CHALLENGE . . . TRIUMPH . . . EXPANSION
ACTS 12:18-25
NASB
18 Now when day came, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to [a]what could have become of Peter. 19 When Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there.
20 Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; and with one accord they came to him, and having won over Blastus the king’s chamberlain, they were asking for peace, because their country was fed by the king’s country. 21 On an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the [a]rostrum and began delivering an address to them. 22 The people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” 23 And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and [a]died.
24 But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.
25 And Barnabas and Saul returned [a]from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their [b]mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.
12:18 [a]Lit what therefore had become 12:21 [a]Or judgment seat 12:23 [a]Lit breathed his last breath 12:25 [a]Two early mss read to Jerusalem [b]Lit ministry
NLT
18 At dawn there was a great commotion among the soldiers about what had happened to Peter. 19 Herod Agrippa ordered a thorough search for him. When he couldn’t be found, Herod interrogated the guards and sentenced them to death. Afterward Herod left Judea to stay in Caesarea for a while.
20 Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they sent a delegation to make peace with him because their cities were dependent upon Herod’s country for food. The delegates won the support of Blastus, Herod’s personal assistant, 21 and an appointment with Herod was granted. When the day arrived, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them. 22 The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!”
23 Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.
24 Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread, and there were many new believers.
25 When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission to Jerusalem, they returned,[*] taking John Mark with them.
[12:25] Or mission, they returned to Jerusalem. Other manuscripts read mission, they returned from Jerusalem; still others read mission, they returned from Jerusalem to Antioch.
The book of Acts consists of a repeating cycle: challenge-triumph-expansion. At the challenge, a difficulty creates a crisis in the church, causing many to wonder, Will the church survive? Will God’s kingdom endure? Will God’s plan of redemption succeed? Through the triumph, the Lord resolves the crisis in a manner surprising to all, vindicating the righteous while sometimes judging the enemies of the church. (I say “sometimes” because the offer of grace remains open to all, so some are redeemed.) In the expansion, the gospel spreads farther and the church grows stronger, creating opportunities that would not have been possible had the crisis not occurred. Eventually, however, a new crisis challenges the church again.
As each cycle unfolds, we have an opportunity to examine the lives of the individuals involved and to consider how they respond to the work of God.
In Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested for proclaiming that Jesus the Messiah had been resurrected from the dead. After a night in jail, they stood before the Sanhedrin to give answer to the question “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” (4:7). Bear in mind that undeniable evidence of the “power” and “name” stood in their midst: A man known to all as a beggar disabled from birth had danced around the temple just hours before (3:8-10). During the trial, he stood whole and sound in the courtroom. Instead of submitting to the obvious work of God and rather than heeding His call to repentance, “they began to confer with one another, saying, ‘What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name’” (4:15-17).
In Acts 5, Peter and the other apostles continued to proclaim that Jesus the Messiah had risen from the grave. The miraculous healing power of God continued to validate the ministry of the church, “to such an extent that [people] even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed” (5:15-16). How did the religious leaders of Israel respond? In belief? Did they submit to the message of God validated by the obvious, undeniable work of God? No, “the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy. They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail” (5:17-18).
The apostles’ miraculous release from prison (5:19) led to more preaching in the temple (5:20-21), which led to yet another trial before the Sanhedrin (5:25-40). Gamaliel, a nonbelieving yet mature voice of reason among nonbelievers, clarified the issue for the religious leaders of Israel: “I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God” (5:38-39). Wise counsel. Bear in mind that the overwhelming evidence of God’s power, attested to by the sheer multitude of miracles taking place in Jerusalem, left no room for any reasonable person to question whether “this plan or action is of men.” The temple leaders refused to acknowledge the message of the church, not because they couldn’t believe, but because they wouldn’t submit to the truths they could not deny.
There were more threats, more preaching, more persecution . . . and more Christians pouring into the church.
Acts 12 documents the third and final round of Israel versus the church. In the years between Acts 5 and 12, much had changed. Judea had grown stronger. With Agrippa as their king, the temple rulers now had the backing of Rome; they wielded virtually unlimited political power to crush the church. Meanwhile, the church, with Peter as a prominent leader, had expanded beyond Jerusalem to reach all of Judea and Samaria. Moreover, Jews and Gentiles alike now called one another brothers and sisters because they followed the same King and swore allegiance to God’s kingdom as fellow citizens. By Acts 12, both powers had grown to the point that a clash became inevitable. The land given to Abraham and his Hebrew descendants could no longer contain both groups.
