Reading this passage earlier today astounded me. We read here the story of a quite incredible escape from prison by Peter, with a little help from his angel.
To set the scene, King Herod was persecuting the Church. He had James, the brother of John killed and then Peter arrested. Herod was clearly aware that Peter might attempt an escape or feared that his friends would try and break him out and so he was guarded to the extreme.
Peter was chained to the wall, between two guards in a cell. In front of the cell door were two more guards, and his was all behind the prison gate which lead out to the city.
Peter was sleeping, between the two guards, when the angel appeared. This was not like Paul’s great escape coming up in Acts 16; the angel appeared and disturbed nobody. The angel even had to tap Peter on the shoulder to wake him up. The guards next to him did not wake, not even when Peter’s chains fell off. That’s right, they fell off!
Following the angels instructions Peter put on his belt, his sandals, and his cloak and proceeded to just walk out of the prison. The cell door opened, on its own. They walked past the guards, without being noticed. The prison gate opened, of its own accord. And they walked out into the city! At this point the angel disappeared and Peter, who clearly thought he had been dreaming, realized where he was and made his way to his friend’s house where they had been praying for him.
I think what happened here was somehow, Peter and the angel were not visible to the guards. Nor did they even make a sound. The whole experience clearly felt unworldly to Peter as he thought that he was dreaming, or having a vision.
The spiritual gift of invisibility; you’ve got to like that! 
Other posts in the Bible Study series.
DetailsRob Borley
July 14th, 2005
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