And Herod having sought him and not found him, having examined the guards, commanded [them] to be executed. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea and stayed [there].
Peter is gone from a guarded prison, and the king who locked him up cannot find him. Herod questions the guards, has them killed, and then leaves Judea for Caesarea — the moves of a man who still believes he is in charge.
Herod had the power of the state and the Jewish leaders on his side. He still could not find one man, because Peter was not the one doing the hiding.
News of his mysterious disappearance reached the king. He sought for his prisoner, and surely he had all the Jewish authorities, with many of the people probably, on his side. But all in vain: he could not be found. The Lord evidently sheltered him. So the guards had to die. They were guilty of carelessness in the letter of the law, though innocent of any crime deserving death or prison. Herod, defeated in this way, left Jerusalem for Caesarea.
Herod had planned for Peter the same end another apostle had already met. Denied it, he turned on the men nearest at hand.
It is beautiful to note the ways of God with His servants, already traceable in this short book. Now, one apostle is killed with the sword. Another is delivered by the Lord's angel, on the eve of a similar plan by the king. If we are to believe Josephus, this king was usually mild toward the people. That mildness did not stop him from extreme persecution of the truth when his religious zeal and his political vanity were offended. And his frustration burst out on the guards without mercy, as we learn in verses 18 and 19. Yet not a shred of evidence pointed to any guilty co-operation on their part in the prisoner's escape. No wonder he saw fit to go down from Judea to Caesarea.
Rome's own rules stood behind the sentence. The facts of this case did not.
Herod, frustrated by all this, examined the keepers and gave orders for their execution. It was true that Rome enforced its policy of making guards fully responsible for the prisoners put in their charge, with death as the penalty for failure. Yet the evidence of God's intervention was so clear that you would expect a fair-minded Herod not to enforce it here. Evidently no one made a fresh effort to find and arrest Peter.
God had taken Peter out of Herod's hands. Killing the guards was Herod's way of refusing to admit it.
In killing his soldiers, Herod showed plainly that he refused to see the hand of God in Peter's deliverance from his power. And in accepting the praise of the people of Tyre and Sidon, he took the tribute that belonged to God alone (Acts 12). It was then that God, in His government, laid His hand on the proud Herod, bringing him down in death.
Herod goes down from Judea to Caesarea, yet Caesarea stood inside the Judea Rome had marked out. The name covers different areas in different passages.
In the New Testament the name sometimes refers to a much larger district… Acts 12:19 speaks of Herod going down from Judea to Caesarea. Yet Caesarea would be part of the Judea of the Romans. In Galatians 1:22 and 1 Thessalonians 2:14 Paul speaks of the "churches of Judea." That would seem to include the whole of Palestine. The context will nearly always show the extent of the district intended.
Herod settled at Caesarea, and that is where his story ends. The move did not take him out of God's reach.
He was in God's safe keeping, so that though Herod sought for him, he did not find him. After that he was disappointed in his bloodthirsty scheme, in which Peter was to have played such a prominent part. So he took out his anger on the keepers of the prison. Then, going to Caesarea soon afterwards, he died under the severe judgment of God from a most terrible disease. Most men breathe their last and are then eaten by worms. Of Herod the Holy Spirit records that he "was eaten by worms and breathed his last." Then, in striking contrast with the passing character of all this wicked man's earthly greatness, He at once adds, "But the word of God increased and multiplied."
- Sheltered. Herod searched with every advantage on his side and found nothing. The Lord was sheltering Peter.
- Sentenced. Roman practice made guards answerable with their lives. Yet God's hand was so plain here that a fair-minded king would have spared them.
- Refused. Killing the soldiers was Herod's way of denying what had happened. His anger struck his own men, not his intended victim.
- Removed. He went down from Judea to Caesarea — a change of address, not a change of position before God.
- Reversed. Herod's greatness ended in a loathsome death; the word of God he tried to silence kept growing.
And he was in bitter hostility with [the] Tyrians and Sidonians; but they came to him with one accord, and, having gained Blastus the king's chamberlain, sought peace, because their country was nourished by the king's.
Herod has just executed James and lost Peter. He has punished the guards, and now he leaves Jerusalem for the coast. Verse 20 finds him angry with Tyre and Sidon. How those two cities buy their way back into his favour sets up the last scene of his life.
