Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
CHAPTER XII.
MARTYRDOM OF JAMES.
1, 2. This Herod Antipas was the grandson of the King Herod reigning when our Savior was born,
and notorious for slaying the infants of Bethlehem, and even himself, while the innocents were
bleeding, and Jesus safe in Egypt, summoned to stand before God and account for his diabolical
atrocities. The Herodian dynasty reigned over several of those Asiatic provinces of the Roman
Empire, simply as proconsuls, though retaining the honorary title of king. When James and John, the
sons of Zebedee, honored by our Savior as sons of thunder because of their oratorical power, assisted
by their mother, sought of Jesus the first place in His coming kingdom, thus aspiring to the
episcopacy in the gospel church, and unhesitatingly meeting the conditions by answering in the
affirmative our Savior’s question, “Are you able to drink of my cup and to be baptized with my
baptism?” i.e., the cup of Gethsemane and the bloody martyrdom of Calvary, little did they
understand the force of those words. James, the elder, doubtless led the way in this application to the
Master for the pre-eminence in the coming kingdom. He got it, and was the first of all the apostles
to seal his faith with his blood. They all passed out of the world through the bloody martyrdom [but
John, who was banished, and as we believe translated]; but James led the way, having his head cut
off with the cruel sword of Herod at that early day. So he got his request, — first in martyrdom and
first in heaven.
PETER’S MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE.
3, 4. When Herod beheaded James, the Jews took great courage, congratulating themselves that
their good king will soon exterminate that vexatious heresy in blood. Herod is more than willing to
purchase popular favor by killing off the apostles; consequently he arrests Peter, committing him to
sixteen soldiers to serve as a prison-guard till the Passover is ended, when he is going to bring him
out and let the Jews see his gory head drop off.
5-8. Peter is sound asleep, flat on his back, chained to a soldier on either side, the stilly hours of
dulcet slumber treading slowly on, anticipating the day of his bloody martyrdom. He must have had
perfect rest in Jesus, or he could not have slept. The soldier on either side of him, and the other
fourteen standing guard around, are all wide awake. The saints convened in the house of Mary, the
mother of John Mark, all wide awake, spending the whole night in prayer for Peter’s release. The
angel of the Lord lights down in the dark dungeon, illuminates the prison, knocks off the chains that
bind him to the soldiers, speaks to him audibly: “Gird thyself and put on thy sandals; throw thy
cloak around thee and follow me.” Meanwhile the soldiers, chained to Peter on either side and wide
awake, neither see the light nor hear the clangor of the chains, nor feel Peter move; while the other
fourteen, standing guard all around, neither see the light, hear a chain, nor feel the contact of Peter
and the angel, as they squeeze between them, pressing their way out; but all, true to their trust, stand
guard through the night, without a surmise that their prisoner, on whose safe-keeping their life
depends, has already made his escape. So, I trow, when my Lord comes at midnight to steal away
His Bride, though the trumpet shall from the heavenly pinnacle call so loudly that every roar, the