And lo, an angel of [the] Lord came there, and a light shone in the prison and having smitten the side of Peter, he roused him up, saying, Rise up quickly. And his chains fell off his hands.
Herod had soldiers, two chains and a locked prison between Peter and freedom. Only hours were left before he meant to kill his prisoner. Then a light fills the cell. One touch and one command undo everything Herod built, and no guard hears a sound.
The king had arranged everything he could. It counted for nothing.
Peter was indeed to have the honour of a martyr's death — his Lord told him so in John 21:18, but not yet. Our times are in His hand — what comfort! Trusting the Lord, Peter could sleep in peace in prison, even though he was chained to two soldiers. Herod posted more soldiers at the door of his cell. He was determined not to lose his prey. But all men's precautions are useless when God asserts Himself. He who disposed of Pilate's stone and seal made short work of Herod's doors and guards.
Notice when the rescue came — not early, and not too late.
Deliverance was at hand, which the church scarcely expected any more than the king feared it. As usual, it was just before the critical moment. "At evening time there shall be light."
The angel had to strike Peter's side because he slept so deeply. Faith, not indifference, is what put him to sleep.
Unbelief is what stirs up all this restlessness, when there should be stillness instead. Take Jacob: he was praying when he should have been sleeping in the promise. It was not so with Peter. He is in the prison itself, between two soldiers, bound with two chains — and he sleeps. He sleeps so soundly in the promise and sufficiency of God that his rescuer has to strike him on the side to raise him up.
Peter had a reason to rest, and it came from an earlier arrest.
Peter had escaped from prison once before, and no one knew how he got out (Acts 5). But Peter knew, and that is why here he went to sleep so quietly, for he knew the Lord could take him out again, if He so willed. It is a grand thing to know God, and an awful thing not to know Him. Peter knew God, and slept peacefully.
The light, the waking and the falling chains make up one silent work. No guard noticed any of it.
No sentry said, "Who goes there?" as the angel of the Lord entered the cell of the soundly sleeping Peter and a light shone in the prison. God always brings in light. "In him is no darkness at all," is the character of His nature. Simon's two keepers must have slept too. They neither saw the light nor heard the voice, "Get up quickly." The now awakened Peter obeys it, for the angel's touch had roused him before he "raised him up." It seems that as Peter obeys the call to rise, "the chains fell off his hands." No jailer or blacksmith's tool does this. When God sets Himself to unlock a man's chains, how silent, fast and effective the work is! Even the clanking irons, as they fall on the floor, do not wake the keepers.
Peter's rescue began outside the prison walls.
The combined prayers of the saints work for good to the godly… The angel brought Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that brought the angel.
The chapter uses angelic power twice, and in opposite directions.
Next we have Peter's deliverance from prison by angelic agency in answer to the earnest prayer of his brothers. Peter was an eminent apostle, his work was not yet done, and deliverance by supernatural power was God's means of saving him from death. But God did not only deliver His servant; the angel of the Lord also struck down his wicked and blasphemous persecutor, Herod.
The angel does not stay a moment longer than the need lasts.
They reached the street of the city, which Peter knew so well. From there he needed no more angelic or miraculous guidance. So the angel of the Lord leaves our twice-freed apostle to his own thoughts and ways.
Such help stays out of sight for a reason.
No doubt we owe far more to angelic ministry than we notice, in matters of physical strength and wellbeing. Yet as spirit beings their ministry is completely hidden. They are content to remain unknown to us, so that God alone receives the glory for it.
- Prayer — the church prayed; the angel came. Prayer brought the angel, and the angel brought Peter out of prison.
- Peace — Peter slept so deeply on his last night that the angel had to strike him awake. The Lord had freed him from prison once before, and he knew who could do it again.
- Power — no tool touched the chains. The light, the waking and the falling irons happened without rousing a single guard.
- Precision — the rescue came on the last night, not weeks earlier. God's hour is just before the critical moment.
- Proportion — the angel walked Peter one street and left. Where ordinary means are enough, the miracle stops. The same power that freed Peter later struck down Herod.
And the angel said to him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And he did so. And he says to him, Cast thine upper garment about thee and follow me.
On the night before his execution, Peter lay chained in a cell, and an angel woke him. What strikes the commentators is not the miracle but its manner: the angel gives ordinary dressing orders — belt, sandals, cloak — in a death cell.
Peter had gone to bed like any man ready to sleep, though he expected to die in the morning. That is why the angel had to tell him to dress.