Herod could not hold Peter. His first response was to punish the men who had guarded him.
Now one apostle is killed with the sword. Another is rescued by Jehovah's angel, just as the king was planning the same end for him. According to Josephus, this king was usually mild toward his people. That did not stop him persecuting the truth to the limit when his religious zeal and his political vanity were offended. His anger then burst out on the guards, as verses 18 and 19 show. Yet there was not the slightest evidence that they had any guilty part in the prisoner's escape. No wonder he thought it best to go down from Judea to Caesarea.
The New Testament calls him only "Herod the king." His short reign explains why two cities were so anxious about his mood.
He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and because he saw it pleased the Jews he seized Peter also. This happened about A.D. 43. Within a year the king let people call him a god, and the Almighty struck him down. He died a miserable death.
The ESV says they "persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain." The Greek verb behind that word is worth a closer look.
Acts 12:20 illustrates the verb, which in this connection means "to gain over" or "make a friend of."
Blastus was the king's personal attendant, and the cities went to him first.
Residents of Tyre and Sidon, north of Caesarea, wanting to calm Herod's displeasure toward them, use the influence of Herod's chamberlain. We are told that they wanted a reconciliation simply out of selfish motives. They came on an appointed day to hear a speech from Herod. They knew his proud vanity well.
Their food came from Herod's land, so they had to keep him happy. The same flattery soon came from a crowd, and it ended his story.
These scenes are as full of interest as they are of deep instruction about man's dealings with God. The church's prayers were answered beyond their faith. The tyrant himself was struck down at the very moment he accepted the crowd's worship of him as a god. The man who did not give the glory to God was given up to worms, even before he gave up his life. "But the word of God grew and multiplied."
Herod went to the coast as the ruler everyone had to please. The chapter ends by showing who the real ruler is.
Herod is baffled by the power of the One he resisted. He puts the men he used in his hatred to death, and goes away to the Gentile seat of his power. There he displays his glory and accepts the flattering homage of the people, as though he were a god. God Himself strikes him down, and shows that He is the governor of this world, however great the pride of man.
The applause that followed the speech was the popular voice at its loudest — and its emptiest.
But the voice of the people is not always the voice of God: God struck him and the worms ate him. Outside, all glory and splendour; inside, loathsome corruption.
The persecution that opened the chapter simply stopped, and the work moved on.
Threats, imprisonments, martyrdoms did not stop the movement. And Herod's terrible end would certainly not encourage anyone to try again against the apostles. Persecution at Jerusalem then, as far as we know, ceased; and Barnabas and Saul could return unmolested to Antioch.
- Enmity — Herod reaches Caesarea already angry. James is dead, Peter is gone, and the guards died for a crime they did not commit.
- Bread — Tyre and Sidon ask for peace because they eat from his land. Hunger, not goodwill, drives the delegation.
- Flattery — They know his vanity, so they win over his chamberlain first. The Greek word means to gain a man over, to make a friend of him.
- Judgment — The king who fed them accepts the crowd's worship, and God strikes him. Outward splendour, inward corruption.
- The Word — Worms eat Herod; the word of God grows and multiplies. God feeds, and God governs.
And on a set day, clothed in royal apparel and sitting on the elevated seat [of honour], Herod made a public oration to them.
Acts 12 has already shown one apostle killed and another led out of prison past sleeping guards. Now the king himself takes the stage in royal robes, and one question hangs over the scene: what happens when a man takes the seat of honour and forgets who gave it to him?
The word behind "throne" here is the same one translated "judgment seat" elsewhere. One writer follows how far it reaches:
The word translated "judgment seat" means only a step or raised platform. Anyone exercising authority, or making a speech, might occupy it. It takes in "the great white throne," before which the dead are summoned for their final sentence. But it is a word of much wider meaning, and it does not necessarily, or even primarily, mean the seat of a judge at a criminal trial… It is used of the platform where Herod sat when he received the delegation from Tyre and Sidon (Acts 12:21), and there our translators render it "throne."
Herod fixed the day, and the audience came with something to gain:
Residents of Tyre and Sidon, north of Caesarea, wanted to soothe Herod's displeasure toward them, so they used the influence of Herod's chamberlain. We are told they wanted a reconciliation only from selfish motives. They came on an appointed day to hear a speech from Herod. They knew his proud vanity well. His royal clothing (according to the historian Josephus) had a silver texture and shone brilliantly in the sun.
