This is one of those really difficult passages. We have to believe that Peter could get out of jail. It’s implied that Herod was going to kill him as he had James. Peter thought he was dreaming.
The believers thought Rhoda was nuts. But he had been released by the power of God.
1About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. 2He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. 3After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the festival of Unleavened Bread.) 4When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.
6The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. 7Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8The angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. 11Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”
12As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying. 13When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. 14On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. 15They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” 16Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed. 17He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, “Tell this to James and to the believers.“ Then he left and went to another place.
If you read the gospels and Acts you run into a lot of people called Mary and James. And John (Jesus cousin, the baptizer, and the Apostle, who Jesus nicknamed with his brother James “sons of thunder”. It’s that James that died). And Judas — there were two disciples with that name. This is why Peter told the disciples to tell James (the brother of Jesus, who was a leader in the Jerusalem church ) what had happened.
But back to the text. This gives modern secular and materialistic men nosebleeds. Because it should not have happened. The natural order is that tyrants kill martyrs. Peter was expecting to die. He did not. The disciples were praying fervently for his release. They did not expect it to happen in this way.
But God cheerfully ignores our models of what a God should be — he’s neither a pagan deity reliant on the worship of his followers and amenable to vows (also known as bribes). Nor is he a cosmic watchmaker, setting up a universe and leaving it alone. He intervenes.
And that makes tyrants fear him and the people of him. For the very presence of the church reminds us that we are appointed to die and to receive judgment.
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I do not want to equate Zimmerman with Peter. However, the reaction of those who were wanting him convicted is interesting. From Samizdata:
In the USA there as been a high profile case involving a neighbourhood watch person by the name of George Zimmerman, a half-Hispanic, half-White man who killed a young black man called Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was acquitted of murder and indeed the jury also declined to find him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter as well.
This seems to have sparked gasps of disbelief and protests from left-of-centre commentators and the racial identity industry.
I only know what I read in the mainstream media, and previously felt no need to comment on a foreign murder trial as I had no opinion on the subject of the guilt or innocence of George Zimmerman. I was not privy to anything beyond the usual reportage and concluded that case would all come down the the minutia of corroborating evidence that you really needed to be the courtroom to see and hear.
So my question is… so what do these people know that the jury did not know? Why exactly are they protesting the verdict? I have not read any coherent arguments as to why the jury in this case got it wrong.
You can tell tyrants by their actions and policies. After organizing for Zimmerman to be charged there were warnings about riots. When the local black community in Florida listened to the parents of the man who died and acted with disappointment and dignity, Occupy organized riots (OK “protests”) in Oakland, on the other side of the USA.
The tyrant may not be the person sitting on the throne. And the general rule is that tyrants cause death: the fact Peter went free is properly accounted as a miracle.
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