Acts 7:1-53
1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said:
“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. 5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. 9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. 17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’ 44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, 49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
First thing to recognize is the nature and purpose of Stephen's speech. There had been two serious accusations against him, one of those accusations is simply that Stephen is rambling on about a history that the pharisees were more familiar with than him. On top of that the high priest challenged him with a specific question, "Are these charges true?" So, based off of that question, Stephen began to do what we now call apologetics - defend the gospel. In doing this we see that his first goal was to prove that his belief was not 'blasphemous' but actually that his belief held true to the Scriptures, and confirmed the teachings of Jesus.
Stephen was not simply rambling about a history that was well known to the Sanhedrin, rather he was unpacking the heart of their history as to show them what they had been missing all along. What Stephen does is show them that rather than being blasphemous, he was actually revealing to them what their own history taught about the law and the temple.
The Temple: Let's start with the Temple. We have to remember that the reason the Jews loved and prized the temple so much was not due to materialistic lust, but rather because God had promised to 'put his Name' there and meet his people there. There are several Psalms that bear witness to Israel's consequent love for the temple. This is NOT a bad concern to have. The problem is that through the years many drew such a false conclusion about God. Namely, that they believed that Yahweh to be so identified with the temple that the temple's existence guaranteed his protection of them, while its destruction would mean that he had abandoned them. It was against this idea of a God dependent on the temple that the Prophets of old spoke against. Stephen also points out that even before them, with the patriarchs, that they never could imagine God being confined to some building.
So, consequently, Stephen picks out four time periods marked by four major players in Israel's history: First he highlighted Abraham and the patriarchal age in 7:2-8; next he moves to Joseph and the Egyptian exile in 7:9-19; then he moves to Moses, the Exodus, and the wilderness in 7:22-44; and finally he closes out his historical sermon with David in Solomon and the establishment of their kingdom in 7:45-50. What we need to see, is that the transitional pieces that Stephen uses to connect these time periods is simply that God's presence was never limited to a building, rather the God of the Old Testament was the living God, a God on mission, who was always calling his people out on this mission and accompanying and directing them as they went.
- Abraham: 7:2-8 - Stephen begins by describing Yahweh as the 'God of glory.' When we speak of God's glory we are talking of his all-encompassing, aw producing, self-manifestation, and so Stephen gives a summary of how he made himself known to Abraham. God appeared to Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, specifically Ur of the Chaldeans, while he and his family were worshiping other gods. So, in the idolatrous context God appears and speaks to Abraham without a temple to hold him, and commanded Abraham to leave Ur. From here Stephen summarizes about the promise made to Abraham, he talks about the fact that Abraham never actually received the Promised Land, and how that God was going to allow his Children to be slaves for 400 years and then would rescue them out of bondage. So, if the religious leaders that Stephen are talking to know this history, what is Stephen telling them? Stephen is focusing on the fact that this all happened from God's initiative. I was God who appeared, spoke, sent, promised, punished, and rescued. It was God who was directing his people's pilgrimage, and through this pilgrimage from Ur to Haran, from Haran to Canaan, from Canaan to Egypt, from Egypt back to Canaan, God was according to Stephen, 'WITH THEM.' Where was the Temple? There was none! In fact, his proof that he was with them according to Stephen was the 'the covenant f circumcision.' All this to say, what Stephen was saying by bringing their history to their mind, was that long before there was a holy sacred place, there was a Holy Sacred People who God had pledged himself to!
- Joseph: 7:9-16 -So, if Ur was a surprising context for God to show up to BE when he appeared to Abraham, then Egypt was the equally if not more so surprising for God to appear to someone in. In this section 6 times in seven verses Stephen repeats the word 'Egypt.' In this text Stephen outlines the three verses to Egypt paid by Joseph's brothers: The first was to get grain. The second in verse 13 was when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. The third which was in verse 14, was when they brought their father, Jacob, together with their wives and children. The point being here is once again, there is no need for a Temple, in fact they were in Egypt, the very place that God had forbidden Isaac to go down to even though there was a famine in the land. Yet now God sends his people into the Forbidden Egypt, prospers them, and is WITH them without a Temple!
