Have you ever read a passage of Scripture, then shook your head in wonderment about what just happened? Acts 12 is like that. The chapter heading refers to Peter’s miraculous escape from prison, and if it was made into a movie, it would definitely fall into the sci-fi category.  The scene opens with King Herod the Persecutor, as he mulls over how else he can tighten the vice on the early church. Verse two mentions that John’s brother, James was killed by the sword, and the Jews liked that so much, Herod decided to arrest Peter, as well.

So, Peter gets thrown into prison under the watchful eye of 16 soldiers. The night before his trial, an angel appears, strikes him in the gut to jolt him awake, somehow breaks the chains binding him, and they casually walk past the guards and out of the prison. Peter thinks he’s having a wickedly awesome dream until the angel suddenly disappears, leaving him in the dark street.

It’s too bad for the guards, though, because Herod puts them to death just as swiftly as he killed the believers. He doesn’t seem to lose much sleep about it, though, and he goes back to his kingly duties of patronizing people. Some brown-nosers from a neighboring country come calling and exclaim that Herod’s voice is like a god, not a man. Instead of even feigning humility and giving credit to God, Herod just gloats in the praise. So, what does God do? He strikes Herod dead on the spot. Now that’s a scene that would make for a good sci-fi movie.

Here’s the kicker: Verse 24 reads, “But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.” No matter how much Herod tried to squash the church with fear tactics, they didn’t back down. They continued to defy him and follow Christ’s teachings, instead. They were—as we’ve been talking about for weeks—weird. In the face of death threats and persecution, would we dare to do the same? Many Christians are facing such threats, even today. Let’s focus our prayer time this week on particular countries & regions where persecution is rampant.