back in this Bible book for a while. We read nothing more about where and how he worked. The roman-catholic church says that he went to Rome to start a forty-five year reign as pope. Of course that is nothing more than a foolish thought. The departure of Peter takes place around the year 44. He writes his letters in the mid-60s.