- Moses: 7:17-43 - Then Stephen gets to Moses. It is obvious he spends most of his Historical story telling on Moses. First, I think it is because he had been accused of speaking against Moses, almost as if to say, "the truth is I respect Moses, the law he gave, and the fact that he was chosen by God to fulfill many promises form God to Abraham." Leading to the second, because, he draws out that it was through Moses that God had fulfilled some of the promises to Abraham. The 1st promise was being fulfilled during their enslavement in Egypt, the Bible tells us that while in Egypt, "the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased." And the beginning of the 2nd promise, a Land, was beginning. Then at the right time, which was when? When the people's sufferings were greatest and their hope was the darkest, God appointed Moses as their deliverer. Now, Stephen makes sure he drives home who Moses was: he was a man who was brought up in the Egyptian palace as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter; he was thus educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and became powerful in speech and action. This was God's chosen one to redeem his people - there is a lot of Christological corolation here. So, then Moses begins to recognize his calling and there is an incedent that Moses attempts to remedy by killing an Egyptian, yet his own people despise him. Moses flees for his life and God meets him, not in the Temple, but in Midian, through a burning bush. Then Stephen draws out that this God of Abraham tells Moses to take off his shoes, why? Because the place that Moses was standing was holy ground in the very presence of the living God. In other words, there was Holy Ground outside of the holy land. Why? Because, wherever God is, is holy! So, Stephen has traced the life and ministry of Moses through its Egyptian, Midianite, and wilderness periods and draws out that in each period and place God was with him. Early church father, Chrysostom said this about this text, "not a word of temple, not a word of sacrifice is made...the 'holy ground' was 'far more wonderful than the Holy of Holies,' for God is nowhere said to have appeared in the inner sanctuary of Jerusalem as he did in the burning bush. 'God is everywhere present' and that 'holy place is there wherever God may be.'"
- David and Solomon: 7:44-50 - In this fourth period, which includes the settlement of the promised land, that Stephen mentions a religious structure for the first time, the Tabernacle of the Testimony, which was built for them in the Desert. First thing, when you go back and read this, I want you to notice, is that Stephen NEVER speaks negatively of either of them. Instead they are associated with some of the greatest names of Israelite history. He points out that the Tabernacle was constructed as God directed. This tabernacle remained with God's people until they settled the promised land, and until David asked if he could build a dwelling place for God. God did not scoff at this, even though he did not allow David to build it, he had Solomon build it. Stephen is very intent in showing that the idea of the Temple was not Man's idea, but the idea and initiation of a God who was on mission and movement. Stephan's point was NEVER that the Temple nor the Tabernacle was foolish, but rather that they should have never been exhalted to be considered God's literal home, and Stephen drives this home by quoting Isaiah 66:1-2. Even Solomon the builder understood this. Essentially Stephen is saying, "God is himself the creator; how can the Maker of everything be confined within man-made structures?"
The Law: Remember what I said at the beginning, there were essentially two blasphemies that Stephen was being accused of, 'speaking against this holy place and against the law.' So, we have summarized his rebuttle to their accusation of him being against the temple. His argument against them begins with his argument about the Temple: His respect for Moses, the Law giver was made obvious; he acknowledges Moses' calling as being from God; and even says, that from this same God Moses, 'he received living words to pass on to them (this would be the law).' At this point Stephen begins to show them that what they were doing to him and accusing him, is what they did with Moses in the wilderness and what they did with Prophets that God sent them to rebuke them, and what they did to Jesus! In otherwords, it was them who didn't get it! It was them who truly blasphemed against God! it was them who reduced the God and the Law into something they could manage, thus deafening themselves to the voice of God in their lives, thus making them, not followers of God, but idolaters!
At this point, Stephen lays on them three accusations:
- You Stiff-necked people - both Moses and the Prophets applied this same accusation to them. This accusation simply means stubborn.
- You are uncircumcised hearts and ears - This was another accusation that both Moses and the Prophets laid on the Jews. This must have really offended them because though they insisted on circumcision, yet in this statement Stephen was simply saying, they were haters of God in their hearts and deaf to the truth of God.
- You always resist the Holy Spirit - by continually and proven historically willingly rejecting God's appeal to them through Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, and now Church. He goes on in this line of thought to basically say they are worse than their fathers, where the father persecuted and killed those predicting the coming of the righteous one, they took it a step forward and actually killed the righteous one. Then in this same line of thought he closes out his accusation by saying essentially that though they were the ones privileged enough to actually receive the law through the mediation of angels, they never obeyed it!
No harm can be done to the temple and the law, what Christ is openly established as the end and truth of both!
