DAY #190: Acts 7:17-41

Stephen continues his speech: Again, Stephen emphasized that God was working in the nation, but through some very odd circumstances and in a strange location. Moses’ first attempt to lead his people came when he tried to save an Israelite who was being mistreated by an Egyptian. Moses, the prince, came to the defense of his fellow Israelite and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. Apparently, Moses knew his calling and assumed his brothers would realize that God had sent him to rescue them. Unfortunately, they didn’t.

This is the first of four direct references to the fact that Israel had totally missed the work of a “redeemer” sent by God. Such a pattern of behavior was replayed many times in Israel’s history and was happening again in the first century, as the Jews were missing their Redeemer, Jesus.

The incident with the two men of Israel who were fighting presents an even more compelling case for the absurdity of Israel’s initial rejection of Moses as deliverer. The two fighters questioned Moses as he interceded in their argument, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us?” The Jewish council showed the same belligerence concerning Stephen’s speech, in effect saying, “What makes you think this Jesus of Nazareth should be ruler and judge over us?” The parallels between the nation’s rejection of Jesus and its early rejection of Moses should have been another wake-up call.

Rejected by his own people and fearing for his life because he had killed an Egyptian, Moses fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian (northwest Arabia). For forty long years, he served his father-in-law as a shepherd. Eighty years of his life were gone—it seemed that Moses had spent most of his life waiting. But the wait soon would be over. There in the desert, after what must have seemed an eternity, God spoke to him.

Stephen reminded his audience of the incredible moment when an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. God was working. God was speaking. God was about to deliver his people. There was no Temple here, no Tabernacle, and they were nowhere near Jerusalem. God had chosen to speak from a bush in the desert!

God reminded Moses that though eighty years had passed in his life and though four hundred years had passed in Israel’s life in Egypt, God would intervene at this point in history and rescue them. But God would not be doing the rescue alone. He planned to send Moses back to Egypt—surely the last place that Moses wanted to go.

Stephen’s point was this; even greater than Moses, the lawgiver who “saved” Israel from Egyptian bondage, was Jesus, the grace-giver who offered eternal freedom from the sin of slavery. If Moses was beloved and revered, Jesus should be to an infinitely greater degree.
So much of what God had revealed, so many of the miracles God had performed, and much of what lay behind the intricate system of sacrifices (which he would show Moses), would help God’s people recognize the coming Messiah. God wanted his people to be ready to recognize and receive the ultimate Deliverer (the one who would deliver people from their sins) when he came.

Stephen again stated what had become an obvious theme, especially from the life of Moses. The Jewish ancestors of the audience and of the speaker (our ancestors) had rejected Moses—his message, his leadership, and his claim to be speaking for God. Incredibly, they wanted to return to the slavery and idolatry of Egypt.

The Jews’ ancestors had not only rejected Joseph and Moses, but at one crucial point in their history they had also rejected God! While Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the Law, the children of Israel got tired of waiting. They forgot about God and decided that they needed a new leader and a new god. They asked Aaron to construct a god for them. In one sorry, sinful deed, the children of Israel blatantly, publicly, and corporately defied God. This “invisible” God and “absent” Moses were too much to bear. They wanted something they could see, even if it was the product of their own hands. Stephen’s wording highlights the idiocy of it all, as he pictured them bringing sacrifices to an idol shaped like a calf.



SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)

I am grateful for the boldness and courage of Stephen. How easy it as to be more concerned about what people think of us or how they will respond to us when it comes to sharing our faith. How easy it is to shrink away in fear of rejection. Further, the history of man, and this is the point Stephen is making, is to reject God's man and God's message. This rejection of the truth is not just the Pharisees issue, it is our issue.

We live in a world today where people want to have their ears tickled. We live in a time when people in mass reject the truth of God and have exchanged them for a lie.

(Paul to Timothy)"I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-5 (NASB)


"Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So those people have no excuse at all! 21 They know God, but they do not give him the honor that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are filled with darkness. 22 They say they are wise, but they are fools; 23 instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortals or birds or animals or reptiles. 24 And so God has given those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other. 25 They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen." Romans 1:20-25 (TEV)


Lord, give us a boldness to share our faith. Give us a boldness to stand for You.