Stephen's Speech to the
Sanhedrin (Acts 7.2-53)
"Brothers and fathers,
listen to me!
The God of glory appeared to our
father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in
Haran.
'Leave your country and your
people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'
So he left the land of the
Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him
to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not
even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants
after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no
child.
God spoke to him in this way:
'Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they
will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the
nation they serve as slaves,' God said, 'and afterward they will come out
of that country and worship me in this place.'
Then he gave Abraham the covenant
of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised
him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob,
and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs. Because the
patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into
Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave
Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of
Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
Then a famine struck all Egypt
and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food.
When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on
their first visit. On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he
was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family. After this, Joseph sent for
his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. Then Jacob went
down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died. Their bodies were brought
back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the
sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
As the time drew near for God to
fulfil his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly
increased. Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler
of Egypt. He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our
forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they
would die.
At that time Moses was
born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in
his father's house. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him
and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
When Moses was forty years old,
he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being
mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by
killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that
God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came
upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying,
'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'
But the man who was mistreating
the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over
us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' When
Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and
had two sons.
After forty years had passed, an
angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the
desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As
he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: 'I am the God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with
fear and did not dare to look.
Then the Lord said to him, 'Take
off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have
indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their
groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you
back to Egypt.'
This is the same Moses whom they
had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to
be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared
to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous
signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.
This is that Moses who told the
Israelites, 'God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.' He
was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount
Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to
us.
But our fathers refused to obey
him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
They told Aaron, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow
Moses who led us out of Egypt — we don't know what has happened to him!' That
was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought
sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had
made. But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly
bodies.
This agrees with what is written
in the book of the prophets:
'Did you bring me sacrifices and
offerings
Forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
You have lifted up the shrine of Molech
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile' beyond Babylon.
Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in
the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the
pattern he had seen. Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under
Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God
drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David,
who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place
for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built the house for
him.
However, the Most High does not
live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
'Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
Has not my hand made all these things?'
You stiff-necked people, with
uncircumcised hearts and ears!
You are just like your fathers:
You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers
did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the
Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him — you who have
received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not
obeyed it."
Paul continues the story (Acts
13.16-41)
“Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen:
The God of this people Israel
chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in
the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it. Now
for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness.
And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He
distributed their land to them by allotment.
After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty
years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king; so
God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin,
for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David
as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the
son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’
From this man’s seed, according
to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior — Jesus — after John
had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the
people of Israel.
And as John was finishing his
course, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there
comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.’
Men and brethren, sons of the family
of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this
salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their
rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets
which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him.
And though they found no cause
for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.
Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took
Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.
But God raised Him from the
dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him
from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we
declare to you glad tidings — that promise which was made to the fathers.
God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up
Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm:
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
And that He raised Him from the
dead, no more to return to corruption,
He has spoken thus:
‘I will give you the sure
mercies of David.’
Therefore He also says in
another Psalm:
‘You will not allow Your Holy
One to see corruption.’
For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his
fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption.
Therefore let it be known to
you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness
of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets
come upon you:
‘Behold, you despisers,
Marvel and perish!
For I work a work in your days,
A work which you will by no means believe,
Though one were to declare it to you.’
Copyright © 2008
by Kenneth Humphreys.
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