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| Chapter 7 |
| Bible Text | Notes and Thoughts |
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1 ¶ Then said the high priest, "Are these things so?" 2 And Stephen said, "Men, brethren and fathers, hearken! The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, 3 and said unto him, ’Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.’ 4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldean’s, and dwelt in Haran; and from thence, when his father was dead, He removed himself into this land wherein ye now dwell. 5 And He gave him no inheritance in it--no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him as a possession and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. 6 And God spoke in this way: that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should be brought into bondage and be mistreated for four hundred years. 7 ’And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge,’ said God, ’and after that shall they come forth, and serve Me in this place.’ 8 And He gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs. 9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 11 "Now there came a dearth and great affliction over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he first sent out our fathers. 13 And on the second visit Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph’s kindred were made known unto Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. 15 So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers. 16 And they were carried back into Sachem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Humor, the father of Sachem. 17 ¶ "But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18 until another king arose who knew not Joseph. 19 The same dealt craftily with our kindred and ill treated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end that they might not live. 20 At that time Moses was born and was exceedingly fair, and was nourished in his father’s house three months. 21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and nourished him as her own son. 22 And Moses became learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. 23 "And when he was fully forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian, 25 for he supposed his brethren would have understood how God, by his hand, would deliver them; but they understood not. 26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they were quarreling, and would have set them at one again, saying, ’Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one another?’ 27 But he that was doing his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, ’Who made thee a ruler and judge over us? 28 Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 Then Moses fled at this saying and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begot two sons. 30 ¶ "And when forty years had expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight; and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, 32 ’I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ Then Moses trembled and dared not behold. 33 Then said the Lord to him, ’Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. 34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.’ 35 "This Moses whom they refused, saying, ’Who made thee a ruler and a judge?’ was the same whom God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He brought them out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 37 This is that Moses who said unto the children of Israel, ’A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear.’ 38 This is he, who in the church in the wilderness was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers--the one who received the living oracles to give unto us, 39 to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, 40 saying unto Aaron, ’Make us gods to go before us; for as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42 ¶ "Then God turned, and gave them up to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ’O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices for the space of forty years in the wilderness? 43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan, images which ye made to worship them. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’ 44 "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed, speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen, 45 which also our fathers, who came later, brought with Joshua into the territory of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David. 46 David found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built Him a house. 48 "However, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet: 49 ’Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will ye build Me? saith the Lord. Or what is the place of My rest? 50 Hath not My hand made all these things?’ 51 ¶ "Ye stiff necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so do ye! 52 Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they have slain those who foretold the coming of the Just One. Of Him ye have now been the betrayers and murderers, 53 ye who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." 54 ¶ When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed with their teeth at him. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58 and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man whose name was Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he called upon God and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" 60 And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, charge not this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. |
In Chapter 6 we saw that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and performing miracles and preaching the gospel. This had displeased some of the Jews in the synagogue. They had spread lies and lead or encouraged others to become false witnesses against him. Act 6:8-11 Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin for interrogation. The seventy members of the council were probably the same ones who were involved with the trial of Jesus, led by the High Priest. v1 Finally the High Priests asks Stephen "Are these things so? Did you blaspheme Moses and God? Had you spoke against the temple and the Law?" v2-53 The answer given by Stephen covers two thousand years of Jewish history, a speach which shows how the Jewish scriptures pointed to Jesus. Throughout Stephen uses scripture to prove his point and show his reverence to God and the Law. He pointed out that Moses taught that a prophet, known as the Messiah would appear v37 and that scripture teaches that God will not always live in a temple made by men v48. Stephen reminds them that throughout their history there were those who believed God and those who disobeyed Him. v35,v39-43. v2-16 God selects and directs. In faith, Abraham followed the call of God to go to an unknown country. God promised that Abraham’s descendants would own the land and receive the protection of God, even though at the time Abraham had no children. Isaac was born and then Isaac had Jacob. From Jacob we have the twelve sons who are the fathers of the Jewish tribes, the patriarchs v8. Stephen then moves on to the jealousy of Joseph by the others, who sold him into slavery, but this was all planned by God. v6 The "seed" (the children descendants) of Abraham would be taken into slavery in a strange land (Egypt). Finally after 400 years Moses was born. v17-43 God protects and set them free. v21-29 God had chosen Moses and trained him for the task but he was rejected by the people. v32-43 God later brought Moses back to set them free from slavery, but they continued to moan, grumble and reject God. v39 Even replacing God with a golden calf made by them, v41. v42-44 God lives in the tent tabernacle as a witness to them but they still worshipped other gods. "ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch" Amos 5:26. v45 God gives the promised land. v46-47 God blessed David and Solomon. Solomon built a permanent Temple but Stephen quotes from Isaiah 66:1. v48-50 God speaks to His people, reminding them who He is. "God is bigger than any temple built by men" is what Stephen is saying. Throughout Stephen’s answer we find he keeps talking about "our fathers," connecting himself with the Jewish ancestors. Having shown the failures and unbelief of their ancestors. He has now shown how they were also failures, so Stephen now refers to "your fathers," which now put the Council members on the defense instead of being the accusers. They had been accusing Stephen of blasphemy, but they are the ones who are blaspheming, they rejected the true Prophet announced by Moses, Jesus, who fulfilled the Law for Man. The result of this is that the council members become more hateful of Stephen, so he finishes his answer with v51-53. v54-58 As Stephen finished speaking, the hatred welled up in the council members, seventy enraged men refused to hear any more, they grabbed him and threw him out of the city where they started to stone him (Threw large stones at him to injure and eventually kill him). v55,56 But Stephen had the power and strength of God, he had great courage and looks up to heaven and God reveals to him a view of heaven and Jesus standing, waiting to receive him into heaven. v59,60 Stephen kneeled down and committed his life into the hands of God. Then in great love he asked for God not to remember this terrible act and so punish them for what they were doing. v60 In that instant Stephen was taken home to be with his Lord. 1 Cor 15:55-58. v58 Note that there was present a young man called Saul. |
Easy English Translation
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