07 Acts Chapter 7
Acts 7:1-10 Stephen’s Sermon Part 1
Acts 7:1-10 ISV Then the high priest asked, "Is this true?" (2) Stephen replied, "Listen, brothers and fathers! The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. (3) He said to him, ’Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I will show you.’ (4) So he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country where you now live. (5) He gave him no property in it, not even a foot of land, yet he promised to give it to him and his descendants after him as a permanent possession, even though he had no child. (6) This is what God promised: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and its people would enslave them and oppress them for 400 years. (7) ’But I will punish the nation they serve,’ said God, ’and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.’ (8) Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Then Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. (9) "The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him as a slave into Egypt. However, God was with him (10) and rescued him from all his troubles. He allowed him to win favor and show wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler of Egypt and of his whole household. The high priest asks the question “is this true?” about the charge raised at the end of chapter 6 which was: Acts 6:14 ISV For we have heard him say that this Jesus from Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us." Thus the whole of Stephen’s speech is an answer to whether Christianity is a departure from Judaism.
Stephen’s answer “it is a departure from current tradition but a return to its roots.” Stephen argues that Jesus of Nazareth reintroduced the universal “faith of Abraham” and that God was a universal God available to all, that the law of Moses had finished its time and was being replaced by the voice of the Holy Spirit which the traditional Jews were resisting and a Messiah that they had rejected just as they rejected Moses. The key to this change was a change from the Levitical priesthood (of Aaron) and a return to the Melchizedek priesthood of the time of Abraham, foreshadowed in Psalms 110:1-7 and proved by Jesus now being at the right hand of God - which we partly addressed in an earlier study.
We will take a few days to make our way through Stephen’s argument that the true worship of God is universal, Abrahamic and spiritual but the journey will be worth it. Try to hold on to your hat as we encounter first-century Jewish logic! The opening argument is stunning: "Listen, brothers and fathers! The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.” This verse tells us that Abraham was a Gentile, from Ur of the Chaldees and God spoke to him there - not in Jerusalem and not in any temple. The God that appeared to Abraham was the glorious God, the true God. This God spoke, individually, to a person Abraham, in a foreign land.
Jumping ahead a bit - there is a bit of important history about the promise being given then a statement that must have been like a karate chop: “Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day.” In other words God’s promises about the land came to an uncircumcised man! The promise had come to someone who was not a “proper Jew”.
Back to the narrative: “He said to him, ’Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I will show you.’ So he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country where you now live.” In other words the Abrahamic faith that was fundamental to Judaism, was an import from outside Israel. The faith had developed in Arabia, before becoming Jewish. Thus Israel was not the centre of God’s locus of action.
After a very brief time in Israel the faith again moves outside its borders and grows to maturity there: “He gave him no property in it, not even a foot of land, yet he promised to give it to him and his descendants after him as a permanent possession, even though he had no child. (6) This is what God promised: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and its people would enslave them and oppress them for 400 years. (7) ’But I will punish the nation they serve,’ said God, ’and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.” In other words the birthplace of Judaism was Arabia and the cradle of Judaism - was Egypt. This them of the universal faith continues: Then Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. (9) "The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him as a slave into Egypt. However, God was with him (10) and rescued him from all his troubles. He allowed him to win favor and show wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler of Egypt and of his whole household. And a new theme is introduced of the “return of the rejected one”. The Jews always reject their Messiah, who saves them anyway! As we shall see tomorrow the brothers reject Joseph, who saves them from famine, Moses is initially rejected in Egypt and spends 40 years in the wilderness before returning to save them from Pharaoh. Jesus of course is rejected and crucified - but will return to save them. The jealousy of the brothers towards Joseph is a clear shot at the jealousy of the Sanhedrin towards Christ. Despite their rejection God blesses and prospers Joseph. By clear analogy since God is where the blessing is and the blessing is obvioulsy on the new Christian community then the God of Abraham is with the disciples. So we see that the true faith is universal, personal, Abrahamic, outside the temple, Arabian and Egyptian as well as Jewish, is prior to circumcision, and involves a series of rejected Messiahs and a God of blessing who works outside human systems.
