Who Made Who?

Peter Pan’s shadow

Focal Passage

“No Little Disturbance”

Acts 12:18 “Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.”

The Greek word translated “disturbance” (tarachos [5017]) means “a state of acute distress, dismay, confusion, or tumult.”

“He Examined the Soldiers”

Acts 12:19 “And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.”

The root word is Anakrinō applies this process to a person or persons. It was a judicial term meaning “to conduct an inquiry into facts and witnesses’ testimonies.” Herod didn’t merely question the guards; he conducted a formal investigation using all his powers as a Roman and a king

“Ordered That They Should Be Put to Death”

Agrippa Goes down from Judea to Caesarea

Josephus tells us that Agrippa was headed to athletic games he had organized in honor of his friend and political ally Claudius.

Angry With Tyre and Sidon

Again from Josephus, Agrippa wanted to fortify the walls of Jerusalem, but the Roman governor of Syria, Gnaeus Vibius Marcus, wrote an objection to Claudius, who told Agrippa to stop building

Later, during an encounter where Agrippa was hosting kings from several surrounding cities of Syria, he approached Marcus, who was able to convince the kings to leave

This takes place around AD 44, after the famine of AD 41, the first of two famines we discussed

Acts 12:21 ESV

On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.

Herod has been consolidating Judea, may even have had aspirations of becoming Caesar after Claudius.

He is positioning himself as Messiah.

Acts 12:22 ESV

And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”

Acts 12:23–24 ESV

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied.

Josephus tells us he saw a portent of an owl, and was overtaken by severe abdominal pains, dying a few days later

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 12)

The Golden Calf of Elohim (Exodus 32)

Exodus 32:1–5 “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.””

The Last Plague of Egypt (Exodus 12)

Genesis 1:27–28 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

What is Imago Dei?

We were made to be in relationship with God

We were made to be subordinate to God

We were made to have dominion over God’s creation

We were made to exhibit God’s attributes

We were made to represent God

Today, we have all fallen into the original sin...

Genesis 3:4–5 ESV

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

It is not a question of whether you will worship, but rather who you will worship

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." - C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce