Winks From Scripture: God’s Subtle Work Among UsSample

God Winks in Our Rescue

God is not only our provider in times of suffering, He is also our rescuer.

The story of the early church in Acts is full of these instances. In many instances, God saves them from their oppressors and gives them the strength to carry on. The tricky thing is that this is not always the case.

In Acts 12, the disciple James is killed by Herod, and Peter is imprisoned, only to be freed by an angel. When Peter is rescued, he says, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod” (Acts 12:11).

The word “rescue” (exaireō) is the same word used by the Greek Septuagint when God tells Moses He has come to deliver or rescue the Hebrew people from Egypt. Furthermore, Peter tells the disciples that God “brought” (exagō) him out of prison. This is the same word used in the Greek Septuagint when God tells Moses He is going to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.

All of this language links the events of the Passover in Acts 12 to the first Passover in Exodus. It winks, showing that the God who miraculously delivered the Hebrews is the same God who is at work in the early church. The God of the Hebrews is the God of the Christians, now revealed in Jesus Christ and at work through the Holy Spirit.

And yet we cannot forget about the one element in this story that makes it a conundrum: James didn’t have the same outcome as the Hebrew people or Peter.

Is James’s outcome inconsistent and out of place?

I don’t think so. I think the tension is finely placed. Once again, we are left to probe the mystery of life with our questions, questions that will never get us any closer to knowing why only closer to knowing Him. God’s rescue in the here and now is mysteriously linked to His sovereignty.

Was God the Hebrew slaves’ rescuer? Yes. Was He Peter’s rescuer? Yes. Was He James’s rescuer? Ultimately, yes, He was. Is He ours? No matter the outcome, there is no doubt that He is our rescuer. The narrative in Scripture winks. In times of uncertain suffering, we can be certain that He has secured our rescue—however, and whenever it comes.

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