PETER DELIVERED FROM PRISON.
-April 25.-Acts 12:5-17.-
“The angle of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth
them.”-Psalm 34:7.
FOLLOWING the history
of the early Church, we now come upon another period of persecution. The
former persecution seems to have passed by the principal ones of the Church
entirely. It manifested itself against ordinary believers rather than against
the apostles and public ministers. The result, as we have seen, was the spread
of the gospel by those who were “scattered abroad everywhere.” The persecution
now considered was directed against the apostles. Both persecutions were from
the adversary and his faithful, but were such only as God saw best to permit,
and such as would work out some good in connection with his plan.
During the reign of the Roman Emperor Caligula the Jews were kept in a
considerable ferment by reason of his repeated attempt to have his statue set
up in the temple, with altars for the worship of himself. While the Jews were
so busy in defending their own religious liberties, the infant Christian Church
was left comparatively unmolested; but now Caligula was dead, and a very
different personage was his successor, and the Jews having a respite from
troubles of their own, had good opportunity to cultivate their animosity
against the followers of the Nazarene. King Herod Agrippa, having been obliged
to cooperate with the Emperor’s plans, had made himself more or less obnox-ious
to his subjects, the Jews; and he now sought to conciliate them, by persecuting
the Christians. This Herod Agrippa was a worthy successor to his uncle, who
had murdered John the Baptist, and to his grand-father, Herod the Great, who
murdered the infants at Bethlehem. His first object was personal
aggrandize-ment and the perpetuation of his own family in the king-dom. His
public acts, on the one hand, were intend-ed to continue him in favor with the
Emperor at Rome, and on the other hand, to gain as much favor as possi-ble from
the people whom he ruled as king,-as repre-sentative of the Emperor.
The persecution began with the killing of the Apostle James. Seeing that
thereby he gained the favor of the Jews, Herod thought it the cheapest method
by which to regain popularity with his subjects and proceeded to take Peter
also. What a sad blow this must have been to the early Church! James and Peter
were apparently the principal leaders in the affairs of the Church at
Jerusalem, as they two with John, the brother of James, were the most prominent
amongst the apos-tles while our Lord lived. We can imagine the
conster-nation-James already dead, Peter seized and impris-oned and his
execution held over merely because it was the week of Passover, and because
according to Jewish custom no one could be put to death during that week. The
manifest, if not declared, intention of Herod was that Peter should be killed
in some manner immediate-ly after the close of the Passover week. Here we
pause to notice a strange commingling of religious formalism with the spirit of
murder: the spirit of murder was in Herod and in the Jews, yet both for the
time restrained themselves in order to symbolize by the Passover cere-monial a
cleansing of the heart and life, a purification toward God. There is a lesson
here (for all who will take it) to be on guard lest the outward and formal
ob-servances be an utter contradiction of the real condition of the heart.
While obedience to the Lord in outward observances is eminently proper, it is
still more impor-tant that the thoughts be pure and good.
By this time the number of Christians in Jerusa-lem was evidently considerable,
notwithstanding the number that had emigrated on account of persecution: and it
does not at all surprise us that we are informed that these everywhere were
praying to God on Peter’s behalf. There were evidently no church buildings in
use by the Christians up to this time: they gathered in convenient places, and
quite probably there were sev-eral of these in Jerusalem. The earnestness
of these prayers is evidenced by the fact that they were kept up all night, and
evidently for the entire week of Peter’s imprisonment; for he was
not delivered until the very last night, and, when delivered, it was some time
in the “fourth watch,” which began at three o’clock in the morning, and he was
knocking at the “gate” of Mary’s home, where prayer was being made, before
sunrise.-Verse 13.
We cannot know just why the Lord permitted the death of James and spared the
life of Peter; yet, doubt-less, both events exercised a beneficial influence
upon the Church. Possibly, indeed, there may have been growing in the Church a
lack of appreciation of these apostles whom the Lord had so highly honored as
his mouthpieces and channels for blessing the Church. The martyrdom of one
would cause his loss to be seriously realized, the imprisonment of the other
would and did draw forth the sympathy, love and appreciation of the whole
company; and after they had prayed so earnestly for his deliverance, we may be
sure that Peter was more than ever beloved by the Lord’s flock. At all events,
the death of one and the sparing of the other, we may be sure, were parts of
the all things that worked together for good to those who loved the Lord.
