Acts 7
7
Stephen, Full of the Holy Spirit
1Then the Chief Priest said, “What do you have to say for yourself?”
2-3Stephen replied, “Friends, fathers, and brothers, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before the move to Haran, and told him, ‘Leave your country and family and go to the land I’ll show you.’
4-7“So he left the country of the Chaldees and moved to Haran. After the death of his father, he immigrated to this country where you now live, but God gave him nothing, not so much as a foothold. He did promise to give the country to him and his son later on, even though Abraham had no son at the time. God let him know that his offspring would move to an alien country where they would be enslaved and brutalized for four hundred years. ‘But,’ God said, ‘I will step in and take care of those slaveholders and bring my people out so they can worship me in this place.’
8“Then he made a covenant with him and signed it in Abraham’s flesh by circumcision. When Abraham had his son Isaac, within eight days he reproduced the sign of circumcision in him. Isaac became father of Jacob, and Jacob father of twelve ‘fathers,’ each faithfully passing on the covenant sign.
9-10“But then those ‘fathers,’ burning up with jealousy, sent Joseph off to Egypt as a slave. God was right there with him, though—he not only rescued him from all his troubles but brought him to the attention of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He was so impressed with Joseph that he put him in charge of the whole country, including his own personal affairs.
11-15a “Later a famine descended on that entire region, stretching from Egypt to Canaan, bringing terrific hardship. Our hungry fathers looked high and low for food, but the cupboard was bare. Jacob heard there was food in Egypt and sent our fathers to scout it out. Having confirmed the report, they went back to Egypt a second time to get food. On that visit, Joseph revealed his true identity to his brothers and introduced the Jacob family to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, and everyone else in the family, seventy-five in all. That’s how the Jacob family got to Egypt.
15b-16 “Jacob died, and our fathers after him. They were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb for which Abraham paid a good price to the sons of Hamor.
17-19“When the four hundred years were nearly up, the time God promised Abraham for deliverance, the population of our people in Egypt had become very large. And there was now a king over Egypt who had never heard of Joseph. He exploited our race mercilessly. He went so far as forcing us to abandon our newborn infants, exposing them to the elements to die a cruel death.
20-22“In just such a time Moses was born, a most beautiful baby. He was hidden at home for three months. When he could be hidden no longer, he was put outside—and immediately rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter, who mothered him as her own son. Moses was educated in the best schools in Egypt. He was equally impressive as a thinker and an athlete.
23-26“When he was forty years old, he wondered how everything was going with his Hebrew kin and went out to look things over. He saw an Egyptian abusing one of them and stepped in, avenging his underdog brother by knocking the Egyptian flat. He thought his brothers would be glad that he was on their side, and even see him as an instrument of God to deliver them. But they didn’t see it that way. The next day two of them were fighting and he tried to break it up, told them to shake hands and get along with each other: ‘Friends, you are brothers, why are you beating up on each other?’
27-29“The one who had started the fight said, ‘Who put you in charge of us? Are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ When Moses heard that, realizing that the word was out, he ran for his life and lived in exile over in Midian. During the years of exile, two sons were born to him.
30-32“Forty years later, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to him in the guise of flames of a burning bush. Moses, not believing his eyes, went up to take a closer look. He heard God’s voice: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Frightened nearly out of his skin, Moses shut his eyes and turned away.
33-34“God said, ‘Kneel and pray. You are in a holy place, on holy ground. I’ve seen the agony of my people in Egypt. I’ve heard their groans. I’ve come to help them. So get yourself ready; I’m sending you back to Egypt.’
35-39a “This is the same Moses whom they earlier rejected, saying, ‘Who put you in charge of us?’ This is the Moses that God, using the angel flaming in the burning bush, sent back as ruler and redeemer. He led them out of their slavery. He did wonderful things, setting up God-signs all through Egypt, down at the Red Sea, and out in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to his congregation, ‘God will raise up a prophet just like me from your descendants.’ This is the Moses who stood between the angel speaking at Sinai and your fathers assembled in the wilderness and took the life-giving words given to him and handed them over to us, words our fathers would have nothing to do with.
39b-41 “They craved the old Egyptian ways, whining to Aaron, ‘Make us gods we can see and follow. This Moses who got us out here miles from nowhere—who knows what’s happened to him!’ That was the time when they made a calf-idol, brought sacrifices to it, and congratulated each other on the wonderful religious program they had put together.
42-43“God wasn’t at all pleased; but he let them do it their way, worship every new god that came down the pike—and live with the consequences, consequences described by the prophet Amos:
Did you bring me offerings of animals and grains
those forty wilderness years, O Israel?
Hardly. You were too busy building shrines
to war gods, to sex goddesses,
Worshiping them with all your might.