More on this tomorrow.
Acts 7:11-22 Stephen’s Sermon Part 2
Acts 7:11-22 ISV "But a famine spread throughout Egypt and Canaan, and with it great suffering, and our ancestors couldn’t find any food. (12) But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors on their first visit. (13) On their second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. (14) Then Joseph sent word and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him-seventy-five persons in all. (15) So Jacob went down to Egypt. Then he and our ancestors died. (16) They were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. (17) "Now as the time approached for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people multiplied and grew more numerous in Egypt, (18) until another king, who had not known Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. (19) By shrewdly scheming against our people, he oppressed our ancestors and forced them to expose their infants so that they wouldn’t live. (20) "At this time Moses was born. He was beautiful in the sight of God, and for three months he was cared for in his father’s house. (21) When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. (22) So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in speech and action. As Stephen relates the history of Israel he covers the lead up to the Exodus. It shows the Abrahamic faith, developing in Egypt for 440 years and Moses rising to power in a thoroughly secular environment as a man “educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians”. The key phrase is: “So Jacob went down to Egypt.” Jacob is the former name and Israel being the later name of the same person (the name given to him by the angel after the wrestling match at the Jabbok). Later on Israel would come to mean the entire nation that was descend from Jacob. . Not only did the person Jacob go down to Egypt but the nation that was to descend from him.
There are many parallels between the time of the Exodus and the time of Stephen - an oppressive government, a baby born that was beautiful in the sight of God. The phrase: "Now as the time approached for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham..” it would have resonated and it was meant to convey the impression that the time of Jesus was also a time of promise fulfillment. The 400 years in Egypt was about the same length as the silence of the voice of God - the 400 years from the prophet Malachi to John the Baptist. The events were similar - the shrewd oppressor, the imperial government, the unfair conditions. By drawing the parallels it was indicating that “one like Moses” was about to emerge - in this case Christ. The literal famine in Jacob’s day also paralleled “the famine of the word of God” during these 400 silent years. The faith in these days was not “established” there was no land, no Torah, no temple. It was in fact a persecuted minority in a foreign land . All they owned in Canaan/Israel was a tomb! They lived and died as nomads. “So Jacob went down to Egypt. Then he and our ancestors died. (16) They were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.” This would have reminded the hearers of the nomadic nature of Abrahamic faith - that faith can operate without any ‘establishment’ as well as with such things as the Temple (which God certainly helped build). Thus an establishment such as priesthood, a temple and a holy book were not necessary during the first 400 years of Judaism. Thus they could be discarded and the faith still retained. Stephen is therefore saying: “the patriarchs did not need your religious establishment to please God, and neither do we Christians.”
Now it is very helpful to have a pastor, a church and a bible but these things are not bedrock essentials. Abraham did not need them, neither did the patriarchs or Joseph, and Jesus arranged their obsolescence (fulfilling and then voiding the Law and prophesying the destruction of the Temple). The basic relationship with God is by faith, and is not mediated through a priest, a place, a temple or a holy book.
Moses was “beautiful in the eyes of God” despite being born in Egypt without priests or Torah or Temple. He was obviously approved by God but was without any of the rituals of Jewish Law! Not only that Moses grew up into a very capable and competent human being without any guidance from Jewish priests - in fact the pagan Egyptians educated him! A person can become mighty in word and action through the inner teaching by the Holy Spirit, within almost any educational system - even a very pagan one such as that experienced by Moses and Daniel.
One of the NT doctrines is that the believer is individually taught by God, through the Holy Spirit, in his or her “heart” or conscience. The Law is ‘written on our hearts” by the Holy Spirit, so that we do not have need of a teacher and the things of God are revealed to us. (Hebrews 8:10; Hebrews 10:16, 2 Corinthians 3:3, 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27, 1 Corinthians 2:9-16) Thus Moses could grow up into a great man of God without any established religious institutions in his life. He did this through his personal faith relationship with God. So we see that in these verses Stephen has shown that nomadic, oppressed Abrahamic faith can operate quite well without any guiding institutions for hundreds of years and still produce a man as great as Moses. Since they all looked up to Moses as “the very greatest man of God” and this greatest man of God had been produced ENTIRELY WITHOUT THIER SYSTEM it was a death-blow to the need for that system. This was obviously anathema to the Sanhedrin, Stephen was getting into trouble, and Stephen would get into still more trouble when he discussed Moses as the rejected Messiah.
