Acts 12:18-25
In our last section Peter had just escaped from a maximum-security prison with the help of an angel and then left town. This escape was facilitated by a group of believers that had been praying with out ceasing for his release, and then there were surprised to see him knock at their door. With the close of that event Peter walks out of our study, and other then a brief mention in Acts 15 we will not see him again.
Starting with then end of this chapter the center of action will shift from Peter and James in Jerusalem to Paul and Barnabas in Antioch. In between the two we have this small bit of secular history that Luke interjects in to his account. After this brief history Luke will pick back up where he left of in Acts 11 and follow Paul and Barnabas.
Acts 12:18-19 describes what happened after Peter left the prison. At this time Peter has likely already left town after visiting a while with his fellow believers. The guards apparently slept through the whole escape, and are only now waking up, perhaps because the next shift arrived to take over. Remember Peter was chained to the guards, behind a guarded and locked door in a maximum-security prison where escape was impossible, yet he was no longer there.
One could easily imagine that first there was confusion, followed by surprise, and finally get fear. Under Roman law, if a prisoner escapes the guard that who job it was to keep the prisoner would suffer the same punishment that the prisoner was sentence for. They searched the city and could not find Peter, so Herod has the guards executed. He probably could not believe their account, and he might even have assumed they helped Peter escape.
This brings out an interesting side note. The story of Peter’s escape is a great tale to bring us encouragement, but we should not forget the four guards that were killed as a result. These guards had no way to save themselves; simply being picked for duty that night doomed their fate. This should serve to remind us that this is still a cursed world, and because of that, bad things happen all the time, and we should be ready for them.
After this Herod moves to Caesarea from Jerusalem. We do not know why he made this move, or if he intended the move to be permanent or not. Luke goes on to mention that there was some kind of dispute between Herod and Tyre and Sidon. We do not know what happened to cause this rift, but history records Herod as a person who was easily angered so it could have been any minor thing. Tyre and Sidon were dependent on Israel for food, so Herod could have easily crippled them, and crippled them fairly quickly merely by preventing their access to the grain markets.
After meeting with the ambassadors from Tyre and Sidon, Herod goes to give a speech, possibly announcing a peace with Tyre and Sidon. Whatever the announcement was, it was to be his last. Luke records he was dressed in “royal grab”, Josephus a historian from that time describes it this way:
On the second day of which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays upon it, shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent at to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him[1]
That must have been an impressive site to see. Both Josephus and Luke record that the crowd began to call Herod a god. Keep in mind this is Herod who was a Jew by birth, and read form the Law every day in the Jewish temple. He knew the Law, and the commandments regarding worshiping anyone other then the real God of Israel.
As a result of this, Luke records for us that he was stuck by an angel and “was eaten by worms and died.” Since Luke is a doctor, we can assume he literally meant worms, and it was likely some kind of parasite. Josephus records that this happened in A.D. 44 and it took him five pain filled days to die. This could be a literal example of worm that Jesus spoke of in Mark 9:48.
With the death of Herod there is a brief break in the persecution of the church and Luke records in Acts 12:24 that the church prospers in this time. Acts 12:25 serves as a bridge to get us in to the account that will start in Acts 13 and follow Paul through the end of Acts.
This section leaves us with a few questions, but mainly why did God move and kill Herod directly? Many men before and since accepted worship, and even had temples and idols raised up in their honor, so why pick on this one? Well there could be several reasons.
First if we go back to the John chapter nine, and we read the story of the blind man, the disciples asked a question, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1). Jesus’ answer is very revealing when he says “”Neither this man nor his parents sinned but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:3). In other words, the reason for the man’s blindness was seen later in that same chapter when the man begins witnessing for Christ in a very powerful way. This method of witnessing is still used today, we call it “giving your personal testimony” and it is a simple way that anyone can use to bring glory to God, and one that cannot be refuted. We know from studies today that its one of the most effective means of evangelism, and it got its start with that one blind man. So to relate that to this story, just as there was a lesson in the blind man on witnessing, God could be using Herod to teach us about the reality of Hell, and the danger of pride.
Another possible and more practical reason could be related to the young church at the time. At this stage of the church’s life it is still small and it would be possible to stamp it out. Herod has already shown that he will do what ever it takes to appease the Jews, even kill whoever needed to be killed to make them happy. It is an easy guess that he would have begun a great persecution which might have greatly impacted the success of the church at that time. So God removed him to give the church a bit more time to grow, before the great persecution that would happen under Nero in about A.D. 70.
To bring this up to modern day, there are a couple lessons for us in this account. One is the danger of pride. Many a great man has been laid low because of foolish pride. Herod was not the first, and certainly will not be the last. A second lesson comes from the guards.
The guards merely showed up for work one night, and were executed the next day with out any prior warning or wrong doing on their part. There was nothing they could have done to prevent their execution, and really they did nothing to deserve it. This should be a warning to us that at any time we could be removed from this world. If that happens are you ready for it? Are you ready to face the Jesus on this throne on the other side of death? If not, I would beg you to get prepared because you never know when your turn will come, it could even be today.
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[1] Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus : Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996).