Peter Freed: Jesus Who Unchained Him?

Acts 12:5 "Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. 6 And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. 7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands."

Imagine if you will, a corrupt dictator puts Peter prison for the offense of "thoughtcrimes". Peter believed differently than the Jews and Herod. Herod, we saw earlier, martyred James, and was holding Peter until after the Passover (Easter here is an incorrect translation. It should be "Paschal").  Death, like James, was eminent for Peter after the Jewish feast!

"Thoughtcrime" is "an occurrence or instance of controversial or socially unacceptable thoughts." (Wikipedia; thoughtcrime). It's thinking things not in vogue by those in charge. In the book 1984 (George Orwell) "Thought Police" were secret police who uncovered and punished wrong-thinkers, not in a sense of "right and wrong", but socially unacceptable wrong. Thought Police, in the story, spied on people with constant monitoring, even detecting what people were thinking!

Although Herod overtly punished, those reporting on Peter were covert. They are not identified. The Jews, throughout the ministry of Jesus, sought to undermine what he was teaching, who he was and even his miracles. The Jews, instigated by the Pharisees, were the thoughtpolice with Jesus and his apostles. Herod was "Big Brother" (from 1984) who was always ready to indict and punish those who thought socially unacceptable things! James and Peter were out of the mainstream. They thought and taught things which offended the Jews who failed to understand that Jesus was not an impostor, but JHVH himself!

In America today, even the world, the thoughtpolice are still active! Their name is different: "P.C. Police", but who they are is the same as in Herod's time and Orwell's future society. Just as Peter was punished for his "thought" (that Jesus is Supreme), Christians today suffer the same persecution. "Political Correctness" is the thinking of the masses and anyone who thinks differently are ostracized by society and even the government. Whenever "wrong thinking" is spoken aloud, the P.C. Police begin their march of persecution!

Being a Christian wasn't cool with Herod and neither is it cool with our governments now!

Although Peter was in prison for a short time, his destiny was death! Those who hate righteous thought do evil things! The Christians knew that Peter was sentenced to death and they did something about it! They didn't organize a militia to use violence to break Peter out of prison. It was likely that they would all die if they were even to try that! Oh, what shall they do?  They prayed to God without ceasing (verse 5). The same God, who by faith of the people, destroyed the walls of Jericho is the same Almightly God to whom they prayed:

Hebrew 11:30 "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days."

My bet is that the "prayer without ceasing", which the Christians prayed, were for seven days as well since the "Passover" is a seven-day festival called Easter (paschal) in Acts.  In fact the walls of Jericho were destroyed at Passover (Joshua 6 tells of the walls of Jericho falling), and the "Captain of the Lord's Host" (Joshua 5:15) is the "person" who fell the walls!

In this instance (verse 7) "the angel of the Lord" came to Peter. Those who translated from the Greek in this case makes him "the", not "an" because of context and maybe inspiration (since neither is in the Greek). It makes sense that the Captain of the Lord's Host was "the angel of the Lord", the pre-incarnate Jesus and that "the angel of the Lord" who came to Peter was Jesus Christ himself who we know could appear at will without bounds at any time!

In effect, just as the Jews had faith at Passover for the walls of Jericho to fall, the Christians prayed for seven days for the bars of prison to fall! That shows great faith! They prayed to Jesus without ceasing and Jesus came!  The transfigured Jesus was transformed with light (Matthew 17:2), reinforcing the idea that this was indeed Jesus who "saved" Peter by removing his chains!

Back to Jericho: It was Jesus who carried the "sword" ("the word"; Ephesians 6:17, "sword of the Spirit") who felled the walls of Jericho. The angel of the Lord (Jesus) was known to smote others as he did to Jacob's thigh (Genesis 32:25). What I am implying is this way of doing things was Jesus' M.O.! I believe it was Jesus who removed the chains of bondage from Peter!

Chains are a hallmark of Jesus! Jesus came to take men from bondage. John the Baptist could not be chained. Scripture says that chains could not hold him! It's because Jesus would not allowed John to be bound (Mark 5:3). When the battle is won, Jesus "the angel" will bind Satan with chains and throw him into the pit (Revelation 20:1). Jesus punishes the wicked with chains and he frees sinners from their chains, and he keeps saints from being chained! I believe it was Jesus who freed Peter from prison: another miracle which I attribute to Jesus!

Jesus "protected" Peter from harm because he had a purpose for him. As such he comforted Peter. That's what the Holy Spirit did! Remembering that the Spirit is the "ghost of Jesus", then it was Jesus who was at least there in Spirit, transformed to appear as the angel. He did that throughout the Old Testament!  God is the same then and now! He appeared to the patriarchs as "the angel of the Lord" then and he apparently appeared the same way to Peter!

God is unchanging. Jesus was always (The Word; The Angel of the Lord, The Captain if the Hosts, etc). Indeed Jesus is always with us in Spirit! He and only he can loosen our chains!