Bible Commentaries

Chapter31

Prayer

Almighty God, we know not what we read in thy book except thou dost teach us its meaning by thy Spirit. We have heard the letter and its music is in our ears, but we would hear the inner meaning of every word spoken to the heart itself, then shall we, though on earth, be really in heaven. Thy word is the same there as it is here, only we do not read it well. We know not all its compass. We do not yield ourselves with thankful delight to the sway and inspiration of its infinite music. We are children of the world. We are travellers who have chosen the night for our pilgrimage. We are not children of the day, flowers of the noontide, lovers of glory cloudless and eternal. Thou can make us such in Jesus Christ, thy Acts 12:1-11

1. Now about that time Herod the king [the son of Aristobulus and Bernice, grandson of Herod the Great] stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.

2. And he killed James [ Matthew 12:23] the brother of John with the sword.

3. And because he saw it pleased the Jews [the ruling policy of the Herodian house], he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread) [about the end of March or the beginning of April].

4. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter [after the Passover] to bring him forth to the people.

5. Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

6. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.

7. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison [the chamber or dwelling]; and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.

8. And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.

9. And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.

10. When they were past the first and the second ward [shewing that Peter had been placed in the innermost dungeon], they came unto the iron [a touch of precision characteristic of Luke] gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street [the word implies narrowness]; and forthwith the angel departed from him.

11. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.

Peter Delivered

"Now about that time"—we know that troubles never come alone. We know well what the "time" was which is referred to, for it came under our notice in our last study. A time of famine was prophesied. There was to be great dearth, and great suffering was to be occasioned by that dearth of food. Whilst the Church was put in charge of this prediction, and had already begun to contribute towards the relief of the brethren, "about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church." Famine might kill them slowly; he would find a quicker way! All ways of destruction are pleasant to the destroyer's mind. Only let his opponents die, whether by famine or by sword, and he is satisfied. What is the Mystery above us which allows such things? How well it would have been when Herod "stretched forth his hand" to have kept it there so that he could never take it into his side again! Such would be our way many a time of dealing with antagonists and enemies. God takes in more field; his thought has a wider compass, and he needs more time for the exemplification of his purpose.

"He killed Acts 12:12-25

THERE is a word in the twelfth verse which is the keyword of a wise life. If people would not speak until they had carried out the meaning of that small word there would be much silence, and there would be much wisdom. The word is "considered." What is it to consider? It is to put things together. To modify one thing by another, to bring things into right relation, to set them back at the right distance, to view them in the right colour, to weigh, to measure, to add up, and thus to form a broad and solid conclusion. That is what you have never done in your life probably. We leap at things. We have no intermediate process of thinking and relating one thing to another; ours is not a task of chain-making, it is often a leap in the dark. Life will bear to be "considered" because life is full of mystery; it is always changing. The four seasons of the year sometimes all assemble together in one brief hour; we are chilled and sweltered in one transient moment; shew your religiousness not by the cleverness of an instantaneous conclusion but by the calm consideration of things which are not what they seem. If you "consider" life under the impression that it is a measurable quantity, that it can all be seen at once, that it is a superficies and not a cube, you will live the days of the foolish. Everything that happens in life belongs to everything else. He who "considers" the matter, loses the spirit of impatience and gathers into his soul the spirits of rest and hope and music. Wise consideration may escape the agony of transient enthusiasm but it enjoys the repose of continual peace. Your house is dark today, and in its darkness you may easily stumble. Know you not that the angel has been there and has touched your companion on the side, and said, "Come away"? Presently you will see the matter more clearly. Consider it. Put things together; rebuke the spirit of impetuosity and distrust, and say, "The Lord reigneth, and because he is Lord, nothing in his empire can be overlooked or lost."

