Acts of the Apostles (16)
Introduction
A superficial reading of Stephen’s speech will mislead you into thinking what George Bernard Shaw once said, when he argued that Stephen was a “tactless and conceited bore.” He recites the history of Israel, which the Sanhedrin already knew, and then wraps it all up by insulting them. “No wonder they killed him,” was Shaw’s sentiment. He thought it was like addressing the joint houses of Congress and saying “In fourteen hundred ninety-two/Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” while making sure to use a sing-songy whine. But this take is myopic in the extreme. What Stephen is doing here is answering the actual charge, and the way he does it is a work of art.
The Text
“Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child . . .” (Acts 7:1–53).
Summary of the Text
The high priest asked if the charge was accurate (v. 1). Stephen replied that the God of glory appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia (v. 2), telling him to depart from there (v. 3; Gen. 12:1). He left and made his way eventually to Israel (v. 4). Abraham lived there, but as yet possessed none of it (v. 5). God told him that his descendants would be enslaved for 400 years (v. 6), and then God would deliver them and bring them back (v. 7; Gen. 15:13-14). God gave Abraham circumcision, Isaac, then Jacob, and then the twelve (v. 8). The twelve envious patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, and sold him into slavery in Egypt (v. 9). God delivered him from his afflictions, and made him ruler over Egypt (v. 10). Then came the famine and Jacob sent his sons to Egypt for food (vv. 11-12). Jacob and Joseph and his brothers were reunited, and reconciled—there were 75 people in all (vv. 13-14). Jacob died in Egypt but was buried in Israel (vv. 15-16). The Israelites flourished in Egypt until an evil Pharaoh arose, who required them to expose their infant sons (vv. 17-19). Moses was born, hidden for three months, and then technically exposed (v. 20). Adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, he was educated in all the ways of Egypt, and was mighty “in words and deeds” (vv. 21-22). When he was forty, he attempted to lead an insurrection, which promptly failed (vv. 23-29; Ex. 2:14). After another forty years, he encountered the burning bush (v. 30). The God of his fathers spoke to him there, which terrified him (vv. 31-32; Ex. 3:6). Take your shoes off, for the ground you are standing on is holy (v. 33). God has heard the groaning of the people and so intended to send Moses to Egypt to deliver them (v. 34; Ex. 3:5,7,8,10). The rejected Moses therefore became the deliverer Moses (v. 35). God brought them all out and was with them for another forty years (v. 36).
Now this Moses is the one whom Stephen was accused of blaspheming, but who had said another prophet “like me” will be raised up (v. 37; Dt. 18:15). This Moses was with them, along with the “lively oracles” that they wouldn’t obey, and they yearned for Egypt instead (vv. 38-39). They pressured Aaron to make a golden calf, and rejoiced to worship the work of their hands (vv. 40-41; Ex. 32:1). And so God turned them over to gross idolatry (vv. 42-43; Amos 5:25-27).
The Jewish fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness (v. 44), which Joshua brought into the promised land, and which remained down to the time of David (v. 45). David wanted to build the Temple, but Solomon was the one who did it (vv. 46-47). But temples are not to be thought of as God-boxes, not at all (vv. 48-50; Is. 66:1-2).
And then the conclusion. You men of the Sanhedrin are just like your fathers, stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears (v. 51). Name a prophet that your fathers didn’t persecute (v. 52). They slew the forerunners of the Christ, and now you people have murdered the actual Christ (v. 52). You received the law from angels, but keeping it is another matter (v. 53).
All in One Place
Now Stephen was accused of blasphemy. Among other things, it was said that he was saying that Jesus would destroy the Temple. This was quite true, but not at all in the way they were thinking (Acts 6:14).
Stephen’s first point is that all through the history of God’s dealings with Israel, He had been with them in many places that were not within the “holy land.” How did God first call Abraham? He appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia (v. 2). The patriarchs, the honored patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt . . . but God was with him (v. 9). And then Moses fled to Midian (modern Arabia), and there, in Midian, Moses was told to take his shoes off because it was holy ground (v. 33). Why was it holy ground? Because God was there. And God brought them into the wilderness (v. 39), accompanying them. As the glory cloud moved, it was not in the holy land.
As the tabernacle moved, the Holy of Holies was located in any number of places in the wilderness.
Severe Company
Another point that needs to be made is that God was “with” disobedient Israel throughout her history as well. He was not just “with Moses, and Abraham, and Joseph, and so on.” He was with them all. But His presence is not to be desired if the people are not doing what He says to do. It was in the presence of God that they fashioned the golden calf. As Paul says elsewhere: “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Cor. 10:5). They had been baptized in the cloud and in the sea. They ate Christ in the heavenly manna. They drank Christ from the spiritual rock. And what did it get them but covenantal judgment?
God in a Box?
Stephen’s point is that he is the heir of all the faithful Israelites, and his accusers are the descendants of a long and murderous line. For example, Solomon built the Temple (v. 47), but what did he say when he built it? “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8:27)—the same thing that the great Isaiah had said, and which Stephen pointedly quoted.
Only spiritual simpletons think that they can keep God in a particular place.
A Covenant Lawsuit
Now remember that all of this is unfolding in a doomed city. And remember also what Peter had said earlier in Acts 3:22-23—he also quoted Deuteronomy 18:15, and to the same effect that Stephen had. When the prophet like Moses arrived, Peter had emphasized that those who refused to heed him would be destroyed. And an emissary of this latter Moses—someone who did great miracles and had a radiant face, say—should obviously be given a respectful hearing. But what did they do? They did what they always do. They killed him, thus sealing the destruction of everything around them.
What must we learn? We must learn that a filthy Egyptian prison is a holy place. We must learn that when iniquitous ministers approach the Holy Temple, God cannot endure it. “I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting” (Isaiah 1:13, NKJV). And last, we must also remember that nothing we have in our possession—churches, liturgies, confessions, rituals, or costumes—contain God in any way.
In Christ, we are contained by Him, and never the other way. And this Christ is possessed by us . . . how? By faith from first to last. The just shall live by faith.