And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And he said, “Hear me, brothers and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. 5 But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, even when he had no child. 6 But God spoke in this way, that his seed would be sojourners in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7 ‘And I Myself will judge the nation to which they will be enslaved,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me in this place.’ 8 And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “And the patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, 10 and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.
11 “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. 16 And from there they were removed to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17 “But as the time of the promise was drawing near which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, 18 until another king arose over Egypt who did not know about Joseph. 19 It was he who deceitfully took advantage of our family and mistreated our fathers to set their infants outside so that they would not survive. 20 It was at this time that Moses was born, and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home. 21 And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. 22 And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in words and deeds. 23 But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. 24 And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took justice for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. 25 And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them salvation through him, but they did not understand. 26 On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you treating one another unjustly?’ 27 But the one who was treating his neighbor unjustly pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? 28 Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this remark, Moses fled and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he was the father of two sons.
30 “And after forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was marveling at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and would not dare to look. 33 But the Lord said to him, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to deliver them; come now, and I will send you to Egypt.’
35 “This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who, in the congregation in the wilderness, was with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers; the one who received living oracles to pass on to you. 39 Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you present Me with slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship. I also will remove you beyond Babylon.’
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He, who spoke to Moses, directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen. 45 And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David. 46 David found favor in the sight of God, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built a house for Him. 48 However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is My throne,
And earth is the footstool of My feet.
What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord,
‘Or what place is there for My rest?
50 Was it not My hand which made all these things?’
51 “You men—stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears—are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 And which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53 you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not observe it.” Acts 7: 1-53 LSB
Acts 7 Stephen's powerful sermon and verbal apologia
This is such a beautiful sermon so I don't want to break it up, because it flows through their shared Jewish history, starting with God calling Abraham out from among all the peoples that were on the earth at that time.
Vs. 1-8 Go through the history of their father Abraham, that he was not born a Jew, there was no such thing at the time. He was called out from the Mesopotamian people, from Ur of the Chaldea, a Chaldean. This is the land that will later house Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar.
Vs. 9-16 And the patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt - The patriarchs mentioned here are the sons of Jacob, the father's of the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph is a foreshadowing of Christ, Whose own brothers did not receive him well at first. Stephen's listeners would be all too familiar with this story, but still blinded by their unbelief, and puffed up like, "who is this one to teach us?"
…19But Joseph replied, “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20As 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. 21Therefore do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” So Joseph reassured his brothers and spoke kindly to them.… Genesis 50: 19-21
Vs. 17-29 Took advantage of our family and mistreated our fathers - They live in Egypt, the world, for so long, 400 years, and it wasn't all bad before this. Once Joseph long gone and forgotten, then the Egyptians started to fear the Hebrews, because they multiplied quickly in the land. Moses was born and at the same time the Devil tried to go after the Seed of the woman through Pharaoh. Pharaoh, much like Herod the Great, sought to kill all the male babies. So far we have had patriarchs who sell their own brother into slavery, and this same brother be the one who saves them and their families from death by starvation, but also gives them grace. Moses is spared by a new Pharaoh's daughter some 400 years after Joseph.
Vs. 30-34 And after 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mt. Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush - Moses flees Egypt, though he thought he was going to be a hero, instead he ends up running for his life. It says an angel, which means messenger, and then in verse 31 it says voice of the Lord, so I believe this not to be a created being, as the angelic hosts, but the Angel of the Lord, a Theophany of Christ, God the Son.
Vs. 35-43 This Moses, whom they disowned - He now indicts their fathers, reminding them, that Moses promised a prophet like him would come later. Guess what, your fathers treated Moses with disdain, and they even wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt. Sounds similar to the way they treated Jesus, and now the one with the face of an angel, Stephen, is glowing as a testimony before them, but they hate him too.
Vs. 44-50 Was it not My hand which made all these things - They took great pride in their heritage, the law, the tabernacle which became a temple, but God is so much bigger than these things, and it is Him they should revere. We play with the things he made, we don't create from nothing, we take the materials he created and build things. Abraham did not know God till God revealed Himself to him and called Abraham His friend. The peoples knew of a god, and they invented many gods, with each generation after the flood becoming more and more lost. They all left with the flood story, knew about the Creator, but then tried to build a tower, making their own religion. God dispersed them across the globe and they all reinvented who God was, till what they worshiped was no longer God, but a god, gods, idols made with the fancies of the mind and the skill of their hands. Sin took them further from the truth and more and more away from original intent. Man was made in the image of God, but now the image was marred, shattered.
…24Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. 26For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.… Romans 1: 24-26
Vs. 51-53 Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears - Now he indicts them, "you are no different than your fathers, you always kill the messenger." He accuses them of being only outwardly Jewish, Jewish because of family line, but God will have obedience rather than sacrifice. They have to be pretty angry at this point, but he raises a fair argument. Are you a Christian because you say you are one, because your parents were, because you wear a cross and go to church? If you are a Jew then you should be serving and obeying God, and when He sends His messengers, then you should recognize them. How is it that you killed your Messiah if you are truly Jews?
36Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! 38Look, your house is left to you desolate.… Matthew 23: 36-38
…28A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. 29No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God. Romans 2: 28-29
…21The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.” 22But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams. 23For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”… 1 Samuel 15: 21-23
14If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it. 15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—… John 14: 14-16
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