A very human incident next occurs. When Peter "had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John , whose surname was Mark." Why did he not run away? Why did not thoughts of Herod darken his mind? He knew that Herod was an evil branch of an evil tree, and that no Herod ever did one noble deed. Why did he not flee away? Peter was faithful now; he went back to church. In those days the church was in the house; a little church, but not therefore the less a church, true in its life and in its constitution. Peter went back to the old nest. Peter sought the old companionship. Peter knew where his native language, the language of regeneration was spoken, he knew where the vision could be related and in a measure understood. We never know how precious the Church is until we have been among the heathen awhile. Six months spent in Herod's jail, and then how inviting the church, the little church in the village, the ill-built church up the dark passage, where the hymns are sung to broken tunes with broken voices! How sweet, how restful, how jubilant! We should enjoy our churches more if Herod had more to do with us. The best preparation for simple bread is long-continued hunger. Peter went to the prayer-meeting.

Yet a still more human incident now takes place. The people disbelieved the answer to their own prayer! When Rhoda said, "Peter stands at the gate," they said, who were praying, "thou art mad!" Truly we are in the succession of that Church! Who ever expects to have his prayers answered? Because we are so vague about the prayer, heaven may be equally vague about the reply. Who looks for answers, who keeps Rhoda on the watch saying, "Look out whilst we look up and tell us when thou dost see the answer coming?" A little more anxiety about the reply would give accent and fervour to our petitions and would move the all-pitying Father to more definite communications. I am less anxious that people should pray, than that they should look for answers to their prayers. Is it right to knock at the door and run away? To ring heaven's bell and vanish in the darkness as if ashamed of the ringing peal? Let me, having opened my eyes after communing with heaven, look about me for the answer, and shew that I expect it. When your child got better after your prayer—you thought she might have got better without it. Did you not? When you prayed for deliverance from a certain perplexity and the deliverance came,—you thought that perhaps it would have come as a matter of course if you had waited longer. That is the atheism which grieves God! The blatant atheism that denies, He takes no heed of, but the atheism that comes after praying to Him and getting the answer, is sevenfold blasphemy! When the damsel affirmed that it was even Peter;—the people who had been praying said, "It is his angel, it cannot be himself." So we fritter away our religion into a barren sentiment! We will not let heaven speak plainly to us; the mystification is on our side not on God's; He would oftentimes come straight to us and talk in plain mother tongue to our hearts; when He does we say, "It was a dream, it was a vision, it was an impression we cannot account for." In reply to frank words from heaven we return crooked words of unbelief. Let the language be equally plain on both sides, and our converse with heaven shall be broader and healthier. The people who believe in their own spirits easily believe in spirits outside them. If you do not believe that you yourself are a spirit you cannot believe that there are other spirits in the universe. A great conversion must be made in your own soul. You must know what you are before you can tell what GOD is. Let me familiarize my mind with the fact that I am a spirit and not a body, a soul and not a figure, an eagle and not a cage, then all things admit of an emotional and spiritual interpretation; but when I go down in the consciousness of my own spirituality, it is impossible for me to believe, in that degree, in the spirituality of others. But Peter continued knocking. He had just passed through all the experience of the damsel and of the Church, and experience makes us patient with other people. Peter said by his knocking, "I know what they are thinking—it is impossible that I should be here—I have just passed through that selfsame mental confusion, and thought it was not an angel, I thought it was a dream; and they are now suffering from the very confusion from which I have escaped, so I will knock on." "And when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished." Providence is a daily surprise, God is never commonplace. If we only knew it, every breath is a miracle, every out-putting of our limbs to walk, every uplifting of our hand or eye has behind it the secret which arched the heavens and moves the stars. Astonishment of the highest kind properly belongs to the religious realm. Let us see to it that amazement does not exaggerate itself into disbelief. Peter then made his speech, and the value of that speech consisted in the fact that it was made, after consideration. This is a sober-minded statement. The film had fallen from the eyes, the strange air had blown away from the brain, the man had come back again to himself, and knowing the value of words, the shape of things, and the meaning of tones, he separately and studiedly went over the whole tale and gave his charge to the Church saying—" go shew these things unto James and unto the brethren"—give them another gospel, add another leaf to their testament, stir up their faith, light to a brighter blaze the shining of their hope.