More on that tomorrow.
Acts 7:23-36 Stephen’s Sermon Part 3 - Moses The Rejected Messiah
Acts 7:23-36 MKJV And when a period of forty years was fulfilled to him, it arose in his heart to look upon his brothers, the sons of Israel. (24) And seeing one being wronged, he defended him. and avenged him who was oppressed and struck the Egyptian. (25) For he thought his brothers would understand that God would give them deliverance by his hand. But they did not understand. (26) And the next day he appeared to them while fighting. And he urged them to peace, saying, Men, you are brothers, why do you wrong one another? (27) But he who wronged his neighbor thrust him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? (28) Will you not kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday? (29) And Moses fled at this word, and became a temporary resident in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons. (30) And forty years being fulfilled to him, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush. (31) And seeing it, Moses marveled at the sight. And as he drew near to see, the voice of the Lord came to him: (32) saying, "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." But Moses trembled and dared not look. (33) Then the Lord said to him, "Loosen the sandal on your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." (34) "I have seen, the affliction of My people in Egypt, and I have heard their groan; and I came down to pluck them out. And now come, I will send you into Egypt." (35) This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? God has sent this one to be a ruler and a redeemer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the Bush. (36) He brought them out after he had worked wonders and miracles in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness forty years.
Here the punch line is: “This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? God has sent this one to be a ruler and a redeemer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the Bush.”
Moses is being deliberately portrayed as the “rejected Messiah”, as was Joseph who was rejected by his brothers who were the patriarchs, and as was Jesus who the Sanhedrin had crucified. In verse 51 Stephen will call them “stiff-necked and uncircumcised” and accuse them of resisting the Holy Spirit. Now he builds the case toward that point.
Moses is described as a ruler and redeemer - that is as Lord and Savior. Also like Jesus Moses worked “wonders and miracles”. The location of Moses’ miracles is significant: In Egypt, the Red Sea and the wilderness. The miracles all occurred outside the Promised Land. God was thus not confined to the Temple Mount or the borders of Israel but could work mightily anywhere at all. This may seem an almost silly point today but it was of great significance then when various “gods” ruled over cities and nations and these “gods” were thought to only have power in those specific areas. YHWH was thus the universal God who worked miracles even in Gentile areas.
Even today people believe that God is more powerful in church than at home or at work and even that there is more power at the front of the church than the back! Yet God’s miracles seldom occurred in “holy places” such as the Temple! Most of the Bible’s miracles occur in ordinary places such as homes and on hillsides and rivers and in public baths and at sea and even in profane places such as leper colonies or near herds of swine in Gentile regions such as Gadara - and so on. I do not know of any “holy hot spot” (in Scripture) where more miracles occurred than elsewhere.
Jesus deliberately knocks the idea of “holy hot spots” on the head when he preaches against the towns such as Capernaum “in which most of His mighty works were done” (Matthew 11:20-24). It is not the place that works miracles but God in that place. And if God is not honored in that place after the miracles have occurred - then it faces judgment. A tragic modern day example is Rwanda, which had a mighty revival, then backslid into anarchy. Miracles can occur anywhere that God wants to perform them. The miracle that gets the most attention in this passage is the burning bush (verses 30-35) e.g. “And forty years being fulfilled to him, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush.” The Sanhedrin were Sadducees who only believed in the books of Moses, and were anti-supernatural not believing in angels, demons, or the resurrection, they also did not believe that God directed events or intervened in history. They were also were highly ceremonial and did not believe in personal encounters with God, correct ceremony was sufficient to appease the remote Deity in their view. The only way to defeat them was to argue on their own turf so when Jesus confronted them He also used the burning bush incident (Luke 20:34-38) and His punch line was: Luke 20:37-38 MKJV But that the dead are raised, even Moses pointed out at the Bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. (38) For He is not God of the dead, but of the living. For all live to Him.
