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

that the guardian angel sometimes appeared as a substitute for the person. Hence they thought it was
Peter’s guardian angel.
16, 17. When Peter is admitted, he at once takes command of the uproarious crowd, beckoning
silence with his hand. He has no time to waste. He must run away and hide from Herod and the
soldiers before daylight, or he will be killed. Therefore, commanding silence, he briefly relates his
wonderful deliverance by the angel, and says to them: “Proclaim these things to James and the
brethren.” Isn’t James dead? Did not Herod cut his head off a few days ago? In Matthew’s
apostolical catalogue, Chapter 10, we have two apostles by the name of James, i.e., the son of
Zebedee, and brother of John, whom Herod has beheaded; and James, the son of Alphæus, who, at
a later date, suffered martyrdom in Jerusalem by precipitation from a pinnacle of the temple. Neither
of these was the James here mentioned; but James, the brother of our Lord, and elder brother of Jude,
who are not mentioned among the original twelve, having stood aloof while the world was shaking
with conviction of the Messiahship of Jesus, as it is so hard for us to believe on the members of our
own family. So these nominal brothers of our Lord, doubtless sons of Joseph by a former marriage,
held off until they saw their brother crucified, which doubtless staggered them more than ever. But
when they saw Him walk out of the sepulcher and fly up to heaven, every quibble as to His
Messiahship took its everlasting flight. With a grand boom they now fall in line, gladly received,
appreciated and honored by their predecessors as the nominal brothers of our Lord. Therefore James
the elder is complimented with the first pastorate of the Apostolic church at Jerusalem.
18, 19. At day-dawn the soldiers missed Peter, to their infinite consternation, and submit to their
awful fate-the merciless penalty of the cruel tyrant-for letting their prisoner escape. Herod has them
all hung.
DOOM OF THE TYRANT.
20-23. For reasons not here specified, the king was exceedingly mad at the people of Tyre and
Sidon, those great mercantile cities on the Mediterranean coasts. He was not allowed to make war
on them, because they were all under the Roman Empire. Immediately after the escape of Peter and
the execution of the soldiers, fortunately for the saints at Jerusalem he goes away to Cæsarea, where
he had a palace and spent a portion of his time. As this city is accessible to Tyre and Sid on by sea,
and at no great distance, those people availed themselves of the opportunity to wait on the king in
great numbers impleading reconciliation, because they were much dependent on the mercantile
patronage of Judea to sustain the financial interests of Tyre and Sidon. They very adroitly manipulate
[perhaps by bribery] Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, into their co-operation. While thus progressing
with their conciliatory enterprise, the king, somewhat yielding, invested in his royal splendor,
delivered an oration to these Tyrians and Sidonians. In their enthusiasm, to flatter his vanity, they
loudly applauded him and vociferate: “It is the voice of God, and not man.”
23. “Immediately the angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give the glory to God, and,
being eaten with worms, he gave up the ghost.” Here you see the soul-sleeping heresy, i.e., that you
have no soul separate from the body, is unanswerably refuted, as you see the soul of Herod left his
body and went away to his account with God. The simple fact is, God turned on this wicked king the
awful judgment of black leprosy, the terrible affliction of Job, in which the flesh turns black and