Judges 3-5
Psalm 39
*Acts 12
-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)
Today we’re going to talk about some deep things. We mostly like to kind of brush past some of the harder bits of truth, but sometimes we need to acknowledge that they exist in order to appreciate the overwhelmingly high favor that we have been given without cause, and through no merit of our own.
**As a side note, I would also like to strongly encourage you to check it out every time scripture is quoted. Look up every bible verse anyone ever quotes (including me!) just to make sure they’re not mistaken, quoting partial truths, or being misleading: be a good Berean and check. Examine context, make sure it’s quoted correctly, and that it’s used properly.
I sometimes wonder at how much I should share, but this might be important to someone. This is the extremely edited version of a true story. An old friend of mine, back in the bad old days (see 2/5 devotional) and I were having an inebriated conversation. During this conversation talk turned to God, and he started saying the actual name of God, and I got scared (because we weren’t behaving properly), which amused him. He continued to do it a few times, then I bowed up and let him know that the next time he drew attention to us in our current state that he and I were going to have a full on brawl (I was a little scrappy in my youth). He laughed and moved on to other topics. A few months later, I had escaped from that life and was safe in a different state, no longer a criminal but attending a Bible college (talk about a culture shock!). A month or two after that I received word that he was dead. Let him who has ears, hear.
The name of God (YHVH, Yahweh, Yehovah) is a sacred name, and not to be used frivolously. It absolutely should be used in reverent prayer and meditation, but never frivolously. God will be treated as holy, and honored before all people (Lev 10:3). I believe part of the reason I’m alive today (aside from my parents’ constant intervention through prayer) is detailed in Malachi 3:16, and I remember Joel 2:32 as well, but I wonder at times at the cost of my freedom from that life that I was in. It is very sobering and very humbling. The price of soul is costly and beyond your ability to buy (Ps 49:8).
In our reading of Acts 12 today, we see this concept written painfully in blood, but most people miss it because it’s just a little blurb in the neat and somewhat funny (at points) story about Peter being freed from jail by an angel. We start out the chapter very seriously indeed with Herod beginning the first (but certainly not the last) persecution of the believers, the “ecclesia”, or what some would call “the church”. This would be Herod Agrippa I, the last “client king” of Judea, the grandson of Herod “the Great” (who was in actuality not so great). Herod (Agrippa I) was a skilled diplomat who gained favor in Rome by backing Claudius’ imperial succession, who leveraged his friendships with emporers Caligula and Claudius to reunify the territories of Samaria, Judea, and Galilee under a single rule (his).
Being a skilled politician who had just reunited rule on the territories around Judea, he sought to solidify his power by any means necessary. So while he maintained his Roman alliances and friends, he zealously sought and enforced orthodox Jewish policies in order to secure the loyalty of his Jewish subjects of that territory. So with that historical knowledge in the back of your head, now read in Acts 12:1-2 that after persecuting the early believers and killing James “and when he saw that it pleased the Jews” (Acts 12:3 LSB), he arrested Peter.
Remember that this is an ambitious politician, ruling over a territory of Jews, attempting to solidify his political strength in the land; so when he has Peter arrested, we can only assume it was to have him publicly killed later (since that is what pleased the Jews with James). What was the cost of one man’s life to him, in order to gain power? Just some fisherman, not anybody politically important, not even wealthy; a small price to pay to solidify your power over the territory, right?
So when Peter is arrested, he takes extra steps to secure his prisoner, because this is political gold for him. This is one of the leaders of that new upstart group causing dissension among the Jews, his subjects now. In Acts 12:4 it says, “When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to 4 squads of soldiers, to guard him…” (LSB). The actual word here translated as “squad” is “quaternion”, and a quaternion was composed of 4 soldiers each, so: 4 quaternions (of 4 soldiers each) equal 16 soldiers, trained and hardened professional Roman soldiers. When sleeping, Peter was chained with 2 chains between 2 soldiers, and there were other soldiers in front of the doors. Stop and think about the level of force here for a moment, Herod is not taking any chances. You don’t secure a prisoner that securely if you’re planning on giving public high fives when you bring him out, Peter was going to die here. It says at the end of 12:4 that he was “intending to bring him out before the people”, to kill him publicly in other words.
There follows an inspiring and miraculous tale of victory when an angel comes to free Peter, releasing him from prison, leading him through multiple obstacles safely and then departing. The story then becomes slightly amusing as Peter is left standing outside the gate of his friend’s house while the amazed servant forgets to let him in and rushes to tell the other believers that Peter is there, and after some disbelief, all of the believers rejoice. This is detailed very well in Acts 12:6-17.
In Acts 12:19, though, there’s a tiny little blurb that states: “And when Herod had searched for him and had not found him, he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution...”. Let me clarify that for you. A Roman examination was, simply put, torture. It consisted less of a close examination of facts, and more of horrific slow and painful torture until you confessed; less fingerprinting and more of a painful removal of the fingers, followed by death. 16 men were tortured and died in order that 1 man might go free. This is what I want you to consider today, because the cost of a soul is high.
That is why it is so important as slaves of The Christ, as servants of The Messiah, to know that when our lives were bought, we were bought at a price (1 Cor 6:20, 1 Cor 7:23); an overwhelming price higher than we could afford or deserved, the blood of God’s innocent servant (1 Pet 1:18-19), His Anointed One, whose blood was given for you. I remember my dead friend, I remember even more God’s chosen Messiah, the son of God, who willingly shed his blood for me. How much was my sorry life worth? The price of a soul is high, but my King, my innocent and humble King, paid it willingly for us. It makes me cry. Father God have mercy.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Do you think that Peter ever humbly meditated on the fact that 16 men died in his place when he escaped?
If you had the same experience, how would it make you feel (even if you knew that if they hadn’t died, you would have)?
Are we daily living in a manner that honors and respects the (too high) price that was paid for us?
PRAYER
Oh my Father God, have mercy on me. I am completely unworthy of the price that You paid for me. Please forgive me, help me to honor You in every word, in every action, in every thought. Thank You for redeeming me; without cause, and at too high a cost, but thank You. Please help me to live every moment from this point forward reflecting that overwhelming love and generosity towards You and Your creation. In the name of Yeshua, Jesus the Christ whom You sent, Amen.
Seek Grow Love 