Now comes the sad line. "And he departed, and went into another place." Peter disappears from the story! "And he departed." His dear name, glorious name will never come up again. We shall hear of him incidentally in a controversy with Paul, but so far as this narrative is concerned he is gone. We cannot say "good-bye" to a man like Peter without remembering his nobleness. I know we first think of his sin, but who is there that has gone with him to the same depths of penitence and shed the same rivers of contrition? Peter has comforted many of us by his falling and rising again. He was always being called aside to be cross-examined and reproved. Christ said the hardest things to Peter he ever said to any of his followers. He called him once—"Satan." Once he said to Peter, "Thou art an offence unto me;" once he ordered Peter behind, saying, "Get thee behind me;" but afterwards they had long talks, sweet, sweet converse. Between them there passed the great act of forgiveness, and the great confession of heart-love deep down beyond all other feeling, and by-and-bye Peter will go to Jerusalem together with Paul, and about the same time they will die a martyr's death. Think of his nobleness, of his enthusiasm, of his kindness, of his great-heartedness, and in the recollection of his splendid qualities forget, as Christ forgave, his momentary wickedness. I am sorry he has gone, the place was warm whilst he remained in it; there was a sense of freedom of speech in the church whilst Peter was to the fore. He was not a logician, but he had a great royal heart. The man we miss the most is not the logician, the scholar, the pedant, but the man with the womanly heart, great nest in which we might abide until we forgot our weariness and recovered our hope.

The soldiers knew nothing of the vision. Visions are near yet far away. One member of the family sees heaven opened, and the other calls his brother a fanatic. The light can go right past you without your ever seeing it;—you can sleep through a revelation! There are those who can listen to words that burn with heaven's own fire, without knowing that any words uncommon have been spoken. Lord, give us the hearing ear and the understanding heart,—that quick hearing that hears a word long after it has been uttered, its echo, re-echo, and far away soundings! Circumcise our ears that they may hear! Anoint our eyes with eye-salve that they may see!

Contrast the opening of the chapter with its ending. In the opening of the chapter "Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the Church," in the end of the chapter he is eaten up of worms, literally, of lice, as was one of his forerunners. They were a bad stock, and the worms were ill-fated that had to live upon them! Look at the end of a man. At the opening of the chapter he said, "I have fleshed my sword, and now I will kill Peter also," and at the end of the same chapter he is eaten up of worms. He went down from Judea to Cæsarea, where the life was gayer, where the viands were better, where the wine was keener to the taste, and clothed, as Josephus tells us, in a robe of wrought silver which glittered and shone in the sun as he moved, he sat down to make his speech. And the base sycophants said, "it is the voice of a god, and not of a man." The people that would have eaten him up if he had been in the falling line instead of the ascending scale; the servile mob said, "it is the voice of a god," and Herod devoured the tribute and thought he deserved it, and immediately the angel of the Lord, who has been very active in this chapter, "smote him!" A tremendous and fatal blow! Look at the end of a man; do not hear the atheist and blasphemer today in fatness and prosperity, and abounding wealth: read the chapter through and the chapter will conclude as this concludes,—Herod eaten up of worms—"but the Word of God grew and multiplied." Herod dead, the gospel advancing! Herod eaten up of worms, but Christ gathering the uttermost parts of the earth into his heart and claiming the heathen for a possession! Always read the chapter through. Do not break off a man's life in the middle and say, "see how vice prospers, see how virtue languishes!" I see Herod, I see him in Cæsarea, I see him arrayed in his dress of woven cloth of silver and I see his proud mien, but I will wait longer, this cannot be the end of it! Every star protests against this as the conclusion, the very shape of God's creation says, That is not the full stop; things are round, the universe is a circle,—wait!—We do wait—and in our waiting we find two things; the king never coming home again, the king delivered to the meanest fate, and the word of God stretching out its mighty pinions and flying abroad with glad tidings of great joy proclaiming ANOTHER KING whose kingdom cannot fall!