In response to the accusations presented against Stephen, he responds by basically telling Israel’s story. Surely the Sanhedrin knew this story. But the punchline in this is that Stephen casts the Sanhedrin with all of those opposed God’s work, including the treatment of the prophets. It’s a great telling. We would do well to memorize Stephen’s speech to remember Israel’s story.
It is interesting to me some of the details Stephen leaves in the story like Moses being told to take off his sandals at the burning bush and noting that the grave used for Jacob and his sons was originally purchased by Abraham, “bought for a certain sum of money from the sons of Hamar in Shechem.” And likewise, some of the details left out — no mention of the almost sacrifice of Isaac, or Joseph’s dreams and dream interpretation.
I have a suggestion for your reading at the end of the chapter. Read verse 58 out load, and pause when it says “they began to stone him.” Pause right there at the comma. And then read the rest of the verse, “and the witnesses laid their cloaks …”
What caught your attention in this chapter? Love to hear from you.
In reading this, over half the verses of Stephen’s history are about Moses, culminating in the narrative of the golden calf and the people rejecting Moses. Perhaps because of the slave thing I mentioned yesterday? And his accusation in verse 51: “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you!” And then I chuckled to myself a few verses later when they: “put their hands over their ears and began shouting.” They MADE THEMSELVES DEAF. They didn’t want to hear the truth even when God performed a miracle in front of their eyes with Stephen’s vision. I pray I am never like them!!!
Also, as a side note I noticed verse 22 that Moses “was powerful in both speech and action.” So many sermons about Moses focus on his excuses about his speaking to the Lord at the burning bush, but clearly the Hebrews remembered him as a man of powerful speech before he left Egypt the first time. This was interesting to me, a detail I hadn’t noticed before.
Hadn’t made the connection with the Freed slaves.