God is in the business of surprising His saints. If we give our Lord half a chance, we will be amazed by His Acts on our behalf. In Acts 12, we have the enchanting story of Peter being miraculously freed from prison by an angel and surprising a praying church that in effect expected little and got a lot. Another of the evil Herods, actually a grandson of the Herod who reigned when Christ was born, was busy “preserving” the infamous family name. This Herod was courting favor with the Jewish authorities as a way of making his rule secure, and so he had James, the brother of John, executed. That drew rave reviews from his Jewish critics, so it seemed like a natural thing for this Herod to now arrest Peter and have him put away under heavy guard until he, too, would be executed as soon as Passover had been celebrated.
I have remarked before that it is ironic that on the holiest of Jewish commemorations, horrific crimes in the name of God had been committed with the worst case being the crucifixion of Jesus. Now the one whom Jesus had nick-named “Rocky” was being held over for execution. But God had other plans. He always does. Although James had been martyred, God was about to rescue Peter. And on the night before he was to be executed. Peter didn’t seem to be all that upset, because the angel needed to awake him and practically dress him but even then Peter was still only half awake. It reminds me of Peter’s great Lord who was sound asleep in the “belly” of a boat while all hell had broken loose as a storm was raging on the sea of Galilee. (Mark 4:35-41). Anyway, Peter is led out of the prison compound and is on his way probably in the middle of the night on a deserted street. By then he is fully awake and instead of rushing out of town he is making his way toward the praying church which was having an “all nighter” on behalf of their beloved brother and apostle. Where have all the “all nighters” gone?
Peter reaches the courtyard of Barnabas’ aunts’ home, where the future writer of the gospel of Mark also lived, and starts banging on the door. The maid comes and in her astonishment leaves Peter hanging or is it knocking, while she hurries into the interior to bring her amazing news to a very concerned church. Her good news is met with skepticism and sarcasm, the usual lot of any woman who rushes in with incredulous news-you remember how the women who rushed to the apostles with news of Jesus resurrection, were met with the same reaction. But, Peter finally straitens everybody out and then decides to make his getaway out of town before he is apprehended by the authorities who would be looking for him.
We learn much from this narrative. But I will just mention this here. The church did not feel very confident about Peter’s future after James was killed and Peter was captured. They had witnessed many miracles including a prior release for Peter and John, but Stephen’s martyrdom (Acts 7) and then James death may have unnerved them. But what is so instructive about this incident is that this group of saints, though not sure at all about Peter’s future, nevertheless, met and prayed fervently not so much for his release but that he would be strengthened. Their faith was suspect but their faithfulness was NOT! They were obedient and on their knees. Not a bad place for us to be no matter how weak our faith may be.
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