We are not told what he went through inwardly, but this we read. On the night before he was to be led out to execution, he had unbound his sandals, loosened his belt, thrown off his outer garment, and lain down to sleep. All this showed sweet confidence in the Lord, an easy conscience, and a restful heart. I believe the sleep of the chained man of God in that dreary cell was far sweeter than Herod's. Herod was Satan's servant, and he might lie on a splendid couch, surrounded by the luxury of a palace. Far better to be God's man in a prison than Satan's man in a palace!
What Peter tied on was simple:
Soles worn under the feet, tied by strings or thongs to keep them in place. Mark 6:9; Acts 12:8. See SHOES.
The chains had already dropped off, yet the angel does not rush Peter out barefoot.
"Dress yourself and put on your sandals" is the next command. There is no undue hurry; everything is orderly. Peter obeys, and then hears, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me."
The angel does not simply open the way and leave Peter to work out the rest. He directs each step, and the record keeps every one.
Every detail is recorded, down to the smallest thing. At the angel's word Peter binds on his sandals and puts on his belt. The angel's care is most thorough. And when they had passed the two guards and reached the outer gate, it opens to them by itself.
Peter did what he was told before he believed it was real.
Told to put on his belt and dress himself, he did so, and followed the angel. The experience was so amazing that he thought it was only a vivid dream.
The empty cell said something in itself. A man running for his life leaves his clothes behind.
Day dawned, and light streamed into the prison. But where was the prisoner? The guards woke up to find that Peter was not there. Only one explanation of his escape could be seriously considered. Supernatural power must have been at work, for there was no sign of haste in his departure. His sandals, his belt, his outer garment — all had gone with him.
Those sandals raise a wider question: how small a thing does God bother to look after?
Christ is the believer's security. The Nail fastened in a secure place cannot be broken. Nor can the smallest vessel fail to find sweet security in depending on Him. For all the weight of heaven and earth rests on His shoulder — the weight of redeemed saints and of confirmed angels. I am foolish and senseless to imagine that I can add anything to Christ's special care and tenderness towards His people. He keeps the basins and knives of His house, and He brings the vessels back to the second temple. So He must have a more tender care for His redeemed ones than for a spoon, or for Peter's old shoes, which must not be lost even in his captivity.
This deliverance began before the angel ever reached the cell.
The combined prayers of the saints work for good to the godly. The church prayed to God for Peter without ceasing, and the angel of the Lord came to him, raised him up, and his chains fell off (Acts 12:5-7). The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel.
- Prayer first. The angel brought Peter out of prison, but prayer brought the angel.
- Peace before rescue. Peter took off his sandals and belt and slept on the eve of execution. That is the rest of a man who had left his case with God.
- Order, not panic. Belt, sandals, cloak: no undue hurry. The angel directs every detail, and the record keeps it.
- Obedience before understanding. Peter dressed and followed while he still thought he was dreaming. Obedience, not understanding, took him out.
- Small things kept. The God who fastens sandals in a death cell loses nothing belonging to His people — not even Peter's old shoes.
And going forth he followed [him] and did not know that what was happening by means of the angel was real, but supposed he saw a vision.
Peter walks out of his cell behind the angel and does everything he is told — yet the whole time he does not believe it is happening. He takes his own escape for a vision, which raises a question: how can a man obey God's rescue while still doubting it is real?
One writer traces Peter's dreamlike state up to the moment it lifted:
Peter had followed his guide almost in a dreamy state, for he "did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision" (Acts 12:9). But once he was clear of the prison and had walked down one street, the angel left him. His mission was ended. The apostle then came to himself. Aware that he was free, he could say, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
Peter does not stop to work out whether this is real. He follows each instruction as it comes.
"Dress yourself and put on your sandals," is the next command. There is no rush; everything is done in order. Peter obeys, and then hears, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." Thinking he was "seeing a vision," and not knowing "that what was being done by the angel was real," he still goes with him.
The rescue did not wait for Peter to understand it. Every obstacle gave way while he was still dazed:
His angel stood by and woke him. He freed Peter from his chains and told him in detail what to do, and Peter, as if in a vision, obeyed each word as he was told. He did not come to himself until they had passed both guards, and the iron gate had opened by itself — not to let the angel in, but to let Peter out. They had gone one street away when the angel left him.
Herod had already had James put to death. The difference was not in the strength of the guard but in God's timing for each servant:
Peter was indeed to have the honour of a martyr's death — his Lord told him so in John 21:18, but not yet. Our times are in His hand — what comfort! Trusting in the Lord, Peter could sleep in peace in prison, though he was chained to two soldiers. Herod posted more soldiers at the door of his cell, so determined was he not to lose his prey. But all men's precautions are useless when God asserts Himself.
Another writer draws out the practical lesson:
If God does not deliver us from hard circumstances, it is because He has a wise reason for it. His greater power and grace can enable us to endure what we must face. God could have as easily delivered James, but allowed him to be martyred instead.
