John Calvin Commentary Acts 12:20

"Now he was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: and they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king`s chamberlain their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was fed from the king`s country." — Acts 12:20 (ASV)

This is a worthy history, which not only shows, as if in a mirror, what end is prepared for the enemies of the Church, but also how greatly God hates pride. The Scripture says that God resists the proud (1 Peter 5:5). God Himself showed a vivid image of this in the person of Herod.

And certainly, people cannot exalt themselves higher than is fitting for them without making war with God, who, so that He may surpass all, commands all flesh to keep silent. And if God punished pride so sharply in a king whom prosperity puffed up, what will become of common people who are ridiculously puffed up without cause?

Furthermore, we must note in the course of this account that all things went well with Herod after he had miserably vexed the Church. He forced the nations around him, subdued by hunger, to come and beg for pardon on their knees, as if God had rewarded him well for his wicked fury.

This was no small trial for the godly, who might have thought to themselves that God did not care for them, and they were afraid that with Herod’s power his tyranny and cruelty would increase. But the Lord had another purpose, for He set the oppressor of His Church on high so that he might have a greater fall.

Therefore, that shadowy felicity, in which he delighted too much, was for him a prelude to his fall on the day of slaughter. Similarly, when today we see the bloody enemies of the Church carried up on the wings of fortune into heaven, there is no reason for us to be discouraged; but let us rather remember that saying of Solomon:

Pride goeth before calamity;
and the heart is lifted up before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

Herod was displeased. Luke uses the compound participle, θυμομαχον, which signifies secret animosity or hatred. Therefore, Herod did not wage open war against those cities; but such was his displeasure that he attempted to subdue them by strategy, as it were, by undermining them little by little. It is a rare matter, says Demosthenes, for free cities to agree with monarchs.

Moreover, Herod was naturally cruel, bold, and insatiably covetous; and it is not to be doubted that Tyre and Sidon were, as it were, like certain bars or rails to restrain his fury, as they were wealthy cities and unaccustomed to bear the yoke.

Also, the memory of their former glory might have emboldened them. Since pride commonly comes from wealth, it is no wonder if these two cities were proud. One of them Isaiah calls "queen of the seas," whose merchants, he said, were kings, and her traders dukes (Isaiah 23:8). Also, he says elsewhere that Sidon had become proud because of her wealth.

And although they had several times been brought almost to complete ruin, yet the advantage of their location soon restored them to their usual condition. As a result, they found it harder to stomach Agrippa, recently a common fellow, a man of no esteem, and one who had been released from prison—especially since he had behaved so cruelly toward his own subjects and was troublesome and injurious to his neighbors.

Forasmuch as their country was nourished. It would not have been good for him to have attacked the men of Tyre and Sidon with open war, so he gave orders that no grain or provisions should be carried out of his realm. By this means, without any army, he besieged them little by little.

For the territories of both cities were constricted, and their land barren, while there were many people to be fed. Therefore, after they were subdued by hunger, they humbly begged for peace—and that peace was not unconditional, for certainly some terms were imposed on them.

And it is to be supposed that this Blastus, mentioned by Luke, was not persuaded with mere words, but won over with rewards [gifts] to negotiate the peace. I do not know why Erasmus thought it good to translate this passage differently from what the words mean.