Luke’s story of Peter’s three arrests and three triumphs documents the Lord’s vindication of the gospel and care for the church, but we should also see three attempts to confront the leaders of Israel —three appeals attested by undeniably divine miracles for Israel to repent, believe, submit, and be saved. How the leaders of Israel responded to this third and final opportunity to embrace their Messiah would set the stage for how the kingdom of God would grow. Clearly, the Lord wanted His chosen nation, His beloved Israel, to be the means by which His kingdom would overtake the world. If the religious and political leaders of Israel wouldn’t submit, however, God would complete His redemptive plan by another means.
Challenge: Agrippa arrested Peter (12:1-6). Triumph: God miraculously freed Peter (12:7-17). What would happen next?
— 12:18-19 —
When Peter visited the church after his miraculous release, he didn’t say, “You’ll never believe what great luck I had last night! By chance, both chains were loose, the guards just happened to be looking the other way at the right time, and somebody forgot to lock all the doors, so I was able to sneak out of that high-security prison without anybody happening to notice. What an amazing coincidence!” No, Peter gave God all the credit for his release. The people struggled to accept something so amazing at first, but when the truth stared them in the face, they couldn’t deny the miracle. No rational explanation would suffice; only a supernatural act of God made sense. In response, the church spontaneously worshiped the Lord.
On the other side of town, however, the leaders of Israel viewed the situation in purely material terms. At daybreak, “there was no small disturbance among the soldiers” over their missing prisoner (12:18). The Greek word translated “disturbance” (tarachos [5017]) means “a state of acute distress, dismay, confusion, or tumult.” When those guards came to their senses, when the morning light shown through the window and they saw the prison cell empty, it blew their minds. They didn’t know what to do. With Peter reported missing, Herod initiated a manhunt.
When that failed, being unwilling to accept an explanation involving God’s miraculous power, the king searched for a natural answer. He “examined” the guards (12:19). The Greek term for this is anakrinō [350]. The root word is krinō [2919], which carries the idea of sifting and dividing to arrive at an answer. Anakrinō applies this process to a person or persons. It was a judicial term meaning “to conduct an inquiry into facts and witnesses’ testimonies.” Herod didn’t merely question the guards; he conducted a formal investigation using all his powers as a Roman and a king. His inquisition led him to suspect foul play on the part of the guards. All four must have colluded to release Peter; it was the only natural explanation that made sense. Certainly, Herod’s investigation would have turned up Peter’s arrest record. Somebody must have given him the whole story behind Peter’s earlier release. Still, Herod accepted the natural explanation. So Herod had them “led away,” which almost certainly implies execution and is reflected in English translations. “Led away” was a common idiom for being taken to trial, prison, or punishment, and the standard punishment for a lax jailer was execution. Prison guards would sooner kill all the prisoners —or themselves —than let any get away (see 16:27; 27:42).
After concluding the inquiries and assuring himself with a plausible explanation, the king went to Tiberius to hobnob with his Roman friends,[107] and then to Caesarea to attend a festival and administer his foreign policy.[108] By correlating Acts with the date from secular historians, we know Herod visited Caesarea in AD 44.
— 12:20-23 —
Although Luke’s inspired description is definitive, information provided by Josephus adds more color to an already vivid story. According to this secular Jewish historian, Herod traveled to attend athletic games he had organized in honor of Claudius. While there, Luke notes that he received a delegation from Tyre and Sidon, two large coastal cities in the Roman province of Syria, a region very much on the king’s mind. We read that Agrippa was “very angry” with these two cities, although Luke doesn’t elaborate (12:20). Josephus offers some helpful background.
A few years earlier, the king attempted to rebuild and fortify the walls surrounding Jerusalem. The Roman governor of Syria, Gnaeus Vibius Marcus, objected in a letter to Emperor Claudius, who instructed Agrippa to stop construction. That became a source of irritation. Then, just before traveling to Caesarea, Agrippa spent time in Tiberius, a Hellenistic city by the Sea of Galilee, entertaining several kings from cities within and bordering Syria. When Marcus approached the city of Tiberius, Agrippa rode out to meet him in the company of all these kings. Naturally, Marcus suspected the worst: Powerful King Agrippa, friend of Claudius and consul of Rome, was colluding with the rulers of Syrian cities. When Marcus secretly urged each king to go home, Agrippa became angry and marked the governor of Syria as his enemy.