Meantime, Peter had been delivered to four quatern-ions of soldiers (i.e., four
relief guards of four soldiers each): two of these watched in the outer courts
of the prison, while two of them were chained to Peter in the cell. Thus,
seemingly, every precaution had been taken against his escape. He had been
delivered once before from the prison into which he had been thrust by the
Sanhedrin, but now he was under military guard, prob-ably in the Tower of
Antonio, and chained to soldiers who knew that under Roman usage his escape would
mean their death. The entire week had been spent in prayer on his behalf, yet
the Lord had not delivered him, and each day seemed to add to the earnestness
of the prayers, and to the necessity for the deliverance; yet knowing the
circumstance it was difficult to judge in which way the Lord’s providence would
be inter-posed on Peter’s behalf, if at all. Since the Lord had seen best to
permit the death of James, they must have reasoned that they could not be at
all certain that Peter would be delivered from death. How great and how
far-reaching were the blessings of that week of trial and of prayer, of drawing
near to the Lord and of realiza-tion of complete dependence upon him, we may
sur-mise. The Lord was pleased in his providence to spare Peter to the Church,
but he was also evidently pleased to be inquired of by the Church on this
subject.
However, even on the last night of his imprisonment, though he expected that
the next morning Herod would call for him to deliver him up to death,
notwith-standing all this, “Peter slept.” His noble, coura-geous heart was
fixed upon the Lord, he trusted in di-vine wisdom and divine power and divine
love, and was assured that nothing would be permitted to happen that would not
be in some manner overruled for good. Hence, committing his all to the Lord,
he was able to rest sweetly in sleep. Here was the appropriate order of
things: the one directly involved so sweetly resting in the Lord’s grace and
love that he was free from trouble and fear, while the Church in general,
though not so directly and personally concerned, were so full of loving
interest on behalf of a brother that they prayed without ceasing day and night
on his behalf. What they asked we are not told, but what they should ask under
such circumstances we may well know from our Lord’s own prayer (Matt.
26:39-42): whatever they asked, in propriety must have included the thought-and
the expression-Thy will, not ours, O Lord, be done.
When the angel awakened Peter, loosed his fet-ters, opened the strongly barred
gates of the prison and brought him forth into the street, he left him, having
accomplished his mission. Peter, amazed and bewil-dered, could scarcely
realize at first whether it was a reality or a vision; but as he got his senses
collected he comprehended that God had wrought for him another wonderful
deliverance from the hands of his enemies- Herod and the Jews. But he neither
went back to taunt the soldiers, nor was he filled with self-admira-tion and
self-confidence, so as to shout his deliverance on the way; but considering the
matter carefully he concluded that his proper course would be flight to some
other city, as the Lord had directed, saying, “When they shall persecute you in
one city flee to another.” But as a true under-shepherd he had too deep an
interest in the Lord’s people who were so earnestly praying for him, to leave
them without some explana-tion: so, going to the house of one of the friends of
the cause, he communicated to them the fact of his release, sent word to the
leaders of the cause in the city -“James, and the brethren”-and then fled to
another place. This James was the brother of our Lord, while the James who had
been killed was the Apostle, the brother of John. The fact that James and the
promi-nent brethren were not at the house of Mary and her son John-Mark would
seem to corroborate the thought that the meeting at the latter place was only
one of many in Jerusalem.
The narrative of Peter’s knocking at the door and the interruption of the
prayer meeting, with the an-nouncement of the answer of the prayers in a most
remarkable manner, is all told with a beautiful simplic-ity, and indicates to
us the loving spirit of fellowship and brotherhood which existed in the early
Church.
The Golden Text carries a great lesson of its own in connection with Peter’s
deliverance. The Scriptures give us clearly to understand that the angels of
God are “ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs
of salvation.” (Heb. 1:14.) Very seldom have they been manifested to any as in
this re-corded instance; yet they are present as the represent-atives of the
Lord to do any needed work for us accord-ing to his will. But we are to
understand that the angel of the Lord was with James who was killed, as truly
as with Peter who was delivered; and that the deliverance of God’s people is
not always such as can be appreciated by the natural senses. Sometimes the
angel of the Lord is present with us and grants sus-taining strength to endure
a trial from which we are not delivered. Such was our Lord’s case: we read
that an angel appeared unto him and strengthened him. Such was probably the
ministration of angels to James in his time of sore distress, when his life was
yielded up to a murderer. Such also have been the experiences of many: the
angel of the Lord has stood with them and has strengthened where he was not
authorized to deliver. It is recorded that many Christian mar-tyrs were so
upheld and blessed, that even in the midst of persecution, torture and flames,
they were able to sing praises to the Lord. It is related of Bishop
Latimer that when bound to the stake he said to Bishop Ridley, speaking with
great equanim-ity respecting his own suffering, “We shall light such a candle,
by God’s grace, in England this day, as I trust shall never be put out again.”
How it enlarges the confidence of a Christian to
realize that whilst earthly powers may be in opposition, and whilst he may be
really of himself powerless to re-sist adversaries, and whilst in addition to
the flesh and blood adversaries he may realize that he battles also with
spiritual wickedness in exalted places-against Satan and his minions of
darkness-yet that, on the other hand, “greater is he that is on our part than
all that be against us,” and that all the heavenly hosts are subject to the
divine will and may be employed for the advancement of the divine cause
according to di-vine wisdom.