Stephen uses the burning bush incident to defeat them in 4 ways: a)The timing was providential and obviously directed by God. Stephen twice uses the phrase “And forty years being fulfilled to him” (verses 23,30) to drive home the point that God directs and orders human events. And He would intervene in history - “and I came down to pluck them out”. b)The incident was a personal encounter with a living God who spoke audible words to a real human being. The voice of the Lord comes to Moses, and God reveals that He had direct personal interest in the Israelites “I have seen their affliction and heard their groans”. Thus He is not remote. c)It is not ceremonial. The holy ground is simply wherever God is manifest! If God is in a burning bush in the desert then that is holy ground! Moses did not perform any ceremony to placate God or bring about His presence. It was a personal conversation, not a parade with banners! d)The whole burning bush incident was the manifestation of supernatural power! The bush made Moses marvel at the sight - that is was burned but was not consumed.
Since Moses was their “hero” they could not readily argue with this analysis, which was that God was not a remote philosophical principal, or a system - rather He observed and intervened in history via personal encounters with individuals. God also intervened through the direct saving use of signs and wonders. Yet the Jews often then rejected these chosen individuals.
Thus true faith was not about places (such as the Temple) or rituals or systems. Rather true faith was like a burning bush - awesome, personal and miraculous. Jesus of Nazareth was obviously a person God had chosen to work such miracles and to hear from God. Therefore the Sanhedrin were guilty for not listening to Him, for in fact crucifying Him, just as they had rejected Moses from being their leader and redeemer.
Acts 7:37-44 Stephen’s Sermon Part 4 - Idolatry
Acts 7:37-44 MKJV This is that Moses who said to the sons of Israel, "The Lord your God shall raise up a Prophet to you from your brothers, One like me; you shall hear Him." (38) This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him in Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the living words to give to us, (39) to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him away and turned back again to Egypt in their hearts, (40) saying to Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us, for as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." (41) And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in the work of their own hands. (42) Then God turned and gave them over to serve the host of the heavens, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: "O house of Israel, have you offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness? (43) Yea, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, images which you made in order to worship them; and I will remove you beyond Babylon." (44) The tabernacle of witness was among our fathers in the wilderness, as commanded by God, speaking to Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen. The key phrase here is the judgment of idolatrous Israel: “Then God turned and gave them over to serve the host of the heavens” Now this takes a lot of explaining but back before Christ, and still in tribal societies today, life is ruled by astrological taboos. For instance the pagan deity Moloch and Remphan above were both forms of the god Saturn and were supposed to “rule over” the Sabbath (which we still call Saturday - Saturn’s Day). Also each hour of the day was supposedly ruled by one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac - which is why we have a 12 hr clock. This idolatry is why the Bible does not give names to the days or hours of the week but merely says “the first day of the week” or “the ninth hour of the day”. Now the worship of the astrological signs was a lot more severe than just a few names. These times indicated what “powers” were at work and what were the propitious times to do things and what fate awaited you if you violated some particular taboo. For instance Pan pipes could not be played at noon because the god Pan was supposed to sleep then and to wake him would provoke a dreadful curse. We cannot imagine the mind-bending and life-controlling superstitious bondages of the ancient world. To be given over to serve the host of heavens was to be given over to the worship of astrological fates. If you do not serve the Creator, you end up serving the Creation and its lesser gods. If you won’t worship YHWH, you will end up worshipping Zeus or Saturn or Jupiter or Neptune. The worship of these gods that supposedly control time was through festivals in their honor which is why Paul says:
Galatians 4:9-11 MKJV But now, knowing God, but rather are known by God, how do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you again desire to slave anew? (10) You observe days and months and times and years. (11) I fear for you, lest somehow I have labored among you in vain. The observing of “days and months and times and years” seems to have been a threat to the very salvation of the Galatians, and a return to “slavery”. Why? Because it was a return to “feng-shui” and the astrological view of propitious times and fate ordered by stars and new moon festivals and all the rest. As Christ has been rejected astrology and feng-shui and other enslaving nonsense has arisen to fill the void. I was an avid astrology buff before being saved and I can testify to its fearful enslaving power. Indeed I could not go a single day without reading my horoscope - and I took it most seriously! The Israelites rejected Moses and went quickly back to astrology. They secretly kept their idols hidden as they traveled in the wilderness and when Moses went up on the mountain they demanded an idol from Aaron - who obliged! In the end the idols filled the land and Israel was sent into captivity in Babylon. Stephen is saying just as the Israelites turned from Moses to a golden calf, so the Sanhedrin were turning from Christ to their system and were refusing to listen to God. This is especially so since Saduccees were often also Kabbalists and astrologers! They wanted a philosophical god compatible with their “sophisticated” Romanized world (the Sadducees were ardent admirers of the Greeks and Romans) that was soaked with astrology. Stephen is putting his finger on their not-so-secret replacement of YHWH worship with Graeco-Roman astrology! Outwardly they were strict observers of a rather dry temple ritual, but inwardly they were mystical, philosophical astrologers wrapped up in pagan Hellenism!
