Chapter 7

Stephen's trial continues.  The high priests asks Stephen directly if the accusations are so.  I think the implication is that the High Priest did not belong to any of the synagogues that were upset with Stephen.  Stephen's response is a sermon.

The first part of the sermon is a condensed history (the highlights) of the nation of Israel, beginning with Abraham in Mesopotamia.  vs 23 says Moses visited his brothers...so Moses knew that he was Hebrew at this point, and this explains his thinking in vs 25.  But he acted on his own, not in God's timing. 

2024 - This verse:

25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. [Act 7:25 ESV].  The implication here is that while Moses was in Pharaoh's house, he already saw himself as the deliverer of the Hebrews.  He knew who he was, and had in his head that he would become powerful enough to lead them out of Egypt.  He thought they would flock to him, but they did not.  They absolutely rejected him at that time, because it was not yet time!  What a parallel with the arrival of Jesus.  They were supposed to recognize him as their deliverer, but instead they made him an enemy, to the point of having the Romans murder him.  Jesus first appearance contained the potential for deliverance, as did Moses' attempt to rise to leadership, but it was not yet time.  In Moses day, the power of God needed to be shown to all the world, through the plagues, the plundering of all Egypt, the defeat of Pharoah's army not by the Jews but by their God.  All nations feared their approach when the timing was God's timing.  The rejection of Jesus by the Jews when he appeared, then, means that God will first show his glory to the whole world, and bring them home to the promised land, again, and all the world will look to them and fear them.  The stories of Moses "second coming" to Egypt and that of Jesus' second coming to earth will be parallels. 

Now think where that puts us, as Gentiles.  We are the middle, just an aside, that God in his great mercy decided to save though we are not Jews.  Gentiles demonstrate the justice, the fairness of God, in that he owes us nothing, he had promised us nothing, but he grafted in to his plan for the Jews, frankly to make them jealous and prompt them to come home to Him.

2021-2, This verse:

34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.' [Act 7:34 ESV]

It seems interesting to me that God came down to deliver them.  It implies that He had been in heaven, letting the wheels turn on their own, but when He decided to do something, He came down to earth to accomplish it.  In the same way, when Jesus appears much later, can we say that this was God coming down to save all those who would be saved?  Sort of a hidden type there.

Beginning in vs 35, it says this:

35 "This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?'--this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. [Act 7:35 ESV]

Jed told me about this one time, but it didn't click, because I'd never noticed this verse.  Moses was rejected by his people.  When he showed up to lead them out of Egypt, he was very often not welcomed.  He performed signs and wonders as testimony to his divine appointment by God.  He continued to do these things for the whole 40 years in the wilderness. Moses told them this:

37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, 'God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.' [Act 7:37 ESV]

Moses prophesied about Jesus.  He told them way back then that Jesus would come.   Stephen continues the history of Israel, through construction of the tent of meeting and then of Solomon's temple.  Then he quotes Isa. 66:1, 2:

48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, 49 "'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?' [Act 7:48-50 ESV]

2022 - There is much in "The Christology of the New Testament" about this prophet.  The conclusion there is that Jesus was not really seen as this prophet, either while he was on earth or by the early church.  Perhaps this prophet is still to come, or this prophet is Jesus upon his second coming, when he will indeed lead his people "like" Moses did.

So Stephen is quoting from Jeremiah's Temple Sermon in Jeremiah 7.  He is referencing the sermon Jesus had preached, also in the temple, and also referencing Jeremiah's sermon.  The point Jesus was making, and that Stephen is now making, is that this second temple won't protect them any more than the first temple did.  He is equating those now in authority with those of Jeremiah's day.  (See Bobby Kelly Jeremiah notes from 1/13/20.  Amazing how things come together.  This also goes along with the "double punishment" idea.  Even to the point of the same message being delivered to the elite of Jerusalem that this revered, inviolable building is in fact NOT God's, because you can't build for him out of the things that are already His.  The Temple was not a sanctuary from the wrath of Him that commissioned it's building!!!  Stephen also references that these people are uncircumcised in heart and ears, and are depending on the circumcision of the flesh.  Then, in vs 52, Stephen seals his fate:

52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, [Act 7:52 ESV]

2022 - Here is a title for Jesus as it was applied to him in the very early church.  He was "the Righteous One", "ho dikaios".  The definite article is there.  This title only appears 6 times in 5 verses in the NT, and as a title for Jesus, it only appears in this verse.  In the other references it references a sort of generic "righteous person".  BUT, there are also these verses, where the text is translated into "righteous one" in English:

12 The Righteous One observes the house of the wicked; he throws the wicked down to ruin. [Pro 21:12 ESV]

16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, "I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed." [Isa 24:16 ESV].  The Hebrew word here is lassadiq, translated "Righteous One", from the root word  sadiq, an adjective meaning "righteous".

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. [Isa 53:11 ESV].  It is interesting that "sadiq" is not capitalized here.  The adjective shows up only as "sadiq", and "las-" does not precede it.  So it may be that "las-" is like a definite article, referring to a specific person, and it is this prefix that leads to capitalization.  Still...why, of all places, would it not be written that way in Isa 53, and cement the relationship between Messiah and Righteous One, as the exact same person?

14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, [Act 3:14 ESV].  Not sure how, but the search above missed this usage, though it is constructed exactly the same as in Acts 7:52.  In this verse, in his first sermon after the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter uses this title of Jesus.

14 And he said, 'The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; [Act 22:14 ESV].  That first search above also missed this NT use of dikaios.  In this verse, Paul says that Ananias referred to Jesus as the Righteous One on their first meeting.  This was quite a bit further into early church history, and Ananias, who was not an apostle at all, was using this term as a "known" identification of who and what Jesus was.  Surely the connection is firm in Isa 53:11.  He shall bear our iniquities.  So the early church - the VERY early church - connected Jesus' death on the cross with the substitutionary bearing of iniquities predicted in Isaiah 53.  It will be interesting to see what the Christology book says about this.  For me, at least at this time, this seems to represent the way the early church viewed and understood the life and work of Christ.

2021-2, Footstool.  Isn't Ezekiel's Temple called God's footstool, and here we see it will be on earth.  Ezekiel's Temple is not in heaven, and it is not allegorical.  It is a temple on earth if it is God's footstool, because this is where His footstool resides.

When you start calling the highest authorities in the nation traitors and murderers, it is probably not going to go well with you.  They are enraged at Stephen, refuse to listen further, throw him out of town and then stone him to death.  They lay their garments at Paul's feet.