The crowd shouted that a god was speaking. Herod said nothing back. One writer sets his silence beside what Peter did:
When Herod sat on his throne, the people cried that this was not the voice of a man but the voice of a god. He did not give God the glory. He did not, like Peter, rebuke them, tell them to stand up on their feet, and say that this was not a god but a man. Instead he claimed this false praise for himself and delighted in it. So God struck him in His vengeance.
Herod's own last words, as Josephus recorded them, answered the crowd for him:
"I, whom you call a god, am commanded to depart this life at once. In this way Providence rebukes the lying words you just now said to me. I, whom you call immortal, am to be hurried away by death this very moment."
One writer places Herod in a long line of proud men. God lets each of them climb first:
This is very instructive, for this has been God's way, and still is. The builders of the tower of Babel were allowed to carry on with their work until they made it a wonder. Nebuchadnezzar was given time to finish his great city… So here Haman is put up with until he sits at the top. Then, at the moment of proudest elevation, the judgment of God visits all these. Herod was another such man. God struck him, and he died while the people were listening to him and saying, "It is the voice of a god, and not of a man."
One writer reads the scene as a picture of someone still to come:
…the way the Lord judged the man who had turned away from God. Soon after, the people Herod had tried to please hailed him as a god. He had been disappointed in one place, but he was exalted in another. At that moment the angel of the Lord deals with his pride, and worms devour him. It is a sad picture of the awful judgment of God that will fall on the one who will sit "in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God."
The chapter then sets Herod's end beside something growing the other way:
Verse 24 gives us a striking contrast. As the worms grew and multiplied in Herod's wretched body, so the Word of God grew and multiplied in the hearts of many. When it pleases God to overthrow an enemy, He need not exert Himself: a few worms will do the job.
- Platform, not palace. The "throne" was a raised platform, the same word used for a judge's seat. Herod turned a place of authority into a stage.
- Staged. The set day, the silver robe and the visitors from Tyre and Sidon all served one man's vanity. They wanted Herod's goodwill; Herod wanted applause.
- Silence. The shout did not condemn him; his refusal to correct it did. Peter had told such people to stand up on their feet.
- Height, then fall. God let the builders of Babel, Nebuchadnezzar and Haman reach the top first. He strikes at the moment of proudest elevation.
- Multiplying. Worms multiplied in the king; the Word of God multiplied in many hearts. God needs no great effort to end an enemy.
And the people cried out, A god's voice and not a man's.
Herod sits on his throne in royal robes and finishes his speech. The crowd answers with a cry that lifts a man into the place of God. The real question is not why a crowd flattered a king. It is why the king said nothing to stop them, and what followed when he let the words stand.
The word for the crowd here is a precise one. It appears only a few times in Acts.
The Greek word dēmos occurs only in Acts 12:22; Acts 17:5; Acts 19:30, 33. It matches the Latin populus, free citizens, and that is how it is used in these passages.
These people were not strangers to Herod. They had studied him, and they knew where to aim.
They came on a set day to hear a speech from Herod. They knew his proud vanity well. His royal robe (according to the historian Josephus) was woven with silver and shone in the sun. The people shouted that his voice was the voice of a god and not of a man. This shameless flattery worked on his pride. He was willing to insult the God who created him by accepting honours that belong to God.
Herod said nothing back. That silence is the turning point of the story, and Kelly sets it against Peter, who lifted a kneeling man off the floor.
When Herod sits on his throne, the people's cry is that this is the voice of a god and not the voice of a man. He did not give God the glory. He did not, like Peter, rebuke them and tell them to stand up on their feet, and say that this was not a god but a man. Instead he claimed the honour for himself and enjoyed this false praise. So God struck him down in His vengeance.
Others in Acts faced the same offer. They turned it down on the spot.
Cornelius wanted to worship him, but Peter lifted him up and said, "Stand up; I too am a man." Compare this with the anger of Paul and Barnabas when the men of Lystra wanted to offer them a sacrifice (Acts 14:14). Compare it too with the words of the angel in Revelation, whom John was ready to worship (Rev. 22:9). These servants knew their place, and knew what belonged to the Lord.
Other rulers took the same title and lived. Kelly explains why Herod was a different case.
