Bible study on Acts of the Apostles – Chapter 12
Dear brothers and sisters,
In the Bible study on the 12th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles I will discuss:
- Peter’s miraculous escape from prison
- Herod’s death
Peter’s miraculous escape from prison
At this moment in time it was King Herod, which had arrested several persons belonging to God’s church, with the intend to persecute them. James, the brother of John, was already put to death by the sword. The most shocking thing is that King Herod decided to arrest Paul as well, not because of his own conviction in the matter, but because He saw that a part of the Jews were happy with the killing of James. This shows that we should always only rely on God in everything we do and not automatically expect that because someone calls himself (in Revelation they are called name-Christians) that He is actually a Christian in the sense that God considers someone to be a Christian.
His arrest took place during the Festival of Unleavened Bread, so after arresting Peter King Herod have him put in jail until Passover ended. Peter was sent to jail by four guards and during that time also guarded by four of them. At the moment of his imprisonment the church was praying for Paul. This shows that as soon as something is happening to on of our brothers and/or sisters, we should waste no time and start praying for them. If we do this than God will also here our prayers.
And indeed their faith was heard by God and He sent an angel to Paul. He woke Peter up and told Him to get dressed and get with him. It took Peter some time to understand what was happening, so the angel urged him to act immediately. This shows that when God Is busy in our life’s, that we should act immediately and not be hesitant. How often (also speaking for myself) do we have the tendency to first want to arrange and to do all sorts of other things, before doing that thing that God has asked us to do.
While walking out Peter was very amazed, because all guards were vast asleep. When the angel freed him, he went to the house of Mark. Exactly the house where everyone was that was praying for him. It is beautiful how God orchestrates things. They got to see the fruits of their prayer when Peter came in! At the same time the guards could not understand what had happened. See how God will confuse our enemies. Even it is seems that they have the upper hand and are on the point of defeating you, God will strike them a devastating blow. I pray that God will do the same for your and mine current enemies!
Herod’s death
Herod was so shocked by this news and ordered a thorough search for him, but he also was unable to find him. He also had the guards executed. After this Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. First he had been quarrelling with people of Tyre and Sidon. They joined together to get an audience with Herod to ask for peace, because they were depended on the king’s land for their food supply.
On the day set for this address he was dress in his royal attire and sitting on the throne to address them. Then someone shouted that a God was talking and not a man. Herod, as arrogant has he could be did not immediately gave praise to God and for this reason and angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and died. See how God can put you down if you uplift yourself. Don’t ever take the glory away from God, as God deserves all praise. God, I thank you for everything you have (and keep on doing) done in my life. Even when I am in very hard time of my life, I continuously see how you are guiding and protecting us. Keep us humble by never taking any of your praise or think that when other people boast about us, that we take that glory for ourselves.
Faith Life 