The following is an exegesis that came to me as I was sifting through Acts 12 one Lord's Day. I didn't have commentaries and I didn't read anything prior to this, though I've learned biblical hermeneutics from several contemporary bright minds. Anyway, if the following has been printed or stated anywhere, I'd appreciate a comments in directing me further.
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When confronted with the data of Acts 12, it's a rather odd mash-up, juxtaposing two different stories that are usually treated in isolation. First, Peter is arrested and given an escape from prison. Second, Herod then utters blasphemies, is struck down by an angel, and dies. The superficial tie in between the stories is that Herod is the one harassing and persecuting Peter, and all other Christians. But I wondered if there was more going on to tie these two stories together.
One thing that jumped out at me was the presence of an angel. In Peter's case, an angel is the one who opens up the jail and allows the apostle to escape; in Herod's case, the angel kills him. But what really got me started was a seemingly extraneous detail: "Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread" (vs. 3). This point seems to run immediately from Herod's turn to persecute the Christians, as if it's there to set up the following events. Now, this holiday has specifics that are laid out in Leviticus, but it is a recapitulation of the Passover. Exodus makes it clear that the Passover is to have repetition in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Continuing on, I paused in my tracks because one thing literally struck me: "And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the [paschal lamb's] blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin". I turned back to Acts to read the following: "Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, "Arise quickly!" (vs.7)
What's going on here? Well consider what happens next: "Then the angel said to him 'Gird yourself and tie on your sandals'; and so he did. And he said to him 'Put on your garment and follow me'" (vs. 8). These commands clearly mirror the position of the Israelite celebrating the paschal; they were to be ready to roll, wearing their clothes, their belt, and their shoes. What's interesting is how the angel wakes up Peter: he strikes him. And the angel not only strikes a mere Christian, but Peter, the rock, the foundation. There can be an easy analogy to seeing the basin of the lamb's blood as the baptismal regeneration of being brought into Christ's body and made a participant and recipient of His sacrifice. Maybe I'm reading into it, but it seems oddly coincidental that the angel striking Peter was striking one whose name is given, and connected to, the foundation of the church, in the same way the paschal participant strikes his doorposts and lintel. Also, Peter's name is given in the context of gates, where the church, built upon the rock, won't be overcome by the gates of Hell. More properly, it's the gates of Hades, and it's a referent not to the state of everlasting destruction, but to the abode of death. The gate Herod built to lock Peter up couldn't hold up to the angel's light, who literally delivered Peter from death. And yet this saving from death came in the form of being "struck in the side". There's probably more to the location of the strike, but I'm not quite sure about that.
Anyway, continuing on. Peter then escapes the clutches of Herod. Like the Passover, the strike on Peter preserved him from what was to come. For it was a different kind of strike that would then afflict the enemies of God. In Exodus, the Angel of the Lord comes and strikes the first-born (Exodus 12:29); in Acts, the angel of the Lord (!) strikes Herod, killing him. Again, this all occurs in the Days of Unleavened Bread. I think the context is clear: Peter and Herod replayed the the Passover in light of Christ, in light of the true and eternal forms.
I think the above account cashes out in a few ways:
1) We need to read the Bible, and think, figurally. The Old Testament is not simply in the past. Its "oldness" is not in its being done away with, but in being full-filled. It's a series of typological shadows and forms that are given reality in light of the Christ. But the Christ's coming doesn't do away with the typological form, only now we understand what it's all about. We see that the passover was not simply a historical or aetiological account of Israel's origins, or her struggle with Egypt. It was, in fact, about something far more substantive and profound.
2) And yet the typological reading of scripture does not simply end with Christ. To be Christians, to be the body of Christ, is to have a participatory union. Our lives and histories, individually or corporately, repeat or echo the substantive reality. This does not mean our cross-bearing is salvific like Christ's, but it is a witness to that singular act. And yet the witnesses are not arbitrary and detached from the very particular form of Christ. And that form of Christ, explicated in the NT, **is** what we're given in the OT, or what the earliest Christians knew simply as "the scripture". Peter and Herod, unknowingly, were a repetition for the Christic shape that the church takes. Christ is the true paschal lamb, but we represent and refigure that, again and again. Acts shows us, typologically, what this looks like as Peter stands in as a figure for the church (even if that does not imply the insane claims of the Roman pope). We need to not only read scripture figurally, but understand human events (all of them) within this paradigm.
3) The pastoral import, if I were preaching, would be the following: Peter and Herod both stand in a world of judgement. Like ancient Egypt, the land stood under divine judgement as the true Creator humiliated and destroyed His demoniac rivals. Israel didn't escape that judgement, but they were given a means to pass through. The death of the lamb, and the "striking" of it on the structural foundation and liminal space of the home was the means of grace. That's our choice. We can either receive this strike, or the one from the Angel of the Lord who comes to Herod and kills him. We can either die in baptismal faith, or we can truly die and be given over to the worms, where sinful man is, with Satan and his angels, tossed into the dumpster fire of history. But be stricken we must, for we live in a land under judgement. God save us! amen.
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