Acts 7
7
Stephen Speaks to the Sanhedrin
1Then the high priest questioned Stephen. “Is what these people are saying true?” he asked.
2“Brothers and fathers, listen to me!” Stephen replied. “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham. At that time Abraham was still in Mesopotamia. He had not yet begun living in Harran. 3‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said. ‘Go to the land I will show you.’ (Genesis 12:1)
4“So Abraham left the land of Babylonia. He settled in Harran. After his father died, God sent Abraham to this land where you are now living. 5God didn’t give him any property here. He didn’t even give him enough land to set his foot on. But God made a promise to him and to all his family after him. He said they would possess the land. The promise was made even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6Here is what God said to him. ‘For 400 years your family after you will be strangers in a country not their own. They will be slaves and will be treated badly. 7But I will punish the nation that makes them slaves,’ God said. ‘After that, they will leave that country and worship me here.’ (Genesis 15:13,14) 8Then God made a covenant with Abraham. God told him that circumcision would show who the members of the covenant were. Abraham became Isaac’s father. He circumcised Isaac eight days after he was born. Later, Isaac became Jacob’s father. Jacob had 12 sons. They became the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel.
9“Jacob’s sons were jealous of their brother Joseph. So they sold him as a slave. He was taken to Egypt. But God was with him. 10He saved Joseph from all his troubles. God made Joseph wise. He helped him to become the friend of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made Joseph ruler over Egypt and his whole palace.
11“There was not enough food for all Egypt and Canaan. This brought great suffering. Jacob and his sons couldn’t find food. 12But Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt. So he sent his sons on their first visit. 13On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was. Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family. The total number of people was 75. 15Then Jacob went down to Egypt. There he and his family died. 16Some of their bodies were brought back to Shechem. They were placed in a tomb Abraham had bought. He had purchased it from Hamor’s sons at Shechem. He had purchased it for a certain amount of money.
17“In Egypt the number of our people grew and grew. It was nearly time for God to make his promise to Abraham come true. 18Then ‘a new king came to power in Egypt. Joseph didn’t mean anything to him.’ (Exodus 1:8) 19The king was very evil and dishonest with our people. He treated them badly. He forced them to throw out their newborn babies to die.
20“At that time Moses was born. He was not an ordinary child. For three months he was taken care of by his family. 21Then he was placed outside. But Pharaoh’s daughter took him home. She brought him up as her own son. 22Moses was taught all the knowledge of the people of Egypt. He became a powerful speaker and a man of action.
23“When Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit the people of Israel. They were his own people. 24He saw one of them being treated badly by an Egyptian. So he went to help him. He got even by killing the man. 25Moses thought his own people would realize that God was using him to save them. But they didn’t. 26The next day Moses saw two Israelites fighting. He tried to make peace between them. ‘Men, you are both Israelites,’ he said. ‘Why do you want to hurt each other?’
27“But the man who was treating the other one badly pushed Moses to one side. He said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ (Exodus 2:14) 29When Moses heard this, he escaped to Midian. He lived there as an outsider. He became the father of two sons there.
30“Forty years passed. Then an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush. This happened in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31When Moses saw the bush, he was amazed. He went over for a closer look. There he heard the Lord say, 32‘I am the God of your fathers. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ (Exodus 3:6) Moses shook with fear. He didn’t dare to look.
33“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals. You must do this because the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have seen my people beaten down in Egypt. I have heard their groans. I have come down to set them free. Now come. I will send you back to Egypt.’ (Exodus 3:5,7,8,10)
35“This is the same Moses the two men of Israel would not accept. They had said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ But God himself sent Moses to rule the people of Israel and set them free. He spoke to Moses through an angel. The angel had appeared to him in the bush. 36So Moses led them out of Egypt. He did wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for 40 years in the desert.
37“This is the same Moses who spoke to the Israelites. ‘God will send you a prophet,’ he said. ‘He will be like me. He will come from your own people.’ (Deuteronomy 18:15) 38Moses was with the Israelites in the desert. He was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. Moses was with our people of long ago. He received living words to pass on to us.