By the time Agrippa reached Caesarea, delegations from Tyre and Sidon —two Syrian cities —came asking for help with their food shortage. Apparently, Agrippa had restricted food exports to Syrian cities (see 12:20). On the second day of the festival, the king dressed in a tunic woven from silver strands that shimmered in the sunlight, and he sat at the judgment seat to address them, probably before going to the athletic games (12:21). Luke states that the people compared Agrippa to a god and summarizes their flattery: “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Luke further states that the people “kept crying out” using the imperfect tense, which indicates ongoing or repetitive action (12:22). According to Josephus, this occurred wherever Agrippa went, including the theater:
On the second day of [the] shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays upon it, shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him; and presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another (though not for his good), that he was a god; and they added, “Be thou merciful to us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.” Upon this the king did neither rebuke them, nor reject their impious flattery.[109]
Compare this response to Peter’s when Cornelius bowed in worship: “Stand up; I too am just a man” (10:26).
When Agrippa accepted their worship and allowed himself to be regarded as a god, “an angel of the Lord struck him” (12:23). The expression translated “to strike,” when used in this fashion, is known as a Hebraism. Luke intends for the reader to recall the Old Testament manner of describing divine wrath falling upon the wicked to protect the righteous (Exod. 9:15; 12:12-13; 2 Sam. 24:16-17; 2 Kgs. 19:35). Such a divinely sent “strike” is always a fatal blow.
Interestingly, Josephus states that Agrippa knew he was in trouble: “As he presently afterward looked up, he saw an owl sitting on a certain rope over his head, and immediately understood that this bird was the messenger of ill tidings, as it had once been the messenger of good tidings to him; and fell into the deepest sorrow.”[110] Is it possible he saw a manifestation of the angel of the Lord? If so, the warning had no effect. He still had time to repent. Instead, he died suddenly and painfully, “eaten by worms” (Acts 12:23).
Agrippa didn’t suddenly acquire the worms. He died suddenly because of them. How long had those worms been devouring the man from the inside? While he sat in haughty power over James before sentencing him to die? When he ordered the arrest of Peter and then played the pious king at Passover? When he laid plans to expand his holdings into Syria? No matter. His manner of death simply revealed his manner of living. A man eaten by worms presumed to sit in judgment over God’s people, and he fell as quickly as he had risen.
AGRIPPA, MESSIANIC HOPE OF THE SANHEDRIN
ACTS 12:22
In a way, Agrippa seems to have been positioning himself to become Israel’s messiah. His power and land holdings eclipsed those of Herod the Great. In fact, he rivaled David and Solomon in terms of land and power. Given his rapid rise to power and his connections in Rome, one might even have suggested him as a successor to Claudius. Imagine, the “king of the Jews” ruling the Roman Empire, which in turn ruled much of the known world. Agrippa was the kind of messiah many Jews had been taught to anticipate. Regrettably, he believed his own press.
In AD 41, the Roman province of Judea was given to Agrippa, who already held Galilee, Perea, and Samaria. This effectively reunited the land once held by David and Solomon under a single king for the first time since the kingdom was divided a thousand years earlier. Agrippa also held the Roman title of consul and enjoyed close ties with emperors Caligula and Claudius.[111] If he managed his resources wisely and continued to build strong relations with other territorial rulers, he might one day become emperor himself.
Agrippa was a hero to the religious and political elite in Jerusalem. Neither the aristocratic Sadducees nor the populist Pharisees seemed to mind the fact that he was not fully Jewish. His nearest Hebrew relative was his paternal grandmother, Mariamne I, the second wife of Herod the Great. He was, in fact, three-quarters Idumean, a race of people descended from Esau. Even so, when Agrippa moved his capital to Jerusalem to rule the reunited kingdom, the temple officials extended a great honor to the man they called king. At the Feast of Tabernacles in the Year of Jubilee, he read the Law in accordance with the instructions of Moses:
“At the end of every seven years, at the time of the year of remission of debts, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place which He will choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, the men and the women and children and the alien who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law. Their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live on the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.” (Deut. 31:10-13)
Jewish scholars interpreted this command to mean that the king of Israel should read the Law under the auspices of the high priest. So when Agrippa took the crown, the temple officials took steps to demonstrate their acceptance of Agrippa as their legitimate king. Here is how the Babylonian Talmud recalls the occasion:
At the conclusion of the first day of the festival [of Tabernacles] in the eighth, i.e., the end of the seventh, they erect a wooden dais in the temple court, upon which he sits; as it is said, at the end of every seven years, in the set time etc. The synagogue-attendant takes a Torah-scroll and hands it to the synagogue president, and the synagogue-president hands it to the [high priest’s] deputy. He hands it to the high priest who hands it to the king. The king stands and receives it, but reads sitting. King Agrippa stood and received it and read standing, for which act the sages praised him. When he reached, “Thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee,” his eyes ran with tears.[112]
The passage that affected Agrippa so deeply appears midway through the reading:
When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,” you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. (Deut. 17:14-15)
Agrippa knew his racial heritage. So did everyone else. Still, the temple authorities reassured the king, “Fear not, Agrippa, thou art our brother, thou art our brother!”[113]
— 12:24 —
Luke’s parting comment on the episode is fitting: “He was eaten by worms and died. But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied” (12:23-24). Since then, the word of the Lord has continued to grow and multiply for two thousand years. Agrippa’s pathetic, three-year reign is a piece of lint on the scroll of church history.
