Peter’s Escape
TRANSLATION
(1) At that time, King Herod treated those who belonged to the church with violence. (2) He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. (3) When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he had Peter seized as well. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. (4) After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him. He intended after Passover to bring him out for a public trial. (5) While Peter was being held in prison, the church was engaged in earnest prayer to God for him.
(6) The night before Herod planned to bring him out for trial, Peter was asleep between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries were guarding the prison doors. (7) Suddenly, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in his cell. The angel struck Peter on his side and woke him. He said, “Get up quickly,” and the chains fell from his hands. (8) The angel said to him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals,” and this he did. He then said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” (9) And Peter followed him out. He didn’t know if what the angel was doing was really happening but thought it might be a vision. (10) Once they had passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city. This opened for them on its own, and they went outside. After they had walked the length of one street, the angel suddenly left him. (11) When Peter was fully awake, he thought, “Now I know for sure that the Lord sent his angel to deliver me from Herod’s power and from everything the Jews were hoping would happen.”
(12) When this occurred to him, he proceeded to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name is Mark. There many had gathered and were praying. (13) When he knocked on the door of the gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. (14) When she recognized Peter’s voice, she failed to open the gate in her joy but instead ran inside and reported that Peter stood at the gate. (15) They said to her, “You’re out of your mind!” But when she kept on insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” (16) But Peter kept on knocking. When they finally opened the gate and saw him, they were amazed. (17) Motioning to them with his hand to be quiet, he told them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. Then he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” He then left them and went to another place.
(18) In the morning, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers over what had happened to Peter. (19) When Herod searched for him and did not find him, he had the guards examined and then ordered their execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and remained there.
OBSERVATIONS
While Rhoda’s leaving Peter knocking at the gate should bring a smile to our faces, we need to realize that Herod’s hostility to the church was no laughing matter. The king, whose name was mentioned three times (vss. 1, 6, & 11), ordered the execution of James and the imprisonment of Peter, mentioned nine times (in vss. 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 16, & 18). Other repetitions included four uses of “prison” (vss. 4, 5, 6, & 17), two of “prayer/praying” (vss. 5 & 12), six of “angel” (vss. 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, & 15), two of “follow/followed” (vss. 8 & 9), and two of “knocked/knocking” (vss. 13 & 16).
OUTLINE
I. King Herod had James executed and Peter imprisoned. (1-5)
II. In response to the believers’ prayers, an angel miraculously freed Peter from prison. (6-11)
III. Peter’s unexpected release brought great joy to the believers who were praying for him. (12-17)
IV. Herod ordered that the soldiers who had guarded Peter be put to death. (18 & 19)
IDEA STATEMENT
While James was executed at the hands of King Herod, Peter was miraculously delivered from prison to continue his vital leadership ministry.
APPLICATION
While the execution of James at the hands of King Herod was a source of grief among the early believers in Jerusalem, Peter’s miraculous escape from prison just before he was about to face the same fate became an occasion for great rejoicing. In fact, the description of his escape contained several elements designed to bring a sense of comic relief to a church crushed by the loss of one of their most esteemed leaders. We cannot help but smile and even laugh as we read about Peter in prison, sleeping so soundly between two guards that the angel had to strike him to wake him up. We chuckle as we see him, outside the prison, slowly coming to realize that this experience was not a dream but actually a miracle of deliverance. Our final laugh is reserved for the description of Peter left outside in the dark while the servant girl, Rhoda, runs in her confusion to tell everyone just who was vigorously knocking. The irony of the believers earnestly praying and then struggling to believe that their prayers had been answered reminds us of our own tendencies to doubt the power of concerted prayer.
Why God’s will was for James to suffer martyrdom while Peter was kept alive is one of those imponderables that can give rise to a lot of fruitless speculation. Jesus anticipated such questions when he responded to Peter’s inquiry about John’s destiny with these words, “If it is my will that he remains until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” It is always good to remember Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 29: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever…” (Dt. 29:29).