12:7-9
An angel of the Lord came to Peter and stood by him, and his chains fell off. A light also shone in the cell. The words of this verse remind of some lines in Charles Wesley’s famous hymn, “And can it be”. Peter was then told to put on his sandals. Prisons did not provide clothes or footwear, so these would have been Peter’s own footwear. Peter thought that all this was just part of a dream, he didn’t know that it was real.
12:10,11
The angel led Peter out of the prison, there is no record of why the guards were totally oblivious to all this. The doors opened of their own accord. Once they were out of the prison and on the main street the angel departed. It was only at that point that Peter was fully convinced that this wasn’t just a dream and was real. Peter had been delivered from the hands of Herod and the expectation of all the Jewish people. There is a lot of emphasis these days on what “the people” think. We do need to remember that quite often “the people” don’t have a clue. Here they would have thought that was it for Peter, Herod would have him killed and that would be the end of him. Today a couple of times or so a year there are reports on the death of the church. Many of the fact may indeed point in that direction, but these predictions all forget one major fact, God!
No comments:
Post a Comment