The passage below gives two accounts of answered prayer.  For some reason God allows James to be beheaded for the gospel.  Then God allows Peter to be saved by an angel from the same fate.  Both stories are part of the same narrative, but the one who comes off worst in the story is the persecutor, Herod, whose intestines are eaten out by worms.  We are horrified at James’ departure.  It was an evil act by Herod and so a level of indignation is valid.  However we should not mourn James’ fate.  The reasoning of this is illustrated by the fool in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night:

Clown:  Good Madonna, why mournest thou?

Olivia:  Good fool, for my brother’s death.

Clown:  I think his soul is in hell, madonna.

Olivia:  I know his soul is in heaven, fool.

Clown:  The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul being in heaven.

We often think of the departed with only our own loss in mind.  That loss is real.  However, if we believe in the truth of heaven, those martyred have an entered into paradise.  Peter, in the story below, who has to endure further persecution and troubles.  God protects him for a purpose on earth.  Ultimately, so church tradition says, he too was executed for the faith.

Acts 12:1-24

¹ It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. ² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. ³ When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

 ⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

 ⁶ The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. ⁷ Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

 ⁸ Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. ⁹ Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

 ¹¹ Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

 ¹² When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. ¹³ Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

 ¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

 ¹⁶ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. ¹⁷ Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

 ¹⁸ In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. ¹⁹ After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.

Herod’s Death

    Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. ²⁰ He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply.

 ²¹ On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. ²² They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” ²³ Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

 ²⁴ But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

Questions

1. What did the people say about Herod?
2. State in your own words the reaction of the people to Peter’s appearance at their door?
3. Why would Peter think that he was having a vision when he has already been saved from prison by an angel before?
4. How would you counsel someone who has lost someone because of the faith?
5. Would you expect God to save you or to let you die if you were arrested?  How would you pray?