Colossians 2:8-23 is a long section where Paul denounces these ancient pagan philosophies and beliefs. Here are some of the highlights:
Colossians 2:8-23 MKJV Beware lest anyone rob you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ… (16) Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a feast, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths. (17) For these are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. (18) Let no one defraud you, delighting in humility and worship of the angels, intruding into things which he has not seen, without a cause being vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, (19) and not holding the Head, from whom all the body, having been supplied through the joints and bands, and having been joined together, will grow with the growth of God. (20) If then you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to its ordinances: (21) touch not, taste not, handle not; (22) which things are all for corruption in the using, according to the commands and doctrines of men? (23) These things indeed have a reputation of wisdom in self-imposed worship and humility, and unsparing severity of the body, but are not of any value for the satisfying of the flesh. The term ‘elements of this world” is the Greek word stoichea and means the basic building blocks of pagan religious life - such as taboos, astrological signs etc. It literally means the “measured out things” as in the Masonic symbol of the compass (calipers) and set square - measuring tools. The dimensions of temples and the position of shrines and the correct times for things and how much you should give to this god or that and when. These are inferior spiritual principles compared to Christ and we should not fear them or even notice them!
I have not got time or space to fully explain this concept but I have a long article on it that I hope you find helpful at: http://www.aibi.ph/ebooks/TheStoichea.htm or go to http://www.aibi.ph/tt/ and click on the links there.
Acts 7:44-50 Stephen’s Sermon Part 5 - No Temple Necessary
Acts 7:44-50 MKJV The tabernacle of witness was among our fathers in the wilderness, as commanded by God, speaking to Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen. (45) Which also having received it by inheritance with Joshua, our fathers, with Joshua, in taking possession of the nations whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, (46) who found favor with God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob; (47) but Solomon built Him a house. (48) But, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says, (49) "Heaven is My throne and earth is My footstool. What house will you build Me, says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? (50) Has not My hand made all these things?"
Yesterday we saw that astrology had all of Israel’s secular leadership in bondage at the time of Christ (hence all the commotion over the star of Bethlehem - which was probably Jupiter -see www.bethlemestar.net for a wonderful faith-filled explanation). Astrology reverences the Creation rather than the Creator. In stark contrast to this was the tabernacle with its complete lack of graven images. The tabernacle was made according to God’s heavenly pattern. The tabernacle did not contain God, but merely witnessed to Him and His Presence. The Tabernacle was in a tent and communicated “God is in the midst of Israel”. Wherever Israel went - God went. He simply always turned up in the midst of His people. The Temple communicated something else - that God was in a certain place and that we had to “go up to the mountain of the Lord”. The temple says “God is out there and we must go to Him”. For many people God was many days walk away. Now John’s gospel says that Jesus “tabernacled” among us (John 1:14)- that is Jesus turns up in the midst of His people and wherever His people are, there He is in the midst of them (Matthew 18:19-20). The tabernacle of witness was just a communication link with God, a satellite phone to glory, that worked even in the Wilderness. It was where Moses went to talk with God and get instructions, but it was not where God dwelt. As Isaiah 66:1-2 says:
Isaiah 66:1-2 MKJV So says Jehovah, Heaven is My throne, and earth My footstool. Where, then, is the house that you build for Me? And where is the place of My rest? (2) For all those My hand has made, and all those exist, says Jehovah. But to this one I will look, to the afflicted and contrite spirit, and the one who trembles at My Word.
