Meditations from Zion

Acts 12:18
After Herod had a thorough search made for him [Peter] and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.

These four guys were the extras. You know, as in one of those huge lavish movies, there are tons of extras. They are nameless and virtually faceless. They have some small task and that is all. They get their one minute of screen time and that’s it.

These four guards are no different. This was their time and in the end, they are memorialized … they are to be remembered that they lost their lives in exchange for Peter’s freedom.

If I allowed free reign to my imagination, I could create entire families and scenarios for these guys. They had lives that were lived outside the prison walls of Herod’s fortress. Perhaps one was older, whose children were grown or another was a new recruit, given a special assignment.

What happened when they discovered Peter was missing? There were two on each side of Peter and two outside the locked cell door. The angel of light came, opened Peter’s shackles, told him to rise and dress and they walked out the door What were the guards doing? Surely they were not asleep. Were they mesmerized? Were they put into an unnatural trance? It was not until morning that the alarm sounded. What were they doing? Did they know sooner? Did they know that there death would come the next day?

I can’t help but consider that these guards, like the guards at Golgotha, may have come to a realization. This was a miracle and it was worked on behalf of a follower of Christ. Perhaps they became believers and died, not as executed guards, but as martyrs. Who knows? Perhaps their testimony at the cross examination to the miracle of Peter’s release was Herod’s last opportunity to accept Christ. Herod did not change.

What role will we play when it is our time? Can we trust God with our last moments… with our lives… with our deaths?

These men had a testimony. And their stories probably flew through Herod’s soldiers and servants. These guards were good, reliable men. And all four were witnesses to a miracle. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, their deaths did make a difference.