Acts 4:28
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They carried out what Your hand and will had decided beforehand would happen.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
thy hand and thy counsel determined . . . to be done--that is, "Thy counsel" determined to be done by "Thy hand."
Open source ↗In going over the last two chapters, where we met with so many good things that the apostles did, I wondered what was become of the scribes and Pharisees, and chief priests, that they did not appear to contradict and oppose them, as they had used to treat Christ himself; surely they were so confounded at first with the pouring out of the Spirit that they were for a time struck dumb! But I find we have not lost them; their forces rally again, and here we have an encounter between them and the apostles; for from the beginning the gospel met with opposition. Here, I. Peter and John are taken up, upon a warrant from the priests, and committed to jail (Act 4:1-4). II. They are examined by a committee of the great sanhedrim (Act 4:5-7). III. They bravely avow what they have done, and preach Christ to their persecutors (Act 4:8-12). IV. Their persecutors, being unable to answer them, enjoin them silence, threatening them if they go on to preach the gospel, and so dismiss them (Act 4:13-22). V. They apply to God by prayer, for the further operations of that grace which they had already experienced (Act 4:23-30). VI. God owns them, both outwardly and inwardly, by manifest tokens of his presence with them (Act 4:31-33). VII. The believers had their hearts knit together in holy love, and enlarged their charity to the poor, and the church flourished more than ever, to the glory of Christ (Act 4:33-37).
Open source ↗4:28 God’s hand had been directing events all along in order to achieve his purpose. A similar awareness of God’s hand guiding the affairs of his people is found in the Old Testament (cp. Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 31; Neh 2:8, 18; Eccl 9:1; Ezek 8:1; Rom 8:28; 1 Pet 5:6).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.
I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’
The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed. It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
But in this way God has fulfilled what He foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer.
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.
Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His.
So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.
But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”