The Escape - Acts 12:3-11

Herod Agrippa feels that his execution of James was so successful in making him popular among the Jews at Jerusalem, that he sets his eyes on a bigger prize. James was probably more of a nuisance to the people than Peter was, because Peter was probably traveling more, and bore more responsibility as president of the church. James probably had more time at home to preach the gospel and his zeal helped people really get irritated with him about it. So if James’ execution had backfired on Herod, at minimum the people could think, “well at least it’s quiet now.” James is a good test subject, because if the people end up being angry, James was probably considered a minor player in the Christian game. But since Herod saw the positivity from the people that came with James’ execution, he decides to snatch up Peter and plans to execute him in a public display so that he can get all the praise and glory that comes with it. My guess is that Peter’s capture and planned execution is probably a relatively well known, because Herod would want to have as much attention for as long as possible.

With Peter arrested, Herod wasn’t going to take any chances that one of the Christians would break him out of prison, so he put “four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.” This is four squads of four soldiers each, so 16 Roman soldiers are guarding Peter. The night before Herod was to make the execution, Peter was sleeping “between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.” So Peter is restrained by two chains, with a soldier on either side of him, presumably awake, with at least two guards outside of the cell.
While Peter is sleeping, “the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shone in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And the chains fell off from his hands.” This is all going on while the guards are supposed to be awake and watching Peter, so it would be interesting to know if they were put to sleep by the angel or if they are just watching all this and unable to do anything about it. The angel tells Peter to gird up his loins and put on his shoes and “cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.” Peter obeys the angel, even though he’s not exactly sure what’s going on, and that’s fair, he was facing his own mortality only moments before, which begs the question how he was feeling about his imminent execution if he was able to sleep the night before.
Peter is following the angel past the first and second “ward” which I think means gate, then the city “iron gate” “opened to them of his own accord” and they left the city and the angel “departed from him.” When he finally got some distance between himself and the prison, he was able to collect his thoughts and realize “now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectations of the people of the Jews,” which probably means the expected execution he was facing.
This miraculous rescue brings up a couple of questions. First, why was James murdered and Peter saved? Doesn’t Jesus love them both the same? Didn’t they both have work to do for the kingdom? The IM says, “James was killed by Herod’s order, but Peter was rescued from prison by an angel sent from God. Some might wonder why the Lord did not save them both. While we do not always know answers to such questions, we do know that if we are faithful, the Lord’s purposes will be accomplished in our lives. We also know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, no blessing will be withheld from us in eternity.” This is applicable in so many aspects of our lives, the “why me and not them?” or the “why them and not me?” Why did she get married and I didn’t, or why did my son die in the war when he was just as righteous, if not more, than this kid who lived? Why did I get cancer and they didn’t or why is my child disabled and his isn’t? There is so much of this that really, in all these circumstances we have to say the same thing as we do here, “we don’t know why things happen the way they do, but we have to remember that if we are righteous, we will not die any earlier than is God’s will, and we will have all the blessings we are entitled to, in this life or the next.”
The second question that comes up is, why save Peter at all? Why not let him be a martyr just like James? There is an excellent article called “Execution, Escape, and Eaten by Worms” by John Piper that I found on desiringgod.org that discusses Acts chapter 12 in depth and gives some excellent insight. Piper suggests that this chapter isn’t about James and Peter at all, but instead if “about God and Herod” and illustrates Jesus’ teaching that “He who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Piper notes that Peter is “Herod’s prize prisoner” and that God took him “right from under (Herod’s) nose and frustrating his desire to get more political boost with Peter’s blood… So God sends his angel to show Herod that not even with four squads of soldiers can he keep the one God decides to free.”
Would Herod possibly come to the conclusion that God just loves Peter more than James? Piper continues, “The Lord rescued Peter from Herod. The Lord showed Herod who was more powerful. The Lord showed Herod and the church and us today that when James was martyred just days before, it was NOT because the Lord couldn’t save him. It was not because he was weak or incompetent. It was because, among other reasons, Jesus had said to James, ‘the cup that I drink you also will drink.’ Some bear witness through death, others through life. God can release and God can sustain and empower in martyrdom.”
