A survey of Israel's history during the patriarchs

Background:

Remember the charges brought against Stephen in Acts 6:11, 13: (1) he spoke blasphemous words against Moses, the law, and Jewish customs, and (2) he spoke blasphemous words against God and God's dwelling place, the temple.

We shouldn't think Stephen instructed the Sanhedrin on points of Jewish history they were ignorant of; instead, Stephen wants to emphasize some things revealed in Jewish history they may not have considered: that God has never confined Himself to one place (like the temple), and that the Jewish people have a habit of rejecting those God sends to them!

This is not a defense, really; Stephen isn't interested in defending himself; he just wants to proclaim the truth about Jesus in a way people can understand. "Such a speech as this was by no means calculated to secure an acquittal before the Sanhedrin. It is rather a defense of pure Christianity as God's appointed way of worship."

God's promise to Abraham

1) Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?"
2) To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3) 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'
4) "So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5) He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6) God spoke to him in this way: 'Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7) But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,' God said, 'and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.' 8) Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

The high priest mentioned here was probably still Caiaphas, the same one who presided over the trial of Jesus.

Stephen recounts Abraham's journey from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran to Canaan, amounting to a somewhat roundabout obedience to God's command as remembered in verse three.

As Abraham went from Mesopotamia to Haran to Canaan, God was with him all the time - unhindered by the fact there was no temple. Abraham didn't need the temple to be close to God.

Abraham owned no land — only a Promise. Even at the end of his life, the only portion of the land he actually possessed was the cave he purchased in which to bury his wife (Genesis 23:9).

God's faithfulness through Joseph

9) "Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh King of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and his entire palace.
11) "Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food. 12) When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13) On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family. 14) After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15) Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died. 16) Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.

Stephen presents Joseph as a picture of Jesus, in that the sons of Israel rejected Joseph, who later became a "savior" (and the only savior) for them. The message is plain: "you people have a habit of rejecting the saviors God sends to you. Why don't you wake up and stop rejecting Jesus?"

The only land that Abraham ever actually "possessed" in Canaan was this tomb for burial; the rest was only received by faith.

Moses is rejected by Israel at his "first coming"

17) "As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. 18) Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. 19) He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20) "At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father's house. 21) When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22) Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23) "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. 24) He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25) Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26) The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'
27) "But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28) Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' 29) When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

Moses is the next picture of Jesus, who was favored by God from birth, and miraculously preserved in childhood, and was mighty in words and deeds.

Yet, when Moses offered deliverance to Israel, he was rejected, and rejected with spite, with Israel denying that he had any right to be ruler and a judge over them. The message is plain: "you have rejected Jesus, who was like Moses yet greater than him, and you deny that Jesus has any right to be a ruler and a judge over you."

God calls Moses, and makes him a ruler and a deliverer for Israel, who previously had rejected him

30) "After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31) When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: 32) 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33) "Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34) I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'
35) "This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36) He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.

Even though Israel had rejected Moses and his leadership, God appointed Moses with unmistakable signs, including the burning bush in the wilderness.

God's appearing to Moses at the burning bush is important to Stephen, because it shows that God's presence is not limited to the temple. God is bigger than the temple, and Moses did not need the temple to be close to God.

Moses is repeatedly rejected by an obstinate Israel

37) "This is that Moses who told the Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.' 38) He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.
39) "But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40) They told Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt--we don't know what has happened to him!' 41) That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. 42) But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:
   ”‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
       forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
    43) You have lifted up the shrine of Molech
       and the star of your god Rephan,
       the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile' beyond Babylon.

Moses promised that there would come after him another Prophet, and warned that Israel should take special care to listen to Him - but just like Israel rejected Moses, so they are rejecting Jesus, who is the Prophet Moses spoke of. How are you rejecting Jesus Christ? Have you received Him as your deliverer, as the one who can save you?

The Canaanites worshipped Molech (sitting on left).

Who was Molech? He was the god of prosperity and success. He was the god to whom parents would offer their first-born children and watch them die believing their families would be more prosperous and their businesses more successful as a result. Molech is still worshipped by many today even in America. `We'll abort the baby so we can have more success and prosperity. We don't have time for children — we're climbing the corporate ladder.'

Moses, like Jesus, led the congregation of God's people, enjoyed special intimacy with God and brought forth the revelation of God.

The Church is not Israel, but certainly parallels it:

• Israel was fed with bread from heaven.

• The Church partakes of the bread of His broken body.

• Israel was delivered by the blood of the Passover lamb.

• The Church is delivered by the blood of the Crucified Lamb.

