Note 1 at Acts 12:6: Peter was well aware that Herod planned to kill him the next morning, as he did James (Acts 12:2). Peter also knew that Jesus had told him he would be martyred (Jn. 21:18-19). In the natural, this looked like the end for Peter. Yet Peter was not wringing his hands, pacing the floor, or even praying. He was fast asleep.

This is a tremendous statement about Peter's faith in the Lord. Peter had bitterly denied the Lord before because he was afraid of persecution (Mt. 26:69-75; Mk. 14:66-72; Lk. 22:55-62; Jn. 18:15-27; p. 513), but he had resolved that it would never happen again to such a degree that there was no agonizing over it now. We need to have already settled in our hearts what we will do in crisis situations before the crisis comes.

Note 2 at Acts 12:6: As mentioned in note 2 at Acts 12:4, p. 642, Peter had 16 soldiers assigned to him, four on each watch. The way that this verse describes the soldiers guarding him, it appears that two of the soldiers were chained to him, one on each side, and two soldiers were outside the cell guarding the door. Having the two soldiers chained to Peter was different than the way the apostles were imprisoned before (Acts 5:23) and could reflect Herod's knowledge of their previous escape and his determination not to let that happen again (see note 3 at Acts 12:4, p. 642).