Acts, chapter 7

Throughout the O.T. & Gospels all words highlighted:

• in medium blue were said by GOD the FATHER;
• in apricot were from GOD the Son (Jesus Christ);
• in light purple were from GOD the Holy Spirit.

That remains the case, but now we have the believer's spoken words highlighted in orange.

Also you will see words scripted in blue; this also is a carry-over from the O.T.-- throughout this work all words scripted in blue are words either in prayer or addressing the Godhead.

Chapter 7

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Then the High Priest asked Him, 'Are these false charges true?' To this (the 1-sentence charge that Stephen had said, 'Jesus will destroy this place & change the customs Moses handed down'), He replied: Brothers & Fathers, listen to Me! The GOD of Glory appeared to Our Father Abraham while He was still in Mesopotamia, before He lived in Haran. This is covered (scattered) in PART I, D D.1.j., D.2.a.i., D.2.b.i. & D.3.a.i. & ii. Leave Your country & Your people, GOD said, & go to the land I will show You.

So He left the land of the Chaldeans & settled in Haran. After the death of His father Terah, GOD sent Him to this land where You are now living-- i.e., to Canaan, later called Israel. HE gave Him no prior inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But GOD promised Him that He & His descendants after Him would possess the land-- they had to conquer it, even though at that time Abraham had no child-- there was no 1 to inherit the conquest. GOD spoke to Him in this way: Your descendants will be strangers in a country not Their own-- Egypt. & they will be enslaved & mistreated 400 yrs. This is covered beginning in PART I, D as noted above, but continues throughout PART I, E & F, & in PART II. But I will punish the nation They serve as slaves, GOD said, & afterward They will come out of that country & worship ME in this place-- Israel. Then back in Canaan (long before going to Egypt & the subsequent conquest of Canaan) HE gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision-- Abraham's writ of loyalty, passed throughout the following generations. And Abraham became the Father of Isaac & circumcised Him 8 days after His birth. Recall that we saw in PART I, D D.2.i. & ii. that Abram (renamed Abraham at age 99) was himself circumcised (at age 99). Recall Sarai (renamed Sarah when Abram was renamed) was his 1st wife, from way back in Ur of the Chaldees; Abram later got a 2nd wife, Hager the Egyptian, Sarai's maidservant, by which he had Ishmael. A year after Abraham was circumcised, Abraham & Sarah had Isaac, who was circumcised at age 8 days; at that time Ishmael was also circumcised (then age 13 yrs.). BTW, somewhere else in this work it was pointed out that Abraham received a promise that Ishmael would become the father of 12 rulers-- this can be found in Gen 17:20. These 12 are named in Gen 25:13b-15; v. 16 points out that they were tribal rulers. Gen 17:19b points out that God will establish an everlasting covenant with Isaac; Gen 25:18 says that Ishmael's descendants lived in hostility toward all their brothers (each other). Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, & Jacob became the father of the 12 patriarchs.

Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, They sold Him as a slave into Egypt. But GOD was with Him & rescued Him from all His troubles. HE gave Joseph wisdom & enabled Him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made Him ruler over Egypt & all his palace. Then a famine struck all Egypt & Canaan, bringing great suffering, & Our Fathers could not find food. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, He sent Our Fathers on Their 1st visit. On Their 2nd visit, Joseph told His brothers who He was, & Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family. After this, Joseph sent for His whole family, 75 in all. Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where He & Our Fathers eventually died. Their bodies were brought back to Shechem had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money. The matter of Israel's 430 yrs. in Egypt is covered in PART I, D D.2.b(end). & D.5.b.; the matter of Jacob's burial is covered in Gen 33:18-19; 47:29c & 49:29-32. BTW, Joseph was also buried there-- see Jsh 24:32.

As the time grew near for GOD to fulfill HIS promise to Abraham, the # of Our people in Egypt greatly increased. Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. He dealt treacherously with Our people & oppressed Our forefathers by forcing Them to throw out Their newborn babies so They would die-- for the full story, see Exo 1:6-22 (v. 22 mentions about throwing them into the Nile). At that time Moses was born, & He was no ordinary child. For 3 months He was cared for in His father's house. From Exo 3:1; 6:20; 18:2; Lev 24:11; Num 26:59; & 1stCh 6:3; 24:13,20 we see Aaron, Moses, & Miriam were the children of Amran & Jochebed (both of whom descended from Levi), & that Moses' wife was Zipporah, daughter of Jethro & Shelomith. When He was placed outside among the Nile reeds, Pharaoh's daughter took Him & brought Him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians & was powerful in speech & action. This is recorded in Exo 2:1-10, which adds that for the time he was a baby, Pharaoh's daughter arranged for his Hebrew mother to wean him, after which she took him in, named him & raised him.