That’s why I put you in exile in Babylon.
44-47“And all this time our ancestors had a tent shrine for true worship, made to the exact specifications God provided Moses. They had it with them as they followed Joshua, when God cleared the land of pagans, and still had it right down to the time of David. David asked God for a permanent place for worship. But Solomon built it.
48-50“Yet that doesn’t mean that Most High God lives in a building made by carpenters and masons. The prophet Isaiah put it well when he wrote,
“Heaven is my throne room;
I rest my feet on earth.
So what kind of house
will you build me?” says God.
“Where I can get away and relax?
It’s already built, and I built it.”
51-53“And you continue, so bullheaded! Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your ears! Deliberately ignoring the Holy Spirit, you’re just like your ancestors. Was there ever a prophet who didn’t get the same treatment? Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Just One. And you’ve kept up the family tradition—traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God’s Law handed to you by angels—gift-wrapped!—and you squandered it!”
54-56At that point they went wild, a rioting mob of catcalls and whistles and invective. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed—he only had eyes for God, whom he saw in all his glory with Jesus standing at his side. He said, “Oh! I see heaven wide open and the Son of Man standing at God’s side!”
57-58Yelling and hissing, the mob drowned him out. Now in full stampede, they dragged him out of town and pelted him with rocks. The ringleaders took off their coats and asked a young man named Saul to watch them.
59-60As the rocks rained down, Stephen prayed, “Master Jesus, take my life.” Then he knelt down, praying loud enough for everyone to hear, “Master, don’t blame them for this sin”—his last words. Then he died.
Saul was right there, congratulating the killers.
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Acts 7: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Acts 7
7
Stephen's speech
1The high priest asked Stephen, “Are they telling the truth about you?”
2Stephen answered:#Gn 12.1.
Friends, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he had moved to Haran. 3God told him, “Leave your country and your relatives and go to a land that I will show you.” 4Then Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran.#Gn 11.31; Gn 12.4.
After his father died, Abraham came and settled in this land where you now live. 5God didn't give him any part of it, not even a square metre. But God did promise to give it to him and his family for ever, even though Abraham didn't have any children.#Gn 12.7; 13.15; 15.18; 17.8. 6God said that Abraham's descendants would live for a while in a foreign land. There they would be slaves and would be ill-treated four hundred years.#Gn 15.13,14. 7But he also said, “I will punish the nation that makes them slaves. Then later they will come and worship me in this place.”#Ex 3.12.
8God said to Abraham, “Every son in each family must be circumcised to show that you have kept your agreement with me.” So when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him. Later, Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons.#Gn 17.10-14; Gn 21.2-4; Gn 25.26; Gn 29.31—35.18. 9These men were our ancestors.
Joseph was also one of our famous ancestors. His brothers were jealous of him and sold him as a slave to be taken to Egypt. But God was with him#Gn 37.11; Gn 37.28; Gn 39.2,21. 10and rescued him from all his troubles. God made him so wise that the Egyptian king Pharaoh#7.10 Pharaoh: A Hebrew word sometimes used for the title of the King of Egypt. thought highly of him. Pharaoh even made Joseph governor over Egypt and put him in charge of everything he owned.#Gn 41.39-41.
11Everywhere in Egypt and Canaan the grain crops failed. There was terrible suffering, and our ancestors could not find enough to eat.#Gn 42.1,2. 12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. 13It was on their second trip that Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learnt about Joseph's family.#Gn 45.1; Gn 45.16.
14Joseph sent for his father and his relatives. In all, there were seventy-five of them.#Gn 45.9,10,17,18; Gn 46.27 (LXX). 15His father went to Egypt and died there, just as our ancestors did.#Gn 46.1-7; Gn 49.33. 16Later their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor.#Gn 23.3-16; 33.19; 50.7-13; Js 24.32.
Stephen continued:
17Finally, the time came for God to do what he had promised Abraham. By then the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.#Ex 1.7,8. 18Another king was ruling Egypt, and he didn't know anything about Joseph. 19He tricked our ancestors and was cruel to them. He even made them leave their babies outside, so they would die.#Ex 1.10,11; Ex 1.22.
20During this time Moses was born. He was a very beautiful child, and for three months his parents took care of him in their home.#Ex 2.2. 21Then when they were forced to leave him outside, the king's daughter found him and raised him as her own son.#Ex 2.3-10. 22Moses was given the best education in Egypt. He was a strong man and a powerful speaker.
23When Moses was forty years old, he wanted to help the Israelites because they were his own people.#Ex 2.11-15. 24One day he saw an Egyptian ill-treating one of them. So he rescued the man and killed the Egyptian. 25Moses thought the rest of his people would realize that God was going to use him to set them free. But they didn't understand.
