¹Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. ²And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. ³When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. ⁴When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. ⁵So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

Famine for the Christians in Jerusalem was exacerbated by the growing persecution. The peace they had enjoyed since the conversion and departure of Saul, the former ringleader of Jewish opposition (Acts 9:31), was now truncated by renewed persecution, this time targeting their leaders. The first one in the crosshairs was James, the brother of John. Peter and John had previously been incarcerated and even flogged (Acts 4:3; 5:18, 40), but they were always released. Stephen, one of the seven servants, was stoned (Acts 6), but he was not one of the principal leaders of the Christian movement as the apostles were. Until now, it  seemed the twelve apostles had special protection. But things were now changing.

Herod had the apostle James killed; God did not rescue him from death! The reactions to this are noteworthy. The rest of the believers must have been shocked, as we shall see shortly. The Jews were pleased that the Roman-appointed political authority was doing their dirty work of persecution. Herod, for his part, wanting to gain the favor of the leading Jews, continued targeting the leading Christians, with Peter next on the list for incarceration.

We might wonder how Saul would have reacted to all this, but there is no mention in Acts whether he and Barnabas were in Jerusalem during this time; they had come and gone before it got started. He never mentioned this persecution in any of his writings. The emphasis is rather on Peter, the focus of the first half of the book of Acts. The second half, beginning with the next chapter, turns to Saul/Paul and his mission tours.

But for now, Peter was thrown into jail, to be held until after the Passover. This almost seems like a replay of the final days of our Lord Jesus Christ. This Herod was probably not the same one who interrogated Jesus at His trial (Luke 23:8, 12). But in assigning four squadrons to guard him, he may have seen Peter as Jesus’ successor and now the primary leader of the Christians. Was this going to be a replay of what happened to Jesus?

Lord, sometimes You rescue, sometimes You don’t. I trust You either way.