• Israel came out of Egypt, which is a type of the world.

• The Church is called from out of the world.

• Israel went through the waters of the Red Sea.

• The Church goes through the waters of baptism.

But Israel continued to reject Moses, even after God had demonstrated that he was their deliverer.

In their rejection of Moses and the God who sent him, Israel turned instead to corrupt idols, bringing upon themselves the judgment described in the passage quoted from Jeremiah. The idea of Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven is as important as it is awesome; Paul later builds on the thought of God giving man over to his sinful desires in Romans. If we reject Jesus, what will we be given over to?

Even while Israel was rejecting God, they still had the tabernacle, and later, the temple

44) "Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45) Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46) who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47) But it was Solomon who built the house for him.
48) "However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. 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 where will my resting place be?
    50) Has not my hand made all these things?'

Stephen's point is that the presence of the temple did not keep them from rejecting God and His special messengers.

He rightly corrects their attempt to confine God within the temple; God is too big to fit in any temple man could make.

How are you confining God to one place? Do you only meet with God here at the church?

Stephen applies the sermon to his listeners

51) "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52) Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—53) you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."

One can imagine the angry whispering among the Sanhedrin as Stephen's history lesson begins to hit home; Stephen sees this and knows that they are rejecting the One God sent again, just like before. "He takes the sharp knife of the Word and rips up the sins of the people, laying open the inward parts of their hearts, and the secrets of their souls. . . He could not have delivered that searching address with greater fearlessness had he been assured that they would thank him for the operation; the fact that his death was certain had no other effect upon him than to make him yet more zealous."

Drawing on concepts from the Old Testament, Stephen rebukes those who rejected Jesus; they are stiff-necked (as Israel was) and uncircumcised in heart and ears (as Israel was). Almost twenty times in the Old Testament, God calls Israel stiff-necked; these religious leaders are being just as their fathers were. Stephen may even have in mind a passage like Deuteronomy 10:16: Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.

The essential message is, "as Israel was, so are you now; you have now become the betrayers and murderers."

Observations:

• Stephen's message is essentially twofold - God is no respecter of places, and Israel is guilty of what they have always been guilty of - rejecting God's messengers.

• Jesus said that it is impossible for old wineskins to hold new wine; through Stephen, the Holy Spirit is showing how the old traditions of Judaism can't contain the new wine of Christianity.

• God used Stephen's martyrdom to send the church out into the entire world; but God also used His message to show that there was no theological reason why the gospel should not go to the Gentiles. The whole idea behind a permanent, stationary temple is "you come to me"; God's ideal is "I will come to you" - including the Gentiles.

Reaction to the sermon of Stephen

They were cut to the heart, and convicted by the Holy Spirit; yet the Sanhedrin reacts with rage instead of submission to the Holy Spirit

54) When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.

Who, really, are they angry with? Stephen is only the messenger; their real anger is directed against the God they are rejecting.

The idea of gnashing of teeth can't help but remind us of the imagery of Hell; seven different times, Jesus described Hell as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. These God-rejecting religionists are revealing themselves to be, quite literally, citizens of Hell.

Stephen's vision of Jesus

55) But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56) "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

We are reminded again that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit; this was the source of his courage, wisdom and power in preaching. J.B. Phillip's translation has insight: Stephen filled through all his being with the Holy Spirit.

It is difficult to describe exactly what Stephen saw; going beyond the plain description of the text is purely speculative.

Stephen began his sermon by talking about the God of glory (7:2). At the end of his sermon, he saw the glory of God. That's the way it always is.

Whenever you start talking to people about some quality of the Lord, by the time you've finished the conversation, you find yourself enjoying and seeing that very quality in your own heart. It's incredible how that works. Start telling someone how wonderful Jesus is, and by the time you conclude, you'll be totally in wonder of Jesus. Begin sharing about the God of grace and you'll find yourself receiving the grace of God. That is why I encourage you to share your faith — not because it is a job to do — but because it is a joy to experience.

It is significant to note Jesus is standing here, as opposed to the more common description of Him sitting (Matthew 26:64, Colossians 3:1) at the right hand of the Father. Jesus stands in solidarity with Stephen at this moment of crisis; He does not impassionedly react to the problems of His people.  Jesus stands to give a "standing ovation" to Stephen, whose fate makes him unique among believers - the first of all martyrs among the followers of Jesus.

The stoning of Stephen

57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Ran at him uses the Greek word hormao; this is the same word used to describe the mad rush of the herd of swine into the sea (Mark 5:13). This was an out-of-control mob rushing at Stephen.

