Herod, to please the Jews, begins to persecute the assembly in that city.
We may remark here, that the company of believers at Antioch are also
called the assembly (church), which is the case nowhere else as yet. All
were accounted as forming a part integrally of the work at Jerusalem, (18-)
even as all Jews were in connection with that centre of their religious
system, however numerous their synagogues or great the influence of their
rabbis. Every Jew, as such, sprang from Jerusalem. Barnabas and Saul
assemble with the church or assembly at Antioch. A local assembly,
conscious of its existence-distinct from, while connected with,
Jerusalem-has been formed; and assemblies without a metropolis begin to
appear.
To return to Jerusalem. Herod, an impious king, and in certain respects a
type of the adversary-king at the end, begins to persecute the faithful
remnant at Jerusalem. It is not only the Jews who are opposed to them. The
king-whom, as Jews, they detested-unites himself to them by his hatred to
the heavenly testimony, thinking to win their favour by this means. He
kills James, and proceeds to take Peter and put him in prison. But God
preserves His servant, and delivers him by His angel in answer to the
prayers of the saints. He allows some to be slain (happy witnesses to their
heavenly portion in Christ), and preserves others to carry on the testimony
on earth, in spite of all the power, apparently irresistible, of the
enemy-a power which the Lord baffles by the manifestation of that which
belongs to Him and to Him alone, and which He employs when He will and how
He will. The poor saints, although praying fervently (they had
prayer-meetings in those days), can hardly believe, when Peter comes to the
door, that God had really granted their prayer. The desire presents itself
sincerely to God; faith can scarcely reckon upon Him.
Herod, confounded by the power of Him whom he resisted, condemns the
instruments of his hatred to death, and goes away to the Gentile seat of
his authority. There displaying his glory, and accepting the adulatory
homage of the people, as thoughhe were a god, God Himself smites him, and
shews that He is the governor of this world, however great the pride of
man. But the word of God extends through His grace; and Barnabas and Saul,
having fulfilled their ministry, return to Antioch, taking with them John
whose surname was Mark.
