On their release, Peter and John returned to their own people and reported everything that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When the believers heard this, they lifted up their voices to God with one accord. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “You made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One.’ In fact, this is the very city where Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed. They carried out what Your hand and will had decided beforehand would happen. And now, Lord, consider their threats, and enable Your servants to speak Your word with complete boldness, as You stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
And now, here are the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt; but Israel turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession that You gave us as an inheritance.
“O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these countries and their lands. They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands. And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
Significance
The church's response to the Sanhedrin's threats is prayer, and its shape follows the great crisis-prayers of Israel's kings. Like Jehoshaphat facing an overwhelming coalition (2 Chr 20:10-11) and Hezekiah facing Assyria (Isa 37:16-20), the believers address God first as sovereign Creator — "who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them" — and only then lay the threat before Him. The pattern is the same: rehearse who God is, name the enemy honestly, and ask not for escape but for faithfulness (here, boldness to keep speaking). God answers as He answered the kings — the place is shaken and the assembly is filled with the Spirit. Christ-terminus: the prayer is grounded in Psalm 2, already fulfilled in the crucified and risen "holy servant Jesus," so the church prays with a confidence the kings could not — the decisive victory has already been won at the cross, and no council can undo it.
Found via
G.K. Beale & D.A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Analogy
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