Acts 12:1-5 (NIV)
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
This King Herod was Herod Agrippa, the grandson of the Herod who tried to kill Jesus at the time of the nativity, and nephew of the Herod of the time of Jesus’ ministry. He wasn’t accepted by the Jewish leaders any more than the Romans were. The whole Herod family were Idumeans, not Jewish by blood, and they were definitely not in the line of David, but were assigned to the kingship by the emperor, in this case Emperor Claudius. So, they could never be accepted by the people as legitimate rulers.
But this Herod had inadvertently found himself on the same side as the Jewish leaders against the Christians in Jerusalem. The leadership didn’t know how to handle them at all. The Christians didn’t respect their authority, and they did things (like miracles and healings) that drew people after them.
Herod had arrested and executed James the son of Zebedee, John’s brother, for some slight to the crown. (If it had been a matter of law, it would have been the Roman governor, not the king, who would have arrested and executed him.) Herod couldn’t have cared less if the people were displeased with this. But when he found out that the Jewish leaders were actually overjoyed that he had taken out one of the Nazarene ringleaders, he doubled down and arrested Peter during the Festival of Unleavened Bread, intending to have him executed right after the festival was over. For Herod, this was a political move more than anything else, and he knew that the Romans wouldn’t interfere.
Peter was treated as a high-priority prisoner, with four guards assigned to him at a time, one chained to each arm, and two at the door of his cell. This made the people believe that he had done something terribly wrong, and that he was probably dangerous.
The Church, of course, was powerless to get Peter out. They were not politically connected, quite the opposite in fact. But they were connected to something far more powerful than politics: the throne of God Himself. The one big benefit of being unable to do something in their own strength is that it causes the people of God to go straight to prayer, the most powerful force in the universe. And they prayed passionately and continually for Peter to be freed.
Father, we read in James 5:16b that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. I’m afraid that all too often we don’t think to pray until every other (less powerful) option is exhausted. It would be humorous if it wasn’t so tragic! Forgive us, Lord, for thinking of You as our last resort instead of our first option. Forgive us for holding You and Your almighty power in reserve until we have exhausted all our feeble efforts. Help us to do better from now on. Amen.
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