Today is Stephen's message before the council in response to
the charges of blasphemy. Note that he never even attempts to defend himself.
He just traces God's hand through their history which has all pointed to Jesus,
the One they rejected and killed just as their ancestors rejected the prophets.
I didn't want to break it up so we'll discuss it tomorrow.
Lesson for today: Don't defend yourself. Lift up Jesus. The
Story is about Him, not us.
7:1 Then the high
priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And he (Stephen)
said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father
Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, 3 and said to
him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that
I will show you.’ 4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in
Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in
which you now dwell. 5 And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to
set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to
him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. 6 But God spoke in this
way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would
bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. 7 ‘And the nation
to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they
shall come out and serve Me in this place.’ 8 Then He gave him the covenant of
circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day;
and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.
9 “And the patriarchs,
becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and delivered
him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of
Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan,
and our fathers found no sustenance. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was
grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. 13 And the second time Joseph
was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to the
Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives
to him, seventy-five people. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he
and our fathers. 16 And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb
that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of
Shechem.
17 “But when the time
of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and
multiplied in Egypt 18 till another king arose who did not know Joseph. 19 This
man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making
them expose their babies, so that they might not live. 20 At this time Moses
was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s
house for three months. 21 But when he was set out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him
away and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
23 “Now when he was
forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of
Israel. 24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who
was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. 25 For he supposed that his
brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but
they did not understand. 26 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they
were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why
do you wrong one another?’ 27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him
away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill
me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 Then, at this saying, Moses fled and
became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
30 “And when forty
years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a
bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. 31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at
the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him,
32 saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. 33 ‘Then the Lord
said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is
holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in
Egypt; I have heard their groaning and 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?’ is the one God sent
to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in
the bush. 36 He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the
land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 “This is that Moses
who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a
Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’
38 “This is he who was
in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount
Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to
us, 39 whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they
turned back to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for
this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has
become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to
the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42 Then God turned and
gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the
Prophets:
‘Did you offer Me
slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O
house of Israel?
43 You also took up the
tabernacle of Moloch,
And the star of your
god Remphan,
Images which you made
to worship;
And I will carry you
away beyond Babylon.’
44 “Our fathers had the
tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to
make it according to the pattern that he had seen, 45 which our fathers, having
received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the
Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of
David, 46 who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God
of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built Him a house.
48 “However, the Most
High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is My
throne,
And earth is My
footstool.
What house will you
build for Me? says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest?
50 Has My hand not made
all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked
and 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 foretold the coming of the Just One, of
whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the
law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
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