Confidence

Hey Everyone.

In my studies I have reached Acts 12 and the story of Peter's miraculous escape from prison.  In the early verses of Acts 12, Herod had the apostle James put to death by the sword.  This action pleased the Jews so much that Herod had Peter arrested and placed under guard.  We can assume that Herod planned to do the same to Peter, as after the Passover, he was going to put Peter on trial publicly.  I think that it is safe to assume that Herod's plan was to find Peter guilty and have him publicly executed shortly thereafter.

Peter was being held in a cell, chained to two guards, while two other stood at the door.  They did not want Peter to escape.  Never-the-less, on the night before Peter was to go to trial, an angel entered his cell to release him.  Interestingly enough, Peter was sound asleep.  The angel had to strike Peter to wake him up.  It was an interesting behavior for a man who was about to be put on trial for his life.  I think that we can say that Peter had great confidence in God here.  I'm sure he had spent some time in prayer, but now he slept confidently.  (Perhaps Peter looked back at Jesus' prophecy in John 21:18 that said that Peter would live to be old.)  Meanwhile, the church had gathered at John Mark's house and was fervently praying for Peter.

To continue, the angel came, struck Peter to wake him, released him from the chains and told him to get dressed.  He then led him out of the cell, through the prison gates and out into the street.  I'm sure that this is all very surreal for Peter, because is thinking that he is seeing some sort of vision like he had in Acts 10.  He does not realize that he is awake and that the angel is releasing him from prison.  It is not until the angel leaves him that Peter realizes that this really happened.  Finally realizing what has happened, Peter goes to present himself to the rest of the disciples at John Mark's house.  In v. 13, Peter knocks on the outer entrance and a servant named Rhoda comes to answer the door.  When she hears Peter's voice, she gets so excited that instead of letting him in, she runs back to tell everyone and leaves him standing at the door.  But when she announces it, no one believes her.  In fact, they tell her that she is out of her mind.  Peter continues to knock at the door until someone finally lets him in and they are all astonished by his miraculous escape.

Now, the disciples had been praying for his release yet were surprised when it happened.  It makes me wonder, what they were actually expecting to happen.  Perhaps they were praying that Herod's court come back with a "not guilty" verdict.  Needless to say, whatever they were expecting was not what happened.  God circumvented Herod's whole trial process.  God's plan was very simple and straightforward, so much so, that it took everyone by surprise.  He just send and angel and released him from the prison.  Peter didn't expect it this way.  The other disciples didn't expect it this way either.

Here is where I'm going with this.  God is at work.  Often times we don't understand how He is working.  Our faith can be challenged when things don't go the way we expect them to.  God did not rescue James.  This certainly had to be a blow to the faith of many.  But God's solution here took everyone by surprise (including the enemies of the church.)  And for us today, we can trust God as well.  God doesn't always work the way we expect Him to, but He is still at work. Let's keep our eyes and hearts open for how God will surprise us!

Tom