Acts 12:6 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
Do you sleep well? A lot of people do not, and there are a number of reasons for that. All of us would like to sleep well, to get rest when we are resting, but a lot of people do not. Last week at the Bill Rice Ranch we had several hundred campers who were sleeping on different beds, camp bunks. The first morning when I met with the leaders of the groups, I asked, “How many slept well last night?” I can understand if you are not sleeping well because you are not on the bed to which you are accustomed, but what about having the weight of the world on your shoulders when you pillow your head at night. None of us wants to live that way and all of us have a tendency to live that way.
Talk about the weight of the world on your shoulders. In Acts 12 we find Peter in prison and destined to die. How did this happen? Verses 1-3 say, “Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with a sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.” So, he did something that was politically expedient, getting rid of James. That was popular, so he intended to do the same thing with Peter.
The Bible says Peter was kept with sixteen guards. What a dangerous criminal! Actually God had freed His men from prison on a couple other occasion in Acts, so maybe this was in the mind of Herod when he put Peter in ward with sixteen soldiers. The Bible makes a big understatement in Acts 12:5. In reference to the sixteen soldiers that guarded Peter, it says, “Peter therefore was kept in prison.” I guess so! It continues, “But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” What is astounding is that when the church was praying and Peter’s enemies were scheming, Peter was sleeping. How in the world could Peter be sleeping? Well, it is hard to be God if you are not.
This is the story of two men: Peter and Herod. Herod thought himself a king, yet he was not happy. The Bible tells us later that he was displeased. He was seeking happiness, but I don’t think he ever found it. Peter, on the other hand, was in prison between two guards and guarded by fourteen others, but was sleeping like a baby.
You have two men, and then you have two angels. In verse 7 there was an angel of the Lord who loosed Peter’s bonds and broke him out of prison. In verse 23 you have an angel that God used to strike Herod dead after Herod had accepted the people’s praise when they said he was a god and not a man.
You have two gates. There was the gate the angel opened for Peter in the prison and the gate that kept Peter from the people who were praying for him when he went to the house where prayer was being made for his release. They were shocked that God had answered their prayers. So, you had two men, two angels, and two gates.
The bottom line is that it is hard to be God if you are not. Herod was striving to control everything in his world and he could not. Peter rested his world with God Almighty and was able to sleep because he did.
There are two things in consequence. First, rest in God’s providence. I don’t know specifically, but I suspect one of the reasons Peter slept so soundly is that he knew something about his death. In John 21:18-19 Jesus literally told John something about the way he would die. In Peter’s case, he also probably knew something about his death, so he rested in the providence of God. This was not the first time Peter was in prison and it was not the first time God had freed His own from prison. So, rest in God’s providence. It is hard to be God if you are not. That weight is not meant to be on your shoulders.
Second, ask for God’s deliverance, not just His provision generally, but His provision specifically. Verse 11 tells us that Peter’s testimony was that God sent an angel that delivered him from the hand of Herod and all the expectation of the people of the Jews. Both the people that hated Peter and the people that loved Peter were expecting one thing and God did another. So, ask for God’s deliverance.
The history of the Herods, there was more than one, is a miserable history. It is a story of immorality, ambition, striving for significance, utter tragedy, and death. Verse 20 tells us that Herod was displeased. He made an oration. People said he was a god and not a man. God struck him dead. The refrain of Acts is found in verse 24. When all this was said and done, “the word of God grew and multiplied.” The bottom line is God will win today. It is hard to be God if you are not. So, rest in God’s providence and ask for God’s deliverance to rest better when you are resting.