The Word Made Fresh
1The high priest asked Stephen, “Are these things true?”
2Stephen replied, “Men, brothers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran. 3God said, ‘Leave your homeland and your family and go to the land that I will show you.’ 4So, he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. When his father died, God moved him to this country where you now live. 5Not a foot of it was given to him as a heritage, but it was promised to him and to his descendants, even though he had no children then. 6God told him that his descendants would be aliens in another country, ruled by people who would enslave them and treat them badly for four hundred years. 7But God said, ‘I will pass judgment on the nation they serve, and then they will leave that place and come here to worship me.’ 8God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and when Abraham became the father of Isaac he circumcised Isaac on the eighth day. Then Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9“Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him. They sold him as a slave in Egypt. But God was with him, 10and rescued him from his troubles and helped him to gain favor by the wisdom he showed before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Pharaoh appointed him governor over Egypt and over his household.
11“Then there was a famine over all of Egypt and Canaan. People suffered greatly. Our ancestors couldn’t find enough food. 12But Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt and sent our ancestors to purchase food there. 13On their second visit Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and introduced them to Pharaoh. 16Then he sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, and brought them to him. There were seventy-five of them altogether. 15So, Jacob went down to Egypt. He died there, as did many of our ancestors, 16and their remains were brought back to Shechem, and were buried in the tomb Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor.
17“As the time drew near for God’s promise to Abraham to be fulfilled, the number of our people in Egypt grew. 18But another king of Egypt arose, one who had not known Joseph. 19He treated our people badly, and forced them to abandon their infant children so that they would not survive. 20And then Moses was born. He was a beautiful child before God, and for three months he was cared for in his father’s house. 21When he had to be abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him for herself and brought him up as her own son. 22That is how Moses learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was powerful in words and deeds.
23 “When he was forty years old he decided to visit his relatives, the descendants of Israel. 24He saw one of them being mistreated, and defended the poor man, striking down the Egyptian who was treating him so badly. 25He thought his relatives would understand that God was using him to rescue them, but they didn’t. 26The next day he came upon two of them arguing and tried to get them to make peace with each other. He said to them, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you fighting one another?’ 27But the one who was cheating his neighbor shoved Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you a ruler or a judge over us? 28Are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ 29When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian and settled there as a resident alien. It was there that he became the father of two sons.
30“Forty years passed, and an angel appeared to him in the flames of a bush that was burning in the desert near Mt. Sinai. 31Moses was amazed at the sight and approached the bush to look, and he heard the voice of the LORD saying, 32‘I am the God of your ancestors – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses was shaken and afraid to look, 33but the LORD said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is sacred ground. 34I have seen how my people in Egypt are mistreated. I heard them groan, and I came to rescue them. So, come and I will send you to Egypt.’
35“This was the same Moses they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a judge to rule over us?’ – the same Moses God put over them to liberate them, as the angel who appeared to him in a bush had said. 36He led them out after performing signs and wonders in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. 37This was the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet from among you just as he raised me up.’ 38He was the same Moses who was with the people in the wilderness, and with the angel who spoke to him at Mt. Sinai, and with our ancestors. He was given living oracles to present to us. 39But our ancestors were not willing to follow him. They shunted him aside and longed to return to Egypt. 40They told Aaron, ‘Make gods to lead us. As for this Moses who led us out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ 41They made a calf then and offered sacrifices to it and were so proud of their own creation. 42But God turned away from them and let them worship the stars in the heavens. As it was written in the book of the prophets:
‘Did you slaughter and bring me your sacrifices
for forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43No! You carried with you the tent of Moloch,
and the star of your god Rephan,
and worshiped the idols you made.
So, I will send you away beyond Babylon.’
44“Our forebearers had the testimonial tent in the wilderness as God had directed when he spoke to Moses and ordered him to make it according to the pattern he had been shown. 45And they brought it into the land with Joshua when they forced out the people God had driven out before our ancestors. It remained there until the time of David, 46who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47It was Solomon who built the house for God, 48but the Most High doesn’t live in buildings made by human hands;
“as the prophet says,
49‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
What sort of house can you build for me, says the LORD,
or what kind of place can be my rest?
50Didn’t I make all these things by my own hand?’
51“You stubborn people! Your heart and your ears are uncircumcised, and you are always opposing the Holy Spirit just as your ancestors did. 52Which one of the prophets wasn’t persecuted by your ancestors? They killed the ones who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. 53You are the ones who received the law ordained by the angels, but you haven’t kept it!”
54When they heard this, they were enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. 55But he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and looked up to heaven and saw God’s glory, with Jesus standing at God’s right hand. 56He said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand!” 57But they covered their ears and all of them rushed together at Stephen with a loud cry. 58They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him while the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59While they were stoning him, he cried out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60He fell to his knees and said in a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them.” And, having said this, he fell dead.
Commentary
1-8: Stephen makes his defense by telling the story of the entire Old Testament, thus trying to prove he has not spoken blasphemy against Moses and God. He begins by reciting the story of Abraham and the covenant God established with Abraham and his descendants.
9-16: Continuing through what we have come to call the book of Genesis, Stephen recounts how Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt, and how a famine drove the rest of his family there.
17-22: Now, slipping into what we have come to call Exodus, Stephen tells how the number of descendants of Abraham grew in Egypt, how they were persecuted, and how Moses came to be raised in the Egyptian royal family.
23-29: The first 40 years of Moses’ life is now covered; how he killed an Egyptian for molesting a Hebrew slave; how his deed was broadcast by some of his own people; how he escaped into Midian.
30-34: Stephen then tells the story of how God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and sent him to Egypt to rescue his people.
35-43: Continuing through the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, Stephen recalls the wilderness wanderings and the revolt of the people against Moses, including the incident with the golden calves, which Stephen says resulted in God’s determination that they would eventually be sent into exile beyond Babylon.
44-51: He then covers the erection of the “tent of testimony” in the wilderness and the subsequent building of the temple in Jerusalem. Remember that one of the charges brought against Stephen is that he has been telling people Jesus will destroy the temple (6:13-14). Now Stephen does mention a prophetic saying that God has no use for an earth-based home (see Isaiah 66:1).
51-54: I imagine his opposition bristled at the quote from Isaiah, and if Stephen had left matters there he may have survived the interrogation. He couldn’t let it rest, though, and suddenly pronounces judgment against the Sanhedrin, accusing them of being stiff-necked, spiritually uncircumcised, in opposition to the Holy Spirit, murderers and lawbreakers.
55-60: They are enraged, and Stephen undermines his safety even more by saying that he can see into heaven where the Son of Man (a reference to Jesus, which all of them surely recognize) is at God’s right hand. That is enough for them. They drag him out of the city and stone him to death.
Takeaway
The church today is beholden to the church of the apostles, for their courage and their determination to proclaim Jesus Christ as the Son of God. All of us owe our faith to some faithful person or group of people who told us, or demonstrated for us, what the Lord has done for us, and what it means to follow the Lord. My mother was that person for me. I can still see her standing at the kitchen sink washing our dinner dishes, and hearing her humming or singing her favorite hymns. Who has been your example?