Indeed the dwelling place of God is with the humble and contrite of heart:
Isaiah 57:15-16 MKJV For so says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity; whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, even with the contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. (16) For I will not contend forever, nor will I be always angry; for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls I have made. So when Stephen says: “But, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands,” he is just quoting Scripture - but does so to the Sanhedrin who were highly committed to God being physically within the perimeter of the Temple that they controlled. This notion was very powerful and when the Temple was demolished in 70 AD so that no stone was left on top of another, it was astonishing to the Jews.
Instead of that Temple, there were three other Temples - the body of Christ Himself (John 2:21), the Church which is the body of Christ and the Temple of God ( 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 1 Peter 2:5) and the body of the believer ( 1 Corinthians 6:19).
God is way too big to dwell in a building. That is for ghosts and demons. God’s Presence may fill a church or a home but God Himself is so vast that Heaven is His throne and Earth is His footstool. In verse 50 above Stephen quotes Isaiah as saying: “Has not My hand made all these things?” The direct implication is that we do not need to make a house for God. God is quite capable of building His own house! The creative power is His not ours.
Thus God does not need our building to live in or the sacrifices of bulls and goats for food. God is the maker of all things and can supply all His own needs. The Temple and its sacrifices were just symbols, and such symbols can be temporary. In fact they were fulfilled in Christ, the prophet “like Moses” who was to come - and who in fact came. They had served their purpose and would soon be destroyed.
Some bible verses depend for their meaning on the smallest of words and verses 46 and 47 revolve around the word “but”: “until the days of David, (46) who found favor with God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob; (47) but Solomon built Him a house.” The small “de’ particle, often omitted indicates that Solomon did something here that was different. It wasn’t a tabernacle - it was a house! Remember Solomon introduced idolatry to Israel, in the end he was the Grand Idolater. Solomon had a pagan mindset and built temples to the gods of his hundreds of wives as well. While God honored the First Temple because of David its architect, in the end it became filled with pagan idols and was destroyed in 586BC. Solomon introduced a theological shift from “tabernacle” to “house” that was deeply pagan.
Stephen was saying that it was pagan and idolatrous to regard YHWH as anything but “tabernacling’ among us. God does not permanently dwell in any human building even in great cathedrals - and many such cathedrals have very few true worshippers. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman :
\cf51 John 4:21-21 MKJV Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you shall neither worship the Father in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem. (22) You worship what you do not know, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. (23) But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. (24) God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. A final word - I am not opposed to church buildings per se - just to the idea that they somehow “contain God” and that He is only available at such church locations. The biblical understanding is that God is available to believers anywhere in the world, even on a hillside in Galilee or on a boat at sea.
Acts 7:51-60 Stephen’s Sermon Part 6 - Stephen Is Martyred
Acts 7:51-60 MKJV O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so you do. (52) Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers; (53) who received the Law through disposition of angels, and did not keep it. (54) And hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts. And they gnashed on him with their teeth. (55) But being full of the Holy Spirit, looking up intently into Heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (56) And he said, Behold, I see Heaven opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. (57) And crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears and ran on him with one accord. (58) And throwing him outside the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses laid their clothes down at the feet of a young man named Saul. (59) And they stoned Stephen, who was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. (60) And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. In his sermon Stephen has listed the ways the Jewish people has resisted God’s voice and rejected first Joseph, then Moses, then all of the prophets. To top this off they betrayed and murdered their Messiah, Jesus Christ. They were those who received the Law through angels - but did not keep it. This disobedience is described as being due to the state of their hearts, and of their ears: “O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!” Thus it is extremely important to listen carefully to God with our ears and to obey Him in our hearts which is why Jesus told the parable of the Sower and the four soils and said: “Luke 8:18 MKJV Therefore be careful how you hear. For whoever has, to him shall be given; and whoever has not, from him shall be taken even that which he seems to have.” In other words careful listening will build up our spiritual inheritance, while careless listening will make us more and more dull, so that we lose out in the end. Being told that they always resisted God profoundly annoyed the Sanhedrin and they “gnashed their teeth at him” but the statement that tipped them over the edge and got Stephen killed, rather than just beaten or imprisoned was this: “Behold, I see Heaven opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.”