The blow that cut short this self-exalting king clearly turns on one thing. He accepted the godless incense that the shameless flattery of his court and the crowd offered him. People may point to the same blasphemy going unpunished in Roman emperors and others. But Herod Agrippa claimed to keep the Jewish law with great care, and so he fell under the hand of God, Who waits for a later day before dealing with the nations that do not know Him.
Some writers see a pattern here that runs far beyond one king.
Once a creature reaches for deity, judgment does not wait. Satan reached for deity and fell. The crowd greeted Herod with the shout, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!" and because "he did not give God the glory" the angel of the Lord struck him at once, and he was eaten by worms and died. So it will be with the antichrist.
The chapter does not end with the throne. It ends with a quiet line about the word of God, and one writer sets the two side by side.
As the worms grew and multiplied in Herod's wretched body, so the Word of God grew and multiplied in the hearts of many. When God chooses to overthrow an enemy, He does not need to exert Himself: a few worms are enough to achieve His purpose.
- Shout — Free citizens came looking for favour. They knew Herod's pride, and they aimed their flattery straight at it.
- Silence — Herod's sin was not the crowd's words. It was his refusal to correct them. He kept the glory that belongs to God.
- Stand up — Peter, Paul and Barnabas, and even an angel refused the same honour. True servants know what belongs to the Lord alone.
- Stroke — Judgment does not wait when a creature reaches for deity. Satan fell, Herod fell, and the antichrist will fall the same way.
- Seed — Worms multiplied in the king's body while the word of God multiplied in hearts. God needs very little to end an enemy, and His word outlives every throne.
And immediately an angel of [the] Lord smote him, because he did not give the glory to God, and he expired, eaten of worms.
Acts 12 ends with a king dying in public disgrace at the very moment of his greatest applause. The crowd treated him as a god, and he did not correct them. The same chapter shows an angel opening a prison door for Peter, then striking down the man who had locked it.
The verse names one reason: he did not give God the glory. People offered him honour that belonged to God, and he kept it. One writer sets out the scene of that applause, then turns it on rulers today.
The wretched king put his own glory on show before the people of Tyre and Sidon, with a royal throne, royal robes, and a public speech. It was a huge diplomatic success. The people gave him, and he accepted, honours due to "a god." At that moment the angel of the Lord struck him. He was only a mortal man, yet he took honours that belonged to God. Powerful men today, just as mortal, are coming very near to doing the same thing. We may yet see them also vanish from the stage of life in the same miserable way.
The chapter uses the same word twice. An angel struck Peter to free him from prison, and an angel struck Herod down.
Acts 12, which begins with the deliverance of Peter, ends with the judgment of Herod. In both cases an angel "struck." He struck Peter up out of prison to set him free, and He struck Herod down into a miserable and disgusting death. God has not repeated such acts, simply because we live in this Gospel age, an age marked by grace. When this age of grace ends, we shall see God's people fully delivered and their oppressors fully judged.
The verse puts the worms before the last breath, not after it. One writer stops on that order.
Human flesh has often been eaten by worms after death, but in Herod's case it happened before death. It is hard to imagine a more horrible end. With James, God let Herod have his way. With Peter, God stopped him. Then God made a fool of him and demanded his soul in the middle of scenes of misery and pain no words can describe.
Another writer sets the display and the decay side by side in one line.
He dressed himself in splendour and made a great speech from the throne, and the people cheered wildly. But the voice of the people is not always the voice of God: God struck him and the worms ate him. Outside, all glory and splendour; inside, disgusting decay.
A record outside the Bible tells the same story. The historian Josephus reports what Herod said as he was dying.
Josephus also records that Herod said at this time: "I, whom you call a god, am ordered to leave this life at once. Providence is rebuking on the spot the lying words you just spoke to me. You called me immortal, and now death is hurrying me away." Such was the tragic end of the man people called "Agrippa the Great!"
One writer reads Herod's end as a small preview of a judgment still ahead.
Herod had tried to please the people, and soon after they accepted him. He had been frustrated in one place, but in another he was honoured, and there they hailed him as a god. At that moment the angel of the Lord deals with his pride, and worms devour him. It is a sad picture of the terrible judgment of God that will fall on the one who will sit "in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God."
Herod's story ends here, but the chapter does not.