26The next day Moses saw two of his own people fighting, and he tried to make them stop. He said, “Men, you are both Israelites. Why are you so cruel to each other?”
27But the man who had started the fight pushed Moses aside and asked, “Who made you our ruler and judge? 28Are you going to kill me, just as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?” 29When Moses heard this, he ran away to live in the country of Midian. His two sons were born there.#Ex 18.3,4.
Stephen continued:
30Forty years later, an angel appeared to Moses from a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.#Ex 3.1-10. 31Moses was surprised by what he saw. He went closer to get a better look, and the Lord said, 32“I am the God who was worshipped by your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Moses started shaking all over and didn't dare to look at the bush.
33The Lord said to him, “Take off your sandals. The place where you are standing is holy. 34With my own eyes I have seen the suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now I am sending you back to Egypt.”
35This was the same Moses that the people rejected by saying, “Who made you our leader and judge?” God's angel had spoken to Moses from the bush. And God had even sent the angel to help Moses rescue the people and be their leader.#Ex 2.14.
36In Egypt and at the Red Sea#7.36 Red Sea: This name comes from the Bible of the early Christians, a translation made into Greek about 200 BC. It refers to the body of water that the Israelites crossed and was one of the marshes or fresh water lakes near the eastern part of the Nile Delta, where they lived and where the towns of Exodus 13.17—14.9 were located. and in the desert, Moses rescued the people by performing miracles and wonders for forty years.#Ex 7.3; Ex 14.21; Nu 14.33. 37Moses is the one who told the people of Israel, “God will choose one of your people to be a prophet, just as he chose me.”#Dt 18.15,18. 38Moses brought our people together in the desert, and the angel spoke to him on Mount Sinai. There he was given these life-giving words to pass on to us.#Ex 19.1—20.17; Dt 5.1-33. 39But our ancestors refused to obey Moses. They rejected him and wanted to go back to Egypt.
40The people said to Aaron, “Make some gods to lead us! Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don't know what's happened to him now.”#Ex 32.1. 41Then they made an idol in the shape of a calf. They offered sacrifices to the idol and were pleased with what they had done.#Ex 32.2-6.
42God turned his back on his people and left them. Then they worshipped the stars in the sky, just as it says in the Book of the Prophets, “People of Israel, you didn't offer sacrifices and offerings to me during those forty years in the desert.#Am 5.25-27 (LXX). 43Instead, you carried the tent where the god Molech is worshipped, and you took along the star of your god Rephan. You made those idols and worshipped them. So now I will have you carried off beyond Babylonia.”
Stephen continued:
44The tent where our ancestors worshipped God was with them in the desert. This was the same tent that God had commanded Moses to make. And it was made like the model that Moses had seen.#Ex 25.9,40. 45Later it was given to our ancestors, and they took it with them when they went with Joshua. They carried the tent along as they took over the land from those people that God had chased out for them. Our ancestors used this tent until the time of King David.#Js 3.14-17. 46He pleased God and asked him if he could build a house of worship for the people#7.46 the people: Some manuscripts have “God”. of Israel.#2 S 7.1-16; 1 Ch 17.1-14. 47And it was finally King Solomon who built a house for God.#7.47 God: Or “the people”.#1 K 6.1-38; 2 Ch 3.1-17.
48But the Most High God doesn't live in houses made by humans. It is just as the prophet said, when he spoke for the Lord,
49“Heaven is my throne,#Is 66.1,2.
and the earth
is my footstool.
What kind of house
will you build for me?
In what place will I rest?
50I have made everything.”
51You stubborn and hard-headed people! You are always fighting against the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors did.#Is 63.10. 52Is there one prophet that your ancestors didn't ill-treat? They killed the prophets who told about the coming of the One Who Obeys God.#7.52 One Who Obeys God: That is, Jesus. And now you have turned against him and killed him. 53Angels gave you God's Law, but you still don't obey it.
Stephen is stoned to death
54When the council members heard Stephen's speech, they were angry and furious. 55But Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. He looked towards heaven, where he saw our glorious God and Jesus standing at his right side.#7.55 standing at his right side: The “right side” is the place of honour and power. “Standing” may mean that Jesus is welcoming Stephen (see verse 59). 56Then Stephen said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!”
57The council members shouted and covered their ears. At once they all attacked Stephen 58and dragged him out of the city. Then they started throwing stones at him. The men who had brought charges against him put their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.#7.58 Saul: Better known as Paul, who became a famous follower of Jesus.
59As Stephen was being stoned to death, he called out, “Lord Jesus, please welcome me!” 60He knelt down and shouted, “Lord, don't blame them for what they have done.” Then he died.
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