Acts 12:1-19 No jail can hold Peter

Acts 12:1-4 Peter is arrested. We are not given any insight into why Herod laid hands on some members of the church. Peter, as the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, is an obvious target. We can guess that the tension between the Jews and the Christians was causing some stress and Herod wanted to rule without turmoil. And perhaps he wanted to curry favor with the Jews and suppress the church. This was Herod Agrippa I. In any event, Peter was arrested as Jesus had foretold. (Matthew 10:17-20)

Acts 12:5-10 An angel frees Peter from prison. However, this time he did not even get the opportunity to speak the words the Holy Spirit would give (as contrasted to Acts 4:8-12). The angel freed him before the show trial that Herod had planned. The details of the supernatural deliverance seem like something out of a Hollywood movie, like the Adjustment Bureau. Except that this happened 1900 years before Hollywood special effects were created. Perhaps the reality of Biblical scenes like this served as an inspiration for Hollywood creativity. In any event, Peter was freed supernaturally from prison.

Acts 12:11-17 Peter goes to the house of Mary the mother of John Mark to report that he has been freed. There is subtle humor here, that the servant girl Rhoda didn't even bother to let him in, and then the others gathered there did not believe her when she told them. It is possible, perhaps likely, that the reason Peter went to this house is that there was some type of close personal connection, perhaps with John Mark, since he seems to have had Peter's input in writing the second gospel. But in this event, Peter did not go to the house of James or John. Perhaps he feared that they were under surveillance, or did not want to implicate them if he was being followed, since he told the people at Mary's house to report the things that had happened to James, rather than going himself.

Acts 12:18-19 The guards who were keeping Peter in custody are punished for his escape. When they searched for Peter in the prison, they could not find him. Sometimes the aftermath of God's supernatural intervention doesn't look supernatural, it's just something that has no explanation. They couldn't find him in prison, but no one knew how he got away. Perhaps it is unfair that the guard had to pay the penalty for something that was a supernatural deliverance of Peter. But there was no other way, since Herod would not have believed it even if he had been told the truth. So the guards were the scapegoats.