Peter’s work in the church clearly isn’t done, so it is not Peter’s time to die. But why have him be arrested at all? Why not just warn him in a dream to leave the city to avoid Herod? Assuming that the public already knew that Peter was arrested and going to be executed the next day, imagine all those who gathered to see it, standing there, waiting for Peter to come out, only he doesn’t come out, ever, and they have to ask themselves why. I would imagine that Herod used the opportunity to execute the guards who were supposed to be watching Peter when he escaped. It was impossible for them to stop the angel from taking Peter, so they couldn’t have stopped it, but I doubt that Herod would have accepted the “an angel took Peter and we couldn’t do anything to stop it” as a valid argument. There is no doubt in my mind, as soon as I read that he escaped under the guards’ watch, that they were immediately and graphically executed, even though they did nothing wrong.
Thinking about those soldiers and the question that I asked earlier, whether or not they saw what was happening or if they were just put under a deep sleep, I had some thoughts. If they were put under a deep sleep, then their execution would have been just because technically, they were sleeping on duty, which is a capital offense, even if the sleep wasn’t their fault. But when they got to the spirit world, they wouldn’t have any advantage in accepting what happened to them. But if they were able to see what was happening and just not able to do anything about it, then after they were executed, they would have been able to go to the spirit world seeking answers, like “what the heck happened?” and maybe it would have helped them accept the gospel themselves. Anyways, just a thought.
The third question is why not save both James and Peter? Why let one die and miraculously save the other? Surely this would make sense because James could have done more work to spread the gospel on the earth if he had lived. I have two thoughts on this personally, then we will talk about Piper’s thoughts on it as well, because they are very powerful. My first thought is that if the Savior would have miraculously released James from Herod’s prison and let him live, it could have been seen as “when you are righteous nothing bad will happen to you” and we know that that’s not the case. If we were to believe that logic, then being righteous wouldn’t be about faith, it would be about risk management. If we could always count on a miracle to save us from anything difficult or uncomfortable, then wouldn’t we rely on God for ease and not for healing? It would be about training, not faith. And we know that we are made stronger through trials, but if we are spared those trials simply because we are righteous, then we forfeit the opportunity to grow closer to God and become spiritually stronger.
My second thought about why God allowed James to die but not Peter is that if we look at the logic of “James could have furthered the work of the church I he had lived” we also have to remember that the work of salvation is not confined to this mortality. John the Baptist had to die before Jesus so that he could prepare the spirits in the spirit world to receive the Savior when he got there, and this might be a similar event. When Jesus died, he established and organized the church and the missionary efforts in the spirit world. It stands to reason that if John the Baptist’s earthly mission was cut short because of the work he needed to do on the other side, then surely that might have been James’ situation as well. Maybe James was needed to organize the spirits who were accepting the gospel, maybe he was to participate in the leadership of the newly converted spirits. Just because he could have done more work on the earth if he had been allowed to terry, doesn’t mean that he didn’t have any work to do on the other side.
As far as why James was allowed to die, Piper suggests that it might be because of the power of martyrdom. He says, “it isn’t as though God fumbled the ball with James and scored a touchdown with Peter. God never fumbles the ball. If he turns it over to the other side for a few downs, it’s because he knows a better way to win.” There was no mistake in James’ death, just like there was no mistake in Peter’s miracle. He reminds us of Paul’s statement, “Most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear.” Piper explains, “In other words the suffering of Christian martyrs has a powerful spiritual effect on those who live. It puts us face to face with eternity. It shows the reality of faith. It strips away the petty pursuits and the trivial anxieties in our lives. And it fires us with the same zeal.
“Terullian, the Christian defender of the faith who died in 225, said to his enemies, ‘We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is (the) seed (of the church).’ And Jerome said about 100 years later, ‘The church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it.” When faced with the ultimate sacrifice, those who are not that committed to the cause will flee from it, and those who view it as a tribute to God accept their fate and take their chances. So sooner or later, you end up with a small but intensely dedicated group of people who are able to take the gospel to any length, to fulfill any of God’s commands, and testify of the gospel of Christ with power and conviction to the hearts of those who are ready to receive it.
I watched a movie once about Jesuit priests in 17^th century Japan where any Christian was executed. It got to the point where the Japanese government stopped killing the Christian missionaries who came to Japan because it was empowering the people in the Christian cause. What they started to do instead was kill the Japanese converts to try and get the missionaries to apostatize, and it didn’t work. When someone is willing to suffer for a cause, then that cause is given strength and legitimacy by those efforts. When someone is willing to die for a cause, then it gives courage to all the others to preserver in the face of persecution, to remain steadfast and strong in the cause regardless of what happens. And it reminds the believers that the absolute worst thing they can do to you for your beliefs is kill you, in which case you will receive treasure in heaven. This demonstrates the limits of the devil’s power and the limitlessness of God’s.