Most men breathe their last, and then the worms eat them. Of Herod the Holy Spirit records the opposite order: he "was eaten by worms and breathed his last." Then, in striking contrast with how quickly this wicked man's greatness on earth passed away, He at once adds, "But the word of God increased and multiplied." That is the moral of this striking story of human plans and God's intervention.
- Cause. Herod kept glory that belonged to God. He took honours due to God, and the blow fell at that moment.
- Angel. One chapter, two blows from an angel: Peter struck free from prison, Herod struck down into death.
- Manner. The worms did their work before he breathed his last. Outside, all splendour; inside, decay.
- Confirmation. Josephus records the same collapse. The dying king admitted that calling him a god had been a lie.
- Outcome. The king's greatness passed in a moment. The very next line reports that the word of God increased and multiplied.
But the word of God grew and spread itself.
Two things end this chapter: a king eaten by worms, and God's word still spreading. One small word — "but" — sets them side by side and asks what really grows in this world. (The ESV reads "increased and multiplied"; older versions read "grew and multiplied.")
The verse before this one has Herod struck down and eaten by worms. One writer points out that the same two words describe both sides of the "but."
Verse 24 gives us a striking contrast. As the worms grew and multiplied in Herod's wretched body, so the word of God grew and multiplied in the hearts of many. When it pleases God to overthrow an opponent, He does not need to exert Himself: a few worms will do the job. The word of God is what carries out His purpose of blessing in the souls of men.
The order of the words in verse 23 is worth a second look.
Most men breathe their last and are then eaten by worms. Of Herod the record of the Holy Spirit is that he "was eaten by worms and breathed his last." Then, in striking contrast with the passing nature of all this wicked man's earthly greatness, He at once adds, "But the word of God grew and multiplied." That is the moral that crowns this striking account of human schemes and divine intervention.
The chapter is a run of attacks on the church. Each one backfires.
In chapter 12 Herod puts James the brother of John to death, and "proceeded to arrest Peter also." But this very activity of the enemy brought in the intervention of God. God frees Peter from his captivity and strikes Herod down. Then comes the significant statement: "But the word of God grew and multiplied."
A word does not grow the way a plant does. So what exactly increased? One writer answers by lining up the parallel verses in Acts.
So it says "the word of God increased" (Acts 6:7). The next words are "and the number of the disciples multiplied." In the same way, "the word of God grew and multiplied" (Acts 12:24). "So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily" (Acts 19:20). I have never heard of anyone finding these passages difficult. These verses mark the mighty effect of the word made known in preaching. They identify the effects produced with their source.
Growth here has two dimensions, and neither the failures of believers nor the strength of opponents could hold it back.
How restrained is the note of triumph that follows! "But the word of God grew and multiplied" (v. 24). Compare Acts 6:7; Acts 19:20. Its sphere widened as its agents increased. Too many who received it were weak, yet their weakness could not hide its own weight and value. Neither could the mighty opponents, who had to fall before a Mightier One behind it.
The word works like seed in a field. One writer traces that lesson straight into this verse.
The great lesson taught here is that the word of the Lord carries its own power. It achieves God's purpose without any help from outside. The seed has its enemies: the thieving birds, the burning sun, the thriving thorns... But the Lord gave His followers this assurance. Its enemies are active and its friends are feeble. Even so, the word of the kingdom will make progress and prevail. So it came about that in the days of the apostles "the word of God grew and multiplied."
So how does this growth reach anyone today?
All this came from receiving the word of God. Having found this treasure, they had to share it with others. You cannot have a monopoly on God's word! If you pass on something of the truth of God to a soul, you keep it yourself as well; you are not made poorer by it. "The word of God grew and multiplied."
- Two growths. Worms multiplied in Herod's body; the word multiplied in human hearts. Luke's "but" makes the whole chapter a comparison of what lasts.
- Unbound. Chains, swords and thrones cannot stop it — the enemy's own activity is what brings God onto the scene.
- Measured by fruit. The word "grew" because disciples multiplied; Luke names the effect by its source, as in Acts 6:7 and 19:20.
- Self-powered. Like seed in the ground, it carries its own power to do God's work, despite enemies outside and weakness inside.
- Shared. Give it away and it multiplies, and the giver loses nothing. That is how the growth reaches you, and continues through you.