“He had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.”
Standing up for the Lord is not always easy. I remember standing up for the Lord back in high school and being ridiculed. I was not standing up for the Lord because I sought the attention and therefore loved the ridicule; rather, it was a byproduct of defending my faith.
It is like teaching teenagers to drive. My girls fully understood the teacher-student relationship when I taught them to drive; that was not the problem. It was that sometimes I had to make them do things they did not feel like doing. In other words, I had to defend my understanding of safe driving to them no matter how much ridicule I received. Their driving habits could be very dangerous to others and might even get them killed, as well as others, so I vigorously defended the laws of driving to them.
Herod was a power-hungry person who killed his own family members for fear of being undermined. Naturally, he would seek the approval of whoever would keep him in power. In this case, he was getting blowback from the Jews about the preaching of Jesus. These Jews did not like Jesus or the Way, as they called it. So, when Herod put James to death and saw the approval of the Jews, namely the higher order of them being the religious elite, he then put Peter in prison also.
He had plans to hold a public trial and, if things went well, an execution. What happened next is one of the most told stories in the Bible. While in prison, Peter gets woken up by an angel, and his chains fall off of him. Both of them walk right out of the prison scot-free. There is so much to unpack in this story, but let’s focus on Herod for a moment. Herod was not a believer, not in the least, but we can learn a key concept from him. He sought the approval of man rather than God. There are stories about men of Herod’s stature submitting to the Lord Almighty; just ask Nebuchadnezzar. He was the pagan king of Babylon, and God got his attention by making him walk on all fours and eat grass like a cow for seven years. Herod, on the other hand, did not even blink when he saw that the Jews approved of imprisoning the disciples.
You are going to have to defend your faith one day. Believe me, your faith stance is already out there. People know you go to church; they know you do not do this or that, and they assume it is because you “go to church.” Today, bring yourself to the point where no one else matters except the Lord. If God said it, I believe it, and that does it!
All but one of the original Apostles were martyred for their faith in Jesus; no one else mattered. We all have to come to the point of martyring our apprehensions and fears about our faith. No one else’s opinion matters. The Bible says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. We sing songs about it, and we should stand on it as well. The approval of man is not needed, in other words. Let God change the hearts of men; just stick to your guns and your testimony. You might just find an angel leading you out of the prison.
Prayer: Father, I know that as long as I lift You up, I will see You draw all men to Yourself. My job is to lift you up. I pray for strength and courage in preaching the Word of God and giving my testimony. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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