The reaction of the Sanhedrin seems extreme, but is typical of those rejecting God and lost in spiritual insanity - they wail in agony and cover their ears at the revelation of God - which they regard as blasphemy. What a dangerous thing it is to be religious apart from a real relationship with Jesus Christ! "For Stephen to suggest that the crucified Jesus stood in a position of authority at the right hand of God must have ranked as blasphemy in the thinking of those who knew that a crucified man died under the divine curse.”

The extent of their rage is shown by their execution of Stephen, which was done without regard for Roman law, and which was performed according to traditional Jewish custom (stoning).

From the second-century Mishnah, describing the practice of stoning: "When the trial is finished, the man convicted is brought out to be stoned. . . . When ten cubits from the place of stoning they say to him, 'Confess, for it is the custom of all about to be put to death to make confession, and every one who confesses has a share in the age to come.' . . . Four cubits from the place of stoning the criminal is stripped. . . . The drop from the place of stoning was twice the height of a man. One of the witnesses pushes the criminal from behind, so that he falls face downward. He is then turned over on his back. If he dies from this fall, that is sufficient. If not, the second witness takes the stone and drops it on his heart. If this causes death, that is sufficient; if not, he is stoned by all the congregation of Israel."

Saul stood there as the "supervisor" of the operation; as a member of the Sanhedrin, he had also approved of Stephen's execution. Young man in verse 58 literally means, "a man in his prime." It certainly does not mean that Saul wasn't old enough to be a member of the Sanhedrin. In Acts 26:10, Paul says I cast my vote against them; the plain implication was that he had a vote as a member of the Sanhedrin.

Stephen's last words

59) While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60) Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

His life ends as it had continued - in complete trust in God, believing that Jesus would take care of him in the life to come. "The fires . . . in the olden days never made martyrs; they revealed them. No hurricane of persecution ever creates martyrs; it reveals them. Stephen was a martyr before they stoned him. He was the first martyr to seal his testimony with his blood."

God answered Stephen's prayer, and used it to touch the heart of a man who energetically agreed with his stoning, though the man didn't know the prayer was being answered. When we get to heaven, make sure to look up Stephen and thank him for every blessing brought through the ministry of Saul of Tarsus. God heard Stephen's prayer, and Paul is the evidence of it. We have no idea how greatly God can use us in our times of suffering Augustine said, "If Stephen had not prayed, the church would not have had Paul."

He displays the same forgiving attitude that Jesus had on the cross, making a promise of forgiveness to God in the presence of others. If the gospels contain that which Jesus began to do and to teach, they also only contain that which Jesus began to suffer - there is a sense in which Jesus suffers along with Stephen as he is martyred now.

Tenderly, the text notes that Stephen did not "die"; instead, he merely fell asleep - and awoke to a much better world.

How could Stephen be so peaceful — dying, without fighting back, without lashing out; crying, `0, Lord, don't hold this against these guys'?

He looked into heaven and saw Jesus.

You see, Revelation 5:6 tells us that when we see Him, we will see Him as a Lamb having been slain. Therefore, if I'm looking up to heaven and seeing the Lord, inevitably I will understand that the scars He still bears were caused by me. My sin, my rebellion, my carnality, my depravity caused Him to be slaughtered on Calvary. And as I look into heaven and see what my sin did, what my sin wrought, I have no other alternative but to say even to those who are gnashing their teeth and throwing stones at me. `Lord Jesus, forgive them. Don't hold this against them.'

When I truly see Jesus, I have no other choice but to be amazed at His grace and to be at peace with others. It's only when I lower my sight and begin to look at people horizontally that I want to say, `Who do you think you are to say that about me?' It's only when I take my eyes off Jesus that I become defensive and antagonistic, uptight and combative, abrasive, callous and critical.

What about you? Are you tense? Nervous? Uptight? Losing sleep, hair or teeth unnecessarily? The solution is so simple: Don't look down on people. Look up into heaven and see the Lord. See how He has forgiven you. See the grace He has shown to you. See His mercies extended in your direction.

In II Kings, we read the account of a battle between Israel and Moab. Losing the battle, and realizing his number was up, the king of Moab in desperation took his eldest son and sacrificed him on the wall of his city. When the people of Israel saw the sacrifice of the king's own son, they departed from him and returned to their own land (II Kings 3:27). They lost the will to fight when they saw the sacrifice the king made.

Stephen wasn't a superman - but he was a man filled through all his being with the Holy Spirit. You have no idea of how greatly you can be used of God as you walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 8

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