39“But our people refused to obey Moses. They would not accept him. In their hearts, they wished they were back in Egypt. 40They told Aaron, ‘Make us a god who will lead us. This fellow Moses brought us up out of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him!’ (Exodus 32:1) 41That was the time they made a statue to be their god. It was shaped like a calf. They brought sacrifices to it. They even enjoyed what they had made with their own hands. 42But God turned away from them. He let them go on worshiping the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets. There it says,
“ ‘People of Israel, did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
for 40 years in the desert?
43You have taken with you the shrine of your false god Molek.
You have taken with you the star of your false god Rephan.
You made statues of those gods to worship.
So I will send you away from your country.’ (Amos 5:25–27)
God sent them to Babylon and even farther.
44“Long ago our people were in the desert. They had with them the holy tent. The tent was where the tablets of the covenant law were kept. Moses had made the holy tent as God had commanded him. Moses made it like the pattern he had seen. 45Our people received the tent from God. Then they brought it with them when they took the land of Canaan. God drove out the nations that were in their way. At that time Joshua was Israel’s leader. The tent remained in the land until David’s time. 46David was blessed by God. So David asked if he could build a house for the God of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who built the temple for God.
48“But the Most High God does not live in houses made by human hands. As God says through the prophet,
49“ ‘Heaven is my throne.
The earth is under my control.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
Where will my resting place be?
50Didn’t my hand make all these things?’ (Isaiah 66:1,2)
51“You stubborn people! You won’t obey! You won’t listen! You are just like your people of long ago! You always oppose the Holy Spirit! 52Was there ever a prophet your people didn’t try to hurt? They even killed those who told about the coming of the Blameless One. And now you have handed him over to his enemies. You have murdered him. 53The law you received was given by angels. But you haven’t obeyed it.”
Stephen Is Killed
54When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they became very angry. They were so angry they ground their teeth at Stephen. 55But he was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked up to heaven and saw God’s glory. He saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand. 56“Look!” he said. “I see heaven open. The Son of Man is standing at God’s right hand.”
57When the Sanhedrin heard this, they covered their ears. They yelled at the top of their voices. They all rushed at him. 58They dragged him out of the city. They began to throw stones at him to kill him. The people who had brought false charges against Stephen took off their coats. They placed them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59While the members of the Sanhedrin were throwing stones at Stephen, he prayed. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” he said. 60Then he fell on his knees. He cried out, “Lord! Don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he died.
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Acts 7
7
1“Are these allegations true?” the high priest asked.
2“Brothers and fathers, listen to me!” Stephen replied. “God in his glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was living in Mesopotamia, before he moved to Haran.
3God told him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and go to the country that I'm going to show you.’#7:3. Quoting Genesis 12:1. 4So he left the country of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. After his father's death, God sent him here to this country where you now live. 5God didn't give Abraham an inheritance here, not even one square foot. But God did promise Abraham that he would give him and his descendants possession of the land, even though he had no children. 6God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign country, and that they would be enslaved there, and would be mistreated for four hundred years. 7God said, ‘I will punish the nation that enslaves them. Eventually they will leave and come here to worship me.’#7:7. Quoting Genesis 15:13-14; Exodus 3:12. 8God also gave Abraham the agreement regarding circumcision,#7:8. Or “circumcision covenant.” and so when Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9The patriarchs, who were jealous of Joseph, sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him, 10and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave him wisdom and helped him gain the favor of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and the royal household.
11Now a famine occurred throughout Egypt and Canaan. It caused terrible misery, and our forefathers had no food. 12When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt he sent our forefathers down on their first visit. 13During their second visit, Joseph revealed to his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh discovered Joseph's family background. 14Joseph sent for his father and all his relatives—seventy-five in total. 15Jacob traveled to Egypt, and died there—as did our forefathers. 16Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought with silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17As the time approached regarding the promise that God had made to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt increased. 18A new king came to the throne in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. 19He took advantage of our people and treated our ancestors badly, forcing them to abandon their babies so they would die. 20It was at this time that Moses was born. He was a handsome child, and for three months he was looked after in his father's home. 21When he had to be abandoned, Pharaoh's daughter rescued him and took care of him as her own son.
