Here Stephen is nearing
the central point of what he is saying to the council although if you believe
the Story this is not Stephen speaking. This is the Spirit of God speaking
through him:
7:37 “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."
Why bring up something so far in the past? Does it have any
relevance? Unless the Spirit of God is irrelevant it must have huge
significance. To understand what possible application that dusty old story
could have we first have to understand what happened back then.
Moses was the visible human leader of the Israelites as they
left Egypt and headed for the long ago promised land flowing with milk and
honey. It was an almost mythical place that had been promised to Abraham's
descendants and the promise had been passed on for generations. It was the
subject of bed time stories and the thing of dreams. Finally this generation
was about to realize the dream. Miracles had freed them from slavery and
Pharaoh. Life was good, sort of. As they left Egypt they went the wrong way.
There was a direct well-traveled route to Canaan and the Promised Land but
instead they headed out across the wilderness. Already the grumbling started.
Now in defense of Moses there was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night
that was actually leading them. Stephen and other Bible writers say Jesus was
inside that could. He was the true Leader.
After taking the "wrong" way they came to the Red
Sea with the Egyptian army in pursuit and believed very logically that they
were going to die. However God delivered them again. Then a few days later they
ran out of water. Again God provided. Then they ran out of food... Long story
short their journey has been a series of crises followed by miraculous
solutions. However the people were tired of the up and downs. They missed the
food of Egypt and the safe predictability of their life there even though they
had cried out to God to deliver them.
When God called Moses up into a mountain covered in fire and
smoke and he did not return for weeks the people saw their chance. Finally they
could be free to go where they wanted when they wanted. They wanted to be in
charge. They wanted to run their own show. So what did they do? They reasoned
with Aaron who was left in charge while Moses was gone that he was dead. That
he was never coming back. They proposed a solution. They could build a golden
calf to take the place of Moses and be their new god, their new leader.
Stephen tells us they turned back to Egypt in their hearts.
They built an idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Frank Sinatra
sang it like this: "I did it my way."
Today in civilized supposedly science-based North America we
don't build idols. That would be so unsophisticated. Instead our idols are our
own ideas. Like they tried to throw away Moses and ignore the ever present
cloud and fire, we reject leaders who tell the truth and we ignore the ever
present Scriptures that stand as an accurate gauge of human nature and track
exactly how this Story will end. We claim to be scientific but we ignore any
science that conflicts with our new story that we came from nowhere and are
accountable to no one. We need that story so we can do as we please and hope
the voice of our conscience which is really the voice of God's Spirit will just
give up and go away.
Stephen isn't speaking to men who don't see the
"cloud" and don't hear the Voice. They know, they just don't want to
hear. Their idol is themselves and the little kingdom they have built.
The message from God through Stephen is simple: "You are
just like your ancestors. They rejected Me and you are doing the same."
"Today if you hear His Voice do not harden your
heart..."
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