In a sermon titled, “Execution, Escape and Eaten by Worms,” John Piper states:
God can release and God can sustain and empower in martyrdom. That is the point of releasing Peter and not James. God is in control over this little Herod in both cases. In fact there is an extraordinary power in martyrdom. Paul said in Philippians 1:14, “Most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear.” In other words the suffering of Christian martyrs has a powerful spiritual effect on those who live. It puts us face to face with eternity. It shows the reality of faith. It strips away the petty pursuits and the trivial anxieties in our lives. And it fires us with the same zeal.
Tertullian, the Christian defender of the faith who died in 225, said to his enemies, “We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is [the] seed [of the church].” (Apololgeticus 50). And Jerome said about 100 years later, “The church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it” (Letter 82).
So it isn’t as though God fumbled the ball with James and scored a touchdown with Peter. God never fumbles the ball. If he turns it over to the other side for a few downs, it’s because he knows a better way to win.
So the first thing God does to put Herod in his place and bring him down from his self-exaltation is to take his prize prisoner right out from under his nose.
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 