When Moses was 40 yrs. old, He decided to visit His fellow Israelites. He saw 1 of Them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so He went to His defense & avenged Him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought His own people would realize that GOD was using Him to rescue Them, but They did not. The next day Moses came upon 2 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 & said, Who made You ruler & judge over Us? Do You want to kill Me as You killed the Egyptian yesterday? (Exo 2:14a). When Moses heard this, He fled to Midian, where He settled as a foreigner & had 2 sons.

After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mt. Sinai. When He saw this, He was amazed at the sight. As He went over to look more closely, He heard the LORD's Voice: I am the GOD of Your Fathers, the GOD of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob (Exo 3:6a). Moses trembled with fear & did not dare to look. Then the LORD said to Him, Take off Your sandals; 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 & have come to set Them free. Now come, I will send You back to Egypt (Exo 3:5b,7a,8a,10a). This is the same Moses whom They had rejected earlier in Egypt with the words, 'Who made You ruler & judge?'. He was sent back to Egypt to be Their ruler & deliverer by GOD himself, through the angel in the bush. He led Them out of Egypt & did wonders & miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea & for 40 years in the desert.

This is that Moses who later told the Israelites, GOD will send You a prophet like Me from Your own people (Deu 18:15-- evidently a ref. to Jesus, for were not all the prophets from among them?), HE was later in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to Him (Moses) on Mount Sinai, & with Our Fathers; & He (Moses) received living words to pass on to Us. But Our Fathers refused to obey Him. Instead, They rejected Him & 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 (Deu 32:1b)! That was the time They made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it & held a celebration in honor of what Their hands had made. But GOD turned away & gave Them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies-- or as the NIV 2010 (v. 42) has it, But GOD turned away from Them & gave Them over to the worship of the sun, moon & stars. I point this out, as Jer 8:2 (2010) has, They (the Jews as they had evolved) will be exposed to the sun... moon... & stars, which They have loved... served... followed... consulted... worshiped. And when pronouncing the woes, Jesus said (Matt 23:32), 'Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of Your forefather (the NIV 2010 has, 'Go ahead then, & complete what Your ancesters started).' This underscores why the Wise Men from the east were indeed wise: they saw the star over Jerusalem, & when they arrived there, they said, 'We saw His star when we were in the east & have come to worship not the star but Him (it was then they followed the star to Bethlehem, as it went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was (Matt 2:2,9). This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: Did You bring ME sacrifices & offerings during the 40 yrs. in the desert, O house of Israel? You have lifted up the shrine of Molech & the star of Your god Rephan, the idols You made to worship. Therefore I will send You into exile beyond Babylon (Amo 5:25-27a).

Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with Them in the desert. It had been made as GOD directed Moses, according to the pattern He had seen. Having received the tabernacle, Our Fathers under Joshua brought it with Them when They took the land from the nations GOD drove out before Them. It remained in the land until the time of David, who enjoyed GOD's Favor & asked that He might provide a dwelling place for the GOD of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built the house for HIM. However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: Heaven is MY Throne, & the earth is MY Footstool. What kind of house will You build for ME? says the LORD. Or where will MY Resting Place be? Has not MY Hands made all these things? (Isa 66:1b-2a). Note that after all that history, now just 3 vv. got them riled-- thinking they held the keys to the kingdom!

You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts & ears! You are just like Your Fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet Your Fathers did not persecute? They even killed Those who predicted the coming of the righteous One. And now You have betrayed & murdered Him-- You who have received the Law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.

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When They heard this, They were furious & gnashed Their teeth at Him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to Heaven & saw the Glory of GOD, & Jesus standing at the Right Hand of GOD-- this does not mean the we are still before the ascension (within the 40 days)-- for we see from Acts 1 & 2 Chapter 1 <1> that in fact the ascension had already occurred! Rather, it demonstrates how much Jesus cares about our persecutions. This is in stark contrast to PerMtMkLk28 E. 2. (Mark), