Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Acts 12:18–19
“When day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.”
Revelation 12 gives us a picture of the spiritual realities that lay behind the history of God’s people. John receives a vision of the dragon, that ancient foe of the Lord and His people. This is Satan, who has sought to destroy the Messiah and those who serve Him. Having failed to defeat Jesus and prevent His ascension to the right hand of God, Satan was cast down to earth and, until Jesus returns, goes about in great wrath, knowing that his defeat is sure and his time is short (v. 12).
Throughout the history of the church, this wrath has often manifested itself in the persecution of Christians, and we have been reading about the suffering of the church in the Jewish authorities’ persecution of the earliest followers of Jesus after the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1–3; 12:1–17). As we have seen, however, this persecution did not wipe out the church. In fact, as a result of the persecution, many Christians fled to Antioch in Syria, and a church was started there because these believers continued to preach the gospel and make disciples (11:19–26). In God’s providence, what the Jewish opposition meant for evil, the Lord meant for good (see Gen. 50:20). The church actually grew under persecution; it did not shrink. This led the early church father Tertullian to write the famous line, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” We have to be careful about making this an absolute principle that is true everywhere that the church suffers. Some parts of the world where the church has experienced opposition from authorities have much lower Christian populations now than before persecution arose. Nevertheless, Tertullian’s line points us to a key truth—namely, that the church will continue to endure throughout history until Jesus returns (Isa. 54:17; Matt. 16:18).
When the devil’s attacks against the church do not succeed, he tends to lash out (Rev. 12:12), even taking out his ire on his own servants as part of God’s judgment against those who ally with Satan against His people. We see this in today’s passage, where we read that Herod put to death those who had been guarding Peter because they let the Apostle escape (Acts 12:18–19). Those soldiers no doubt thought that they had chosen wisely by allying with Herod, but the Lord brought them to an end by their evil designs. Matthew Henry comments, “When the wicked are thus snared in the work of their own hands, the Lord is known by the judgments which he executes.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Herod turned on his sentries and had them executed when they did not keep Peter from escaping. Allying with other people against the Lord is foolish not only because the Lord cannot be defeated but also because those who seem to be allies can quickly turn against one another. To oppose God will put us at odds not only with Him but also with other people.
For further study
- 2 Kings 19:32–37
- Proverbs 5:22
- Ecclesiastes 8:10–13
- 1 Peter 5:8
The bible in a year
- 1 Chronicles 11–13
- John 9:1–23