Acts 12:5-10 – So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. 6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
“So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” Peter was in prison for several days as Herod Agrippa was waiting for the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread to end. Herod would then put Peter through a mock trial. Again, he had the power to execute Peter without a trial, but He wanted a display to galvanize some support for himself.
People can be good at clouding the issues. They want us to consider supposed facts that are a sham. Don’t be deceived by pseudo intellectuals on bogus documentaries on supposed scientific or history cable stations. Don’t even watch them. They display people with titles to muddy the minds to not see what is clear to see. This situation is clear. It is black and white. It is evil versus good. It is Herod Agrippa being used by the devil to attack the church of Messiah Jesus by arresting with the intent to kill one of Jesus’s top Apostles. Herod with the spirit of Satan on him and Peter doing the will of the Lord. Plain and simple. Also the church was doing God’s will and praying for Peter. Evil versus good. Herod had the worldly power. The church was depending on God. Who would win? Family, that is easy. God always wins. We should never doubt that! However, because we don’t understand the outcome of matters we sometimes wonder if evil has prevailed. Never does evil prevail, it only thinks it did. Let us not concentrate on a tree so intently that we never see the forest surrounding it.
Some might say that evil was the winner when James was killed. Yet, who are we to say the full effect of the martyrdom of James? Let’s consider how the Lord responded to Job in Job 38-42. God drove home to Job the point that He alone knows all and Job, and we, know so little. He knows everything from eternity past, into creation and beyond creation into eternity. He knows what happens with every living person and animal. At the end of Job’s interrogation by God, Job is humbled and realizes that no man is able to know the full reason for things. Only God knows. It is arrogant for any person to think that they can judge God in any way. Don’t we want all the facts before we can make big decisions? Family, we never have all the facts, we can only gather what is known. But God has all the facts. Let’s always have faith in God and not doubt. Whoever does not have faith but doubts, that person sins (Romans 14:23). It is foolish to have limited knowledge about something and want to argue with someone who has all the facts and all the wisdom. Yes, James was killed and yet we know that God is good all the time and that He can be nothing but good. It is who He is. Also, we know that God loves us all the time and He will always love us (Jeremiah 31:3). That being true, what do we hold onto? Is it what we can deduce from our limited knowledge or is it our knowledge of God and trust in Him who is unlimited in knowledge, goodness and love? Family, let everyone decide their understanding and faithfulness to God. “…as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) I refuse to believe beings that God created, who are vastly inferior to him (including myself) instead of believing God. No, our faith is in God and it is in Him we believe with unwavering faith. This is not ignorant faith. This is informed faith. We needn’t know all the facts of worldly happenings (and we never do). Even the best of our knowledge is not full. We know the facts of the ineffaceable goodness and love of our God. So we can depend on the partial truth of our understanding or on the perfect truth that God is good and He loves us. Our decision to trust God rather than man is the most informed decision! Let the world look at what they can deduce from the happenings of the world. We will look at the infinite and complete Truth, we look to God and embrace Him. Praise God! Let the world count us fools and God call us wise and His own. We don’t want to please people, we want to please God (Galatians 1:10).
The church was crying out to God to save Peter. Would God save him from death at the hands of Herod? Or would Peter die as James did? Family, whether Peter died or lived had nothing to do with the eternal truth of God’s innate goodness, love and His ability to bring about His will. That is what we know. However, God is kind and has decided in His beyond-us-wisdom to make our prayers matter. He has, by His own will, often worked through the prayers of the saints. The prayers of saints who are perpetually having their hearts, minds and wills changed to become more like Him and His will. We shall see how worldly power matters not, the outcome of the matter belongs to God. We should never stop having the motto, in spite of those who know nothing, “In God we trust.” Praise God! Family, read the Book, in the end, we who love and serve God will receive the eternal rewards of God. We receive them through Jesus. May our faith never waiver and it never does by the power of Him who is able keep our souls that are committed to Him (2 Timothy 1:12, Philippians 1:6). God is good all the time and He loves us. We know nothing more than that to the glory and praise of God! Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.