If Jesus was at the right hand of God, then the prophecy of Psalms 110:1-7 had been fulfilled and this meant that the priesthood had gone from the Aaronic priesthood of Moses back to the priesthood of Melchizedek of the time of Abraham. If Jesus was at the right hand of God, then the Old Covenant was obsolete, and a new and better way to God had been inaugurated by faith. This change of system was very threatening to those who were so heavily invested in it.
Here is Psalms 110:1-7 in its entirety:
Psalms 110:1-7 MKJV A Psalm of David. Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand until I place Your enemies as Your footstool. (2) Jehovah shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion; rule in the midst of Your enemies. (3) Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power, in holy adornment from the womb of the morning: You have the dew of Your youth. (4) Jehovah has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (5) The Lord at Your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. (6) He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill them with dead bodies; He shall shatter heads over much of the earth. (7) He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore He shall lift up the head.
Psalms 110:1-7 was a key Psalm for the early Christians and this is what James Fausset Brown has to say about it: “The explicit application of this Psalm to our Saviour, by Him (Matthew 22:42-45) and by the apostles (Acts 2:34; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 1:13), and their frequent reference to its language and purport (Ephesians 1:20-22; Php 2:9-11; Hebrews 10:12-13), leave no doubt of its purely prophetic character. Not only was there nothing in the position or character, personal or official, of David or any other descendant, to justify a reference to either, but utter severance from the royal office of all priestly functions (so clearly assigned the subject of this Psalm) positively forbids such a reference. The Psalm celebrates the exaltation of Christ to the throne of an eternal and increasing kingdom, and a perpetual priesthood (Zechariah 6:13), involving the subjugation of His enemies and the multiplication of His subjects, and rendered infallibly certain by the word and oath of Almighty God. (Psalms 110:1-7)” It is so full of theology that Matthew Henry calls it David’s Creed. According to Gill the Jewish commentators prior to Christ viewed this as a conversation between God and His Word: “Galatinus (q) says the true Targum of Jonathan has it, "the Lord said to his Word;’’ So Stephen was saying - you continually resisted the Holy Spirit, so God has made Jesus the Messiah and replaced the Temple and the Law with Abrahamic faith and the priesthood of Melchizedek. Not only that but you are guilty of the murder of the Just One.
“And crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears and ran on him with one accord.” - They “stopped their ears” - to avoid hearing the Truth, rushed upon him as a mob and stoned Stephen to death. This was an illegal action without Roman approval, which it seems was needed for any execution (John 18:31).
“And throwing him outside the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses laid their clothes down at the feet of a young man named Saul.” This incident would haunt Saul, who would become Paul the apostle, for the rest of his life. Yet Stephen’s statement about actually seeing heaven opened and Christ at the right hand of God, may have helped Paul later on as he developed his theology of the ascended Christ.
It seems to have been a disorganized stoning and a slow death. A “proper stoning” uses a large boulder first of all to crush the chest of the victim and is a relatively quick death. By contrast this seems to have been a mad pelting with rocks until Stephen collapsed, and fell on his knees. As Stephen dies he asks the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit - and since in Jewish thought only God can receive someone’s spirit, it is a demonstration that Stephen, seeing heaven opened believed came to the clear belief that Jesus was God.
Stephen then follows the example of Jesus in asking God to not hold the sin of his executioners against them: “And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” In this litigious age, it is a clear lesson for many Christians. We are not to be people of revenge. (Romans 12:19) In a way Stephen did get revenge - by dying in such an innocent way, he made clear to all what he had said earlier about the hard-hearted guilt of the Sanhedrin.