The Trial Of Stephen, Part 4

The Trial of Stephen, Part 4

Acts 7:30–35 NKJV

“And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.” ’

“This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush."

We continue our prolonged study of the defense Stephen makes of the Gospel as he is on trial for his life. It would be good to review what we have learned so far. Stephen began his defense with the call of Abraham. From this we learn that God is sovereign over the entire world. What He wills shall come to pass. God told Abraham that He would give Abraham numerous descendants and the land of Canaan. This would not occur in Abraham’s day, but at God’s appointed time four hundred. The theme of God’s apparent delay in action is one of the central points of Stephen's address along with the fact that God’s timing is perfect and according to His purpose.

Stephen brought up Joseph as a leader of God’s own choosing. Joseph was not the one whom his brothers had chosen. In fact they considered killing him in envy and were stayed only by the opportunity to make money from him by selling Joseph into slavery. In spite of this, God made good on making Joseph their leader, by whom Jacob’s family found deliverance from the famine through the very person God had appointed. Again, we see that there was an apparent delay in which Joseph spent time in Egyptian slavery as well as being falsely accused and jailed. But when the time was right, God delivered Joseph out of prison and set him up as second in command over all Egypt. The faithfulness of Joseph’s brothers could not annul the faithfulness of God.

Last week we say that the LORD then chose Moses and delivered him from drowning through the actions of his mother. He was placed in an ark made of bulrushes and “found” by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in Pharaoh’s house. He became learned in the wisdom of Egypt and grew in favor in Pharaoh’s house. This preparation would take a long time, some forty years. And when Moses slew the Egyptian taskmaster, he was betrayed by his own brethren who had seen Moses kill the Egyptian. The one God had chosen to lead Israel was rejected by his brethren. Moses had to flee to the desert where he served as a shepherd for his father-in-law and had two children. It looked as though God’s promise vanished in the desert with Moses.

This week, we were told that Moses spent forty years Moses in the desert. By this time, most men would be at the end of their lives and suffering from the ravages of age. But God was just beginning to use Moses. At an age where most have retired from life, Moses’life was abruptly changed. This is the way God works. Even Abraham, whom we mentioned waited until 100 to be the father of Isaac. He was beyond the age of begetting children and so was his 90 year-old wife, Sarah. But at 80, Moses was not a broken-down old man. God had preserved his bodily strength and would continue to do so even to the end of Moses’ life. the time was now right for God, and he appeared to Moses in a burning bush. He did not appear to him is some man made temple but in the harsh wilderness. God’s presence is not limited to the church or temple. He is LORD over all and omnipresent. What is important is that God appeared to Moses and called him to return to Egypt to be the agent of God’s deliverance of Israel in accordance to the promise He had made with Abraham.

God did not appear to Moses in a man-made temple such as the Temple that was dedicated to Yahweh in Jerusalem. This is a subtle point, but as Stephen was accused of claiming that Jesus would destroy this Temple. The Temple was especially sacred to the Jews as it was believed to be the special presence of Yahweh in Israel. God had used Solomon to build this Temple, even though Solomon admitted that the entire universe could not contain Him. After the Temple was destroyed, God used Zerubbabel to rebuild it. It would later become extensively modified and upgraded by Herod the Great, even though Herod was not a Jew but an Edomite. So, what is important is the special presence of Yahweh which gave significance to the Temple. The Lord is above any human building. God appeared to Moses in the stark desert. And when we read about Jesus in the Incarnation became flesh says that His own body was the Temple of the special presence of God. The Jews would destroy this Temple which the LORD would rebuild in three days (See John 2). And Paul mentions that the living Church is the Temple of God’s special presence in both the assembly as well as in the individual members. The Temple made of marble, gold and other precious materials as a special presence of God to the Jews is not obsolete. What is important is that the special presence of God comes into our midst no matter where we are on this earth.