Tragically, this also marked the nation of Israel’s last hope of participation in God’s redemptive plan —at least for now. He’s not finished with His covenant people. He will fulfill all His Old Testament promises literally and completely in the future (Rom. 9–11). After the death of Agrippa (AD 44), however, the nation grew even more estranged from the new covenant and increasingly hostile to the church. Then calamity destroyed the temple (AD 70) and scattered the people.
— 12:25 —
Acts 11:19-30 rewound the narrative clock to summarize the partnership of Barnabas and Saul in Antioch, but 12:25 takes us forward again to rejoin their ministry in progress. Agrippa died in AD 44; the famine took place two years later in AD 46.
Luke closes this section of the narrative with a transition statement. The focus will now shift away from Jerusalem to highlight the new center of Christianity in Antioch. The kingdom of God will expand chiefly among the Gentiles, not the Jews. Even though Peter will continue to minister effectively for many years to come, Paul will carry forward the word of God even more extensively. The baton has passed to new hands. Stage two of the plan, “Judea and Samaria,” will now give way to stage three, “the remotest part of the earth” (1:8).
APPLICATION: ACTS 12:18-25
Contrasting Lives . . . A Compelling Lesson
Most symphonies have a major melody, a familiar strain that forms the main theme. You can hum it, or whistle it, or —in the case of Beethoven’s Ninth —belt it out in German. It’s the major melody you think of when that piece of music comes to your attention.
But behind the melody there are notes that nobody ever hums.
I remember playing in the Houston Youth Symphony years ago. I played oboe —the only oboist in the group. We were playing a piece called “The Caliph of Baghdad.” At one point in that piece there’s a counterpart by the oboe that backs up the melody. I have to admit, in an orchestra of sixty instruments —pounding percussion, screeching strings, blaring brass —I was afraid my little oboe wouldn’t be heard. But the conductor assured me, “Young man, you just play that part quietly. That oboe pierces.”
To prove his point, he recorded our performance. When we finished the piece, he played it back. Sure enough, behind the major melody was this subtle counterpart of the oboe, clear as could be . . . if you were listening for it. It wasn’t the lyrical line everybody would be humming, but if you knew what to listen for, you’d know that was my oboe.
That’s Acts 12:24-25. The omniscient Spirit of God knows how to arrange things in His inspired narrative to teach us profound truths. At the end of this section, He moved Luke to add two little verses that seem to stick out like mules in a shopping mall. From a human perspective you might think Luke didn’t know where else to put these verses, but from a divine perspective we see a lesson in contrasts.
By flexing his political muscles and flaunting his eloquence, King Agrippa I drew great crowds of doting devotees. Their “messiah in the making” sounded to them like a god! Maybe, he thought, it was so —until an angel afflicted him with a downright disgusting disease. I’m sure everybody throughout Judea was distraught over that tragic turn of events.
But while the world fretted about worms, God focused on His word: “But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied” (12:24). And while the world turned its attention to the fate of their false messiah, God pointed our attention to His faithful missionaries: “And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark” (12:25).
What contrasting lives . . . and opposing priorities!
Yet from this great divergence between the well known and the unknown, a compelling lesson emerges.
In life, the major melody always makes the headlines. It’s what everybody is humming. And if we’re not careful, those of us designed to “play oboe” will want to play that part, too. We’ll want to be noticed. Don’t do it! Play your part —the part God gave you to play. It may seem you’re getting lost in the background, but never mind that. If God made you an oboist, just play the oboe. You never know what He may choose to do with your quiet, humble, barely noticeable contribution. Through your efforts —often unseen —God’s doing His work. It’s His symphony, after all.