the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
Acts 12:7-25
Neither the chains, nor the sixteen soldiers, nor the murderous intentions of Herod can prevent Peter from sleeping peacefully in his prison. And no obstacle at all can prevent the Lord from delivering His dear servant (Psalms 121:4). An angel wakens him and then takes him out with power (vv. 7, 10) and concern (v. 8). How easy everything is when it is God who acts. He knew the criminal "expectation of the people of the Jews" (v. 11), but He had also heard the prayer "without ceasing" of the assembly for Peter (v. 5) and it is this which is effective. Alas, when the prayer is answered with the apostle arriving in person, the faith is lacking to recognize him. How often we pray with our lips, without really expecting the object of our petition! How many times we still doubt, even when the answer is already at the door!
Deaf to all the divine warnings, Herod lends an obliging ear to the flatteries from the people of Tyre and Sidon who, for political reasons, were trying to gain the friendship of this murderer. He is suddenly struck down in front of them all with an ignoble death, while the Word of Him whom he in his folly had attacked gains more ground than ever (v. 24).
