“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”
James 4:7–8
The normally clanging prison gates silently opened as an angel whisked past sixteen sleeping guards to find Peter in a peaceful sleep.1 James had already been martyred, and Peter thought he was next on the list. Even so, his heart was calm and trustful, knowing that his next view would be the sight of his beloved Jesus.
Even at Christ’s death, Peter thought only about Peter and denied his Lord, just as Jesus said He would. Peter’s wake-up call came when the rooster crowed early that morning. Realizing his weakness, he submitted his heart to his Savior. After Pentecost, God drew near to His energetic apostle so that he could wield such powerful messages. Using Peter, 3,000 souls became Christians in one day.2 Now the disciple was facing a death sentence for preaching and calling people to allow their hearts to be purified of wretchedness. Still, he fell asleep in a tranquil rest, knowing he had done his best for his Master.
The brightness of the angel awoke no one, and the angel urgently shook Peter: “Arise up quickly.”3 The chains that bound his wrists clattered to the floor.
Even amidst the ruckus of rousting Peter from his slumber, the prison guards continued to sleep unconsciously. “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.”4 Peter was having a Psalm 34:7 experience: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them” (NASB).
In a hazy brain fog, Peter did as he was ordered. As the pair passed the comatose guards, the normally rackety iron gates swung open noiselessly. On the street, the angel vanished. When Peter came to his senses, he realized that he was on the very road he would have walked on to his death the next morning. God still had a work for Peter to do, so He rescued His boisterous apostle, using a ministering angel.
The angel’s work was not yet complete, however. Herod had commissioned Peter’s death to please the Jews. They had been thrilled with the death of James, and he wanted to continue to make them happy.
"Herod Agrippa … was professedly a proselyte to the Jewish faith, and apparently very zealous in carrying out the ceremonies of the Jewish law. Desirous of obtaining the favor of the Jews, hoping thus to make secure his offices and honors, he proceeded to carry out their desires by persecuting the church of Christ, spoiling the houses and goods of the believers, and imprisoning the leading members of the church."5
On the morning that was to be Peter’s execution, a mass of people gathered to be entertained by his execution. “Herod sent officers to the prison for Peter, who was to be brought with a great display of arms and guards in order not only to ensure against his escape, but to intimidate all sympathizers and to show the power of the king.”6 The guards to whom Peter was secured were still wearing the chains, but there was no prisoner to be found.
The guards knew their lives were at stake if Peter escaped, so they had been extra diligent in isolating him deep in the dungeon caverns. Herod knew that the only possible means of Peter’s liberation was heavenly, but that security detail still met with their demise.
A short time later, King Herod left Judea and traveled to Caesarea. There, he organized a great party for himself because he wanted the people’s admiration and applause for his leadership.
"With great pomp and ceremony Herod appeared before the people and addressed them in an eloquent oration. Clad in a robe sparkling with silver and gold, which caught the rays of the sun in its glittering folds and dazzled the eyes of the beholders, he was a gorgeous figure. The majesty of his appearance and the force of his well-chosen language swayed the assembly with a mighty power."7
The people were enamored with Herod, and they worshiped him as a god shouting, “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.”8 Some of these same people had cried “Crucify Him” at Jesus’ crucifixion. Herod, though he knew he did not deserve the praise, accepted the worship of the Jews.
At the moment Herod embraced his perceived triumph, the angel invisibly entered the arena. There he dispensed the judgment of heaven on Herod, and the people witnessed the annihilation of the man to whom they had given their adulation. They saw a very different death sentence: excruciating pain delivered by flesh-eating worms.
Call to Action
Ultimately Peter did die a martyr’s death, but that only happened in God’s timing. God had a plan for Peter’s life and rescued him because He still had a work only Peter could do.
God has a plan for your life too. He created you uniquely for a purpose. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”9 God will protect and lead you just as He did Peter. We are not promised that life will be easy, but we are promised “a future and a hope,” which will be to live with Christ in glory for eternity. We may be rescued; we may be martyred, but if we are surrendered, we will see our Savior face to face.
How about you? Will you adhere to God’s leading in your life and carry out the plan He has for you whether you are preserved for further use or you are asked to lay down your life for your Master?
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture taken from the King James Version.
- See Acts 12:1–23.
- See Acts 2:41.
- Acts 12:7 KJV.
- Acts 12:8 ESV.
- Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, California: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1911), 143.
- Ibid., 149.
- Ibid., 150.
- Acts 12:22 KJV.
- Jeremiah 29:11 ESV.
