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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’ He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors 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 by his family. 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 own people, the 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? Are you thinking of killing 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 get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: ‘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, for 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 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 performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.”
“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’ He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.”
“But our ancestors 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 reveled in what their own hands had made. But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:”
“‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.”
Acts 7:17-43
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Abraham and Joseph.
Both men were important figures in the history of Israel, not because of what they did but because of what God did in and through them.
This was the point Stephen was trying to make as he addressed the Sanhedrin who had hauled him before the council over his work for the cause of his Savior and Master, Jesus Christ. Jesus was another man who had been used by God for important purposes for the cause of not just Israel but all mankind but there’s where the similarities stopped. This is because the Jewish religious leaders, who revered and honored Abraham and Joseph, hated Jesus and conspired to have Him put to death just as they were Stephen. They picked and chose who they wanted to respect and admire, and decisions obviously didn’t include any consultation with the God they led everyone to believe they were so devoted to.
Of course, the Jewish people had a history of that too, rejecting someone God had sent to deliver them. Such was the case with Moses as we find Stephen continue on with his history lesson after capturing the ears of his audience with a command to listen.
Moses was just as revered as the first two Jewish heroes Stephen mentioned. After all, the very law the Sanhedrin taught from and enforced as known as the Mosaic law because it was the law passed down to the Israelites from God through Moses.
How much did the Sanhedrin and the Jewish religious society idolize Moses?
So much so that they were putting Stephen on trial after this false accusation was made:
“…we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” Acts 6:14
They had killed Jesus, not because He threatened the law of Moses in any way. In fact, Jesus said He had not come to remove the law. Rather, He was bringing a new covenant that would take the law to a new level. Sin was still sin and the law was still exposing the sins of the people. But the law couldn’t save anyone. Only Jesus could do that.
This is what the Sanhedrin and their followers failed to understand, blinded by their own spiritual pride.
And so they saw Jesus as a threat and now were considering anyone who sided with Him likewise. Moses on the other hand was worshiped but again, it hadn’t been that way.
For the Jewish religious authorities failed to remember that Moses was originally taken in by the Egyptians and raised up in their ways after his mother, Jochebed, placed him in a papyrus basket lined with tar and pitch to waterproof the basket and then set her son afloat among the reeds of the Nile so that he would not be killed. The new king of Egypt had ordered for all new Hebrew babies to be slaughtered, an act of evil oppression placed on the Israelite people.
I can’t imagine how hard it was for Jochebed to give up her newborn son like she did but as we read in Stephen’s history lesson, Moses was “no ordinary child” for he was purposed by God from the very part to lead the Hebrew people out of their captivity and to the land God had promised when He spoke to Abraham.
Well, Moses was brought up and educated by his Egyptian adopters who watched him grow “powerful in speech and action.” He was brought up an Egyptian but his destiny was not with Egypt. This began to be evident as he turned forty for the scriptures tell us that when he visited the Israelites he noticed one of them being “mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense” and killed the attacker. Moses had saved one of his own and believed that would bring him some form of acceptance and approval. But unfortunately that didn’t happen. Moses was rejected by his own.
We know this because the scriptures tell us the next day after Moses had come to the rescue of the Israelite, he “came upon two Israelites who were fighting” one another. Simply trying to bring peace between the two men, he said:
“Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’’
Only to be verbally attacked by one of the men who pushed Moses aside and said:
“Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?”
Moses was far from appreciated for what he had done. He saw his own people turn on him because they failed to see how God wanted to use him to help, not hinder, them.
Fast forward to Jesus and how the Jewish religious authorities and their disciples treated Him. I think you can see the parallels are there as Jesus was not just the very Son of God but He was a Jew, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth.
Back to Moses who realized quickly that he was in a bad place. He thought he had done something noble in protecting the Israelite man and dispatching of his Egyptian assailant. But now he knew that any of the Israelites could choose to report him to the Egyptians for what he had done and surely that would mean his end.
And so Moses fled to Midian where we read he settled as a “foreigner and had two sons”. It was a comfortable life for Moses who settled in over a forty year period. He had no plans to ever return to Egypt but as we know, God had other ideas in regard to this, revealing them to Moses in a most miraculous way.
For as Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai, he saw a burning bush and amazed at what he was seeing, he approached it to get a closer look. When he did, he heard the very voice of God which drove him to a place of fear. God said this:
“I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Take off your sandals, for 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.’”
Moses had been rejected by the Israelites but little did they know that God had appointed them to be their ruler and deliverer. Again, one can’t help but see the similarities in the way Jesus was treated by the Israelites when God had sent Him to be their supreme Ruler and Deliverer, so much more so that Moses.
Stephen’s point was clear. He was telling the Sanhedrin to look at their past, at the actions of their ancestors, so they would not repeat mistakes that were made then. The Israelites had first shunned Moses but it was he that God had chosen to guide and direct them out of the clutches of Pharaoh, arming him with the power to perform great wonders and signs, not just at the Red Sea where the waters were parted, but during the entire forty day trek through the wilderness, an exodus that produced the “living words” in the way of the laws God had given him at Mount Sinai to pass onto His people.
Do not lose sight of how God called Moses at the same place where He would give Him the commandments for the Israelites to live by, the law which was intended to lead them from sin into righteousness.
Back to the scriptures where Stephen continues to tell Moses’ story, speaking of yet one more rejection that took place. For despite how much Moses had done for the Israelites, no matter how much God had done through Him to bring His chosen people into deliverance, it wasn’t enough. The Israelites grumbled and complained in the midst of their journey to the Promised Land and they even considered turning away from the leadership of Moses to do their own thing.
How foolish was their thought process at the time?
So foolhardy that they actually thought they would be better off in Egypt than with God and His chosen leader Moses. In fact, they wanted to even have their own gods like they had seen in their prior homeland. The Egyptians worshipped all kinds of gods with their associated idols fashioned out of precious metals. And so while Moses was absent, Israelites went to work making themselves an idol in the form of a calf, worshiping the inanimate object and bringing sacrifices before it, even after God had commanded that there would be no other gods before Him.
And so they suffered the consequences for their actions. God turned away from them and “gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars”, all because they chose to do their own thing and worship creation instead of the Creator, fulfilling prophecy along the way.
The Jewish religious authorities were doing the same thing as Stephen addressed them and he hoped they would wake up, repent, and not only save themselves but those who followed them. They had rejected God’s chosen Savior and Messiah, choosing their own way over the will of their Father. They were placing more trust in themselves than the only One worthy of their trust.
This is why this portion of Stephen’s history lesson was so important.
Would the Sanhedrin see their errors?
We’ll see as we finish this series tomorrow.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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