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
Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Discourses. 1Then the high priest asked, “Is this so?” 2#Gn 11:31; 12:1; Ps 29:3. And he replied,#Stephen’s speech represents Luke’s description of Christianity’s break from its Jewish matrix. Two motifs become prominent in the speech: (1) Israel’s reaction to God’s chosen leaders in the past reveals that the people have consistently rejected them; and (2) Israel has misunderstood God’s choice of the Jerusalem temple as the place where he is to be worshiped. “My brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia,#God…appeared to our father Abraham…in Mesopotamia: the first of a number of minor discrepancies between the data of the Old Testament and the data of Stephen’s discourse. According to Gn 12:1, God first spoke to Abraham in Haran. The main discrepancies are these: in Acts 7:16 it is said that Jacob was buried in Shechem, whereas Gn 50:13 says he was buried at Hebron; in the same verse it is said that the tomb was purchased by Abraham, but in Gn 33:19 and Jos 24:32 the purchase is attributed to Jacob himself. before he had settled in Haran, 3and said to him, ‘Go forth from your land and [from] your kinsfolk to the land that I will show you.’#Gn 12:1. 4So he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he made him migrate to this land where you now dwell.#Gn 12:5; 15:7. 5Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but he did promise to give it to him and his descendants as a possession, even though he was childless.#Gn 12:7; 13:15; 15:2; 16:1; Dt 2:5. 6And God spoke thus,#Gn 15:13–14. ‘His descendants shall be aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years; 7but I will bring judgment on the nation they serve,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.’#Ex 3:12. 8Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, as Isaac did Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.#Gn 17:10–14; 21:2–4.
9“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into slavery in Egypt; but God was with him#Gn 37:11, 28; 39:2, 3, 21, 23. 10and rescued him from all his afflictions. He granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who put him in charge of Egypt and [of] his entire household.#Gn 41:37–43; Ps 105:21; Wis 10:13–14. 11Then a famine and great affliction struck all Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food;#Gn 41:54–57; 42:5. 12but when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there a first time.#Gn 42:1–2. 13The second time, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.#Gn 45:3–4, 16. 14Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob, inviting him and his whole clan, seventy-five persons;#Gn 45:9–11, 18–19; 46:27; Ex 1:5 LXX; Dt 10:22. 15and Jacob went down to Egypt. And he and our ancestors died#Gn 46:5–6; 49:33. 16and were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor at Shechem.#Gn 23:3–20; 33:19; 49:29–30; 50:13; Jos 24:32.
17“When the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God pledged to Abraham, the people had increased and become very numerous in Egypt,#Ex 1:7. 18until another king who knew nothing of Joseph came to power [in Egypt].#Ex 1:8. 19He dealt shrewdly with our people and oppressed [our] ancestors by forcing them to expose their infants, that they might not survive. 20At this time Moses was born, and he was extremely beautiful. For three months he was nursed in his father’s house;#Ex 2:2; Heb 11:23. 21but when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.#Ex 2:3–10. 22Moses was educated [in] all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.
23#Ex 2:11–12. “When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his kinsfolk, the Israelites. 24When he saw one of them treated unjustly, he defended and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25He assumed [his] kinsfolk would understand that God was offering them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26#Ex 2:13–14. The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you harming one another?’ 27Then the one who was harming his neighbor pushed him aside, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? 28Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29Moses fled when he heard this and settled as an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.#Ex 2:15, 21–22; 18:3–4.
30#Ex 3:2–3. “Forty years later, an angel appeared to him in the desert near Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look at it, the voice of the Lord came, 32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.’ Then Moses, trembling, did not dare to look at it. 33But the Lord said to him, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’ 35This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge?’ God sent as [both] ruler and deliverer, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.#Ex 2:14. 36This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for forty years.#Ex 7:3, 10; 14:21; Nm 14:33. 37It was this Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you, from among your own kinsfolk, a prophet like me.’#Dt 18:15; Acts 3:22. 38It was he who, in the assembly in the desert, was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living utterances to hand on to us.#Ex 19:3; 20:1–17; Dt 5:4–22; 6:4–25.
39“Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside and in their hearts turned back to Egypt,#Nm 14:3. 40saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will be our leaders. As for that Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’#Ex 32:1, 23. 41#Ex 32:4–6. So they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands. 42Then God turned and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:#Am 5:25–27.
‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?#Jer 7:18; 8:2; 19:13.
43No, you took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of [your] god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship.
So I shall take you into exile beyond Babylon.’
44Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the desert just as the One who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.#Ex 25:9, 40. 45Our ancestors who inherited it brought it with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out from before our ancestors, up to the time of David,#Jos 3:14–17; 18:1; 2 Sm 7:5–7. 46who found favor in the sight of God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.#2 Sm 7:1–2; 1 Kgs 8:17; Ps 132:1–5. 47But Solomon built a house for him.#1 Kgs 6:1; 1 Chr 17:12. 48Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:#17:24.
49‘The heavens are my throne,
the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house can you build for me?
says the Lord,
or what is to be my resting place?#Is 66:1–2.
50Did not my hand make all these things?’
Conclusion. 51“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors. 52Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.#2 Chr 36:16; Mt 23:31, 34. 53You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.”#Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2.
Stephen’s Martyrdom. 54When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. 55#Mt 26:64; Mk 14:62; Lk 22:69; Acts 2:34. But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,#He…saw…Jesus standing at the right hand of God: Stephen affirms to the Sanhedrin that the prophecy Jesus made before them has been fulfilled (Mk 14:62). 56and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears,#Covered their ears: Stephen’s declaration, like that of Jesus, is a scandal to the court, which regards it as blasphemy. and rushed upon him together. 58They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.#22:20. 59As they were stoning Stephen,#Ps 31:6; Lk 23:46. he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”#Compare Lk 23:34, 46. 60Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; and when he said this, he fell asleep.#Mt 27:46, 50; Mk 15:34; Lk 23:46.
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