Stephen continues his recitation of Jewish history by continuing the story of Moses, and then finishing with Joshua, David and Solomon. He quotes from Exodus 2:14, 3:5-8, Exodus 32:1, Deuteronomy 18:15, Amos 5:25-27, and Isaiah 66:1-2, as well as a few others. In it he details the Israelites rebellion in the wilderness, their refusal to follow the law, and their resistance to the message of the prophets. He likens the religious leaders to their ancestors who killed the prophets who prophesied about the coming Righteous One, except they actually put the Messiah to death!
The leaders are furious with him and get even more furious when he relays his vision of Jesus. I imagine the vision gives him assurance and strength for what is to come. They stone him, but he asks Jesus not to hold this sin against them. We end the passage by being introduced to Saul (who will become Paul).
Some thoughts:
- Are we that gracious to people who wrong us? How about those who would like to see us killed? I imagine that the vision of Jesus helped, but it’s still pretty amazing.
- As noted in a prior discussion, Jesus is the fulfillment of Moses’ prophesy of a prophet like him coming in the future.
- Isn’t it amazing how much God moved in the lives of the Israelites, and yet they still rebelled? Is it any wonder that we rebel? Of course our rebellion may be worse, since we have the Spirit.
- Jesus is the Righteous One! Not only is He righteous, but He passes on that righteousness to us:
2 Corinthains 5:21 “God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.”
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