22Moses received instruction in all areas of Egyptian knowledge, and he became a powerful speaker and leader. 23However, when he was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the Israelites. 24He saw one of them being mistreated, so he intervened to defend him. On behalf of the man he took revenge and killed the Egyptian. 25Moses thought his fellow Israelites would see that God was rescuing them through him, but they didn't. 26The next day when he arrived, two Israelites were fighting one another. He tried to reconcile them and stop the fight. ‘Men! You are brothers!’ he told them. ‘Why are you attacking each other?’
27But the man who had started the fight pushed Moses away. ‘Who put you in charge over us? Are you our judge now?’ he asked. 28‘Are you going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’#7:28. Quoting Exodus 2:13-14. 29When he heard this, Moses ran away. He went and lived in exile in the land of Midian, where two sons were born to him.
30Forty years later, in the desert of Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw this, he was amazed at the sight, and went over to take a closer look. The voice of the Lord spoke to him: 32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’#7:32. Quoting Exodus 3:6. Moses shook with fear and didn't dare look up. 33The Lord told him, ‘Take off your sandals, because where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have closely observed the suffering of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their groans. I have come down to rescue them. Now come over here, for I'm sending you to Egypt.’#7:34. Quoting Exodus 3:5-10.
35This was the same Moses that the people had rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’#7:35. Quoting Exodus 2:14. God sent him to be both a ruler and a liberator, by means of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36Moses led them out after performing miraculous signs in Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and continued to do so in the desert for forty years. 37This is the same Moses who promised the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from among your people.’#7:37. Quoting Deuteronomy 18:15. 38Moses was with God's assembled people in the desert when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and there with our forefathers he received God's living word to give to us. 39He was the one our fathers wouldn't listen to. They rejected him and decided to return to Egypt. 40They told Aaron, ‘Make gods for us to lead us, because we don't know what's happened to this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt.’#7:40. Quoting Exodus 32:1. 41Then they made an idol in the shape of a calf, sacrificed to it, and celebrated what they themselves had made!
42So God gave up on them. He left them to their worship of the stars in the sky. This is what the prophets wrote, ‘Were you giving offerings or making sacrifices to me during the forty years in the desert, you Israelites? 43No, you carried the Tabernacle of the god Moloch and the image of the god Rephan's star, images that you made so you could worship them. So I will banish you in exile beyond Babylon.’#7:43. Quoting Amos 5:25-27.
44Our ancestors had the Tabernacle of Testimony#7:44. Meaning that it gave God's message, and provided evidence of his presence. in the desert. God had told Moses how he should make it following the blueprint he had seen. 45Later on, our forefathers carried it with them when they went in with Joshua to occupy the land taken from the nations the Lord drove out before them. It stayed there until the time of David. 46David found favor with God and asked to make a more permanent home for the God of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who built a Temple#7:47. Literally, “house.” for him. 48Of course the Almighty doesn't live in temples we make. As the prophet said, 49‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth the place I put my feet. What kind of dwelling could you build for me?’ the Lord asks. ‘What bed could you make for me to rest in? 50Didn't I make everything?’#7:50. Quoting Isaiah 66:1-2.
51You arrogant, hard-hearted people! You never listen!#7:51. Literally, “uncircumcised in heart and ears.” You always fight against the Holy Spirit! You act just like your fathers did! 52Was there ever a prophet your fathers didn't persecute? They killed those who prophesied about the coming of the one who is truly good and right. He is the one you betrayed and murdered— 53you who received the law by means of the angels, but refused to keep it.”
54When they heard this, the council members became mad with rage, and snarled at him, grinding their teeth. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed up into heaven and saw God's glory, with Jesus standing at God's right hand. 56“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing at God's right hand.”
57But they held their hands over their ears and shouted as loudly as they could. They rushed together at him, 58dragged him out of the city, and began to stone him. His accusers laid their coats down beside a young man called Saul. 59As they went on stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60He kneeled down, calling out, “Lord, please don't hold this sin against them!” And after he said this, he died.#7:60. Literally, “fell asleep.” Death is often spoken of as a sleep in the New Testament.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com