Have you ever wondered about the conditions Peter faced those nights in Herod’s jail? It sounds like Peter was held in the prison of the fort Antonia which sat next to the temple in Jerusalem. As he was escorted about he may have passed the area where Jesus had been scourged years earlier. I wonder if other prisoners were punished in the same way during Peter’s time there? Was he mocked and abused by any of the same guards who had treated Jesus so roughly? Surely he knew Herod’s plans for him. Would he be executed on a cross or beheaded? Peter must have know the time table as well; as soon as the feast of Unleavened Bread was past he would be the spectacle of Jerusalem. Would Herod wait until all the pilgrims had left or would we want to display his displeasure with Christians for all of the Jewish people to witness. None of these concerns kept Peter awake all night. The Jewish leaders had beaten him before and he had witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. Maybe the same words Paul wrote to the Roman Christians echoed through his head; “If God is for us who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) It wasn’t worry that kept Peter from sleeping all night; it was an angel. An angel who came to deliver him.
It took me about 20 minutes in two different settings to read this passage.
Stuart
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