Peter was not the only one who could not believe it. The people praying for his rescue could not take it in when it came:
While they were still begging God for Peter's deliverance, the delivered man knocked at the door. Look! The answer to their prayer was there. They could hardly believe it, and in this they were very like ourselves. God's answer went beyond their faith.
One writer reads that night's dazed joy as a picture of what God will yet do for Israel:
At first he was like one who dreamt, thinking that he saw a vision; and so were his companions, saying, "It is his angel!" But so will Israel be hereafter. They will sing, "When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream." In their sudden joy they will have to add, "Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy."
- Asleep — Peter slept the night before his execution, chained between two soldiers. His times were in God's hand, and that hand had not yet set the day of his death.
- Obedient — He dressed, put on his sandals and followed, one command at a time. He did not wait to understand.
- Dreaming — He took the whole rescue for a vision. He came to himself only once the guards, the iron gate and the street were behind him.
- Real — The falling chains, the sleeping guards and the gate that opened by itself were no dream. The rescue was true before Peter believed it.
- Beyond asking — The praying church could not believe its own answered prayer. That is the measure of God: His answer goes beyond our faith.
And having passed through a first and second guard, they came to the iron gate which leads into the city, which opened to them of itself; and going forth they went down one street, and immediately the angel left him.
An angel led Peter past two sets of guards and out of Herod's prison, and the iron gate opened by itself. So why did Peter need a gate opened when his guide did not, and why did the angel leave him alone in the street?
The verse begins with two guard posts. One writer explains why no one raised the alarm.
Peter and the angel passed both the first and second guard without a challenge. All was quiet within the prison, still as death. A sleep — very likely a supernatural sleep, of a kind Scripture mentions elsewhere — had fallen on the guards. Neither their prisoner's movements nor the light that had shone around them woke them.
The verse stops to say what the gate was made of. Gate material was a matter of defence.
City gates were made of wood covered with iron, to make them strong and to keep fire from burning them. The prison at Jerusalem had an outer gate of iron, the only iron one we read of.
The gate did not open because someone outside needed to get in. One writer notes which way the miracle worked, and how late the rescue came.
Deliverance was near. The church hardly expected it any more than the king feared it. As usual, it was just before the critical moment. "At evening time there shall be light." Everything looked certain on the world's side. On the other side, Peter rested in peace through the grace of the Lord who neither slumbers nor sleeps... He did not come to himself until they had passed both guards and the iron gate opened by itself — not to let the angel in, but to let Peter out.
Herod had counted soldiers, chains and guard posts. Two things never entered his arithmetic.
The king could go to bed without a thought about his prisoner, except that he held him fast, so that escape was impossible. But he had left two vital things out of his calculations. The one was the power of God, the other the power of prayer... The king might be sleeping. The Christians were praying. Which would prevail — the power of man, or the prayer of faith?
The church prayed for Peter — and then left him standing outside their own door. One writer follows that irony to the end.
The chains fall to the ground, surely with a lot of noise, yet the soldiers never notice! Neither the guards nor the iron gates do their job. Peter, only half awake, finds himself free. All the prison doors had opened for him. Yet at the house of John Mark's mother, Peter finds himself shut outside a closed door, while inside her fellow believers tell poor Rhoda she is mad. All this because the power of prayer brought results beyond the boldest expectations even of the people praying!
Peter tied on his sandals and followed, and still did not believe any of it was real.
Every small detail is on record. At the angel's word Peter puts on his sandals and fastens his belt. The angel's care reaches to the smallest thing. And when they had passed the two guards and reached the outer gate, it opens to them by itself... Until this moment Peter thought he was seeing a vision. Now he realises that God has delivered him from Herod's hands and from what the Jewish people were expecting. Notice how closely visions matched reality, since Peter took the reality for a vision.
The escort ends after one street, on ground Peter knew.
There is no needless hurry; everything is done in order... Once they reach the city street, which Peter knew so well, there is no further need for angelic or miraculous guidance. So the angel of the Lord leaves the twice-freed apostle to his own thoughts and his own way.
- Gate. The prison's outer gate was the only iron gate the Bible mentions. Iron kept a gate strong and kept fire from burning it down.
- God. It opened by itself, and the point of direction matters: not to let the angel in, but to let Peter out.
- Guards. Herod counted chains, soldiers and guard posts. He left out the two things that decided the night: the power of God and the power of prayer.
- Guidance. Peter obeyed each small instruction while still thinking he was dreaming. The rescue was so far beyond normal life that he took it for a vision.
- Going on. One street from the prison the angel left. Where Peter knew the way, he needed no miraculous help.