Peter had been in prison for some time before the Passover, and the
praying had been going on all the while, and there was no answer. Day
after day 'of the unleavened bread' and of the festival was slipping
away. The last night had come; 'and the same night' the light shone,
and the angel appeared. Why did Jesus Christ not hear the cry of these
poor suppliants sooner? For their sakes; for Peter's sake; for our
sakes; for His own sake. For the eventual intervention, at the very
last moment, and yet at a sufficiently early moment, tested faith. And
look how beautifully all bore the test. The Apostle who was to be
killed to-morrow is lying quietly sleeping in his cell. Not a very
comfortable pillow he had to lay his head upon, with a chain on each
arm and a legionary on each side of him. But he slept; and whilst he
was asleep Christ was awake, and the brethren were awake. Their faith
was tested, and it stood the test, and thereby was strengthened. And
Peter's patience and faith, being tested in like manner and in like
manner standing the test, were deepened and confirmed. Depend upon it,
he was a better man all his days, because he had been brought close up
to Death and looked it in the fleshless eye-sockets, unwinking and
unterrified. And I dare say if, long after, he had been asked, 'Would
you not have liked to have escaped those two or three days of suspense,
and to have been let go at an earlier moment?' he would have said, 'Not
for worlds! For I learned in those days that my Lord's time is the
best. I learned patience'--a lesson which Peter especially needed--'and
I learned trust.'
Do you remember another incident, singularly parallel in essence,
though entirely unlike in circumstances, to this one? The two weeping
sisters at Bethany send their messenger across the Jordan, grudging
every moment that he takes to travel to the far-off spot where Jesus
is. The message sent is only this: 'He whom Thou lovest is sick.' What
an infinite trust in Christ's heart that form of the message showed!
They would not say 'Come!'; they would not ask Him to do anything; they
did not think that to do so was needful: they were quite sure that what
He would do would be right.
And how was the message received? 'Jesus loved Martha and Mary and
Lazarus.' Well, did that not make Him hurry as fast as He could to the
bedside? No; it rooted Him to the spot. 'He abode,
_therefore_'--because He loved them--'two days still in the same place
where He was,' to give him plenty of time to die, and the sisters
plenty of time to test their confidence in Him. Their confidence does
not seem to have altogether stood the test. 'Lord, if Thou hadst been
here my brother had not died.' 'And why wast Thou _not_ here?' is
implied. Christ's time was the best time. It was better to get a dead
brother back to their arms and to their house than that they should not
have lost him for those dreary four days. So delay tests faith, and
makes the deliverance, when it comes, not only the sweeter, but the
more conspicuously divine. So, brother, 'men ought always to pray, and
not to faint'--always to trust that 'the Lord will help them, and that
right early.'
III. The next lesson that I would suggest is the leisureliness of the
deliverance.
A prisoner escaping might be glad to make a bolt for it, dressed or
undressed, anyhow. But when the angel comes into the cell, and the
light shines, look how slowly and, as I say, leisurely, he goes about
it. 'Put on thy shoes.' He had taken them off, with his girdle and his
upper garment, that he might lie the less uncomfortably. 'Put on thy
shoes; lace them; make them all right. Never mind about these two
legionaries; they will not wake. Gird thyself; tighten thy girdle. Put
on thy garment. Do not be afraid. Do not be in a hurry; there is plenty
of time. Now, are you ready? Come!' It would have been quite as easy
for the angel to have whisked him out of the cell and put him down at
Mary's door; but that was not to be the way. Peter was led past all the
obstacles--'the first ward,' and the soldiers at it; 'the second ward,'
and the soldiers at it; 'and the third gate that leads into the city,'
which was no doubt bolted and barred. There was a leisurely procession
through the prison.
Why? Because Omnipotence is never in a hurry, and God, not only in His
judgments but in His mercies, very often works slowly, as becomes His
majesty. 'Ye shall not go out with haste; nor go by flight, for the
Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel shall be your rereward.'
We are impatient, and hurry our work over; God works slowly; for He
works certainly. That is the law of the divine working in all regions;
and we have to regulate the pace of our eager expectation so as to fall
in with the slow, solemn march of the divine purposes, both in regard
to our individual salvation and the providences that affect us
individually, and in regard to the world's deliverance from the world's
evils. 'An inheritance may be gotten hastily in the beginning, but the
end thereof shall not be blessed.' 'He that believeth shall not make
haste.'
IV. We see here, too, the delivered prisoner left to act for himself as
soon as possible.
As long as the angel was with Peter, he was dazed and amazed. He did
not know--and small blame to him--whether he was sleeping or waking;
but he gets through the gates, and out into the empty street,
glimmering in the morning twilight, and the angel disappears, and the
slumbering city is lying around him. When he is _left_ to himself, he
_comes_ to himself. He could not have passed the wards without a
miracle, but he can find his way to Mary's house without one. He needed
the angel to bring him as far as the gate and down into the street, but
he did not need him any longer. So the angel vanished into the morning
light, and then he felt himself, and steadied himself, when
responsibility came to him. That is the thing to sober a man. So he
stood in the middle of the unpeopled street, and 'he considered the
thing,' and found in his own wits sufficient guidance, so that he did
not miss the angel. He said to himself, 'I will go to Mary's house.'
Probably he did not know that there were any praying there, but it was
near, and it was, no doubt, convenient in other respects that we do not
know of. The economy of miraculous power is a remarkable feature in
Scriptural miracles. God never does anything for us that we could do
for ourselves. Not but that our doing for ourselves is, in a deeper
sense, His working on us and in us, but He desires us to take the share
that belongs to us in completing the deliverance which must begin by
supernatural intervention of a Mightier than the angel, even the Lord
of angels.
And so this little picture of the angel leading Peter through the
prison, and then leaving him to his own common sense and courage as
soon as he came out into the street, is just a practical illustration
of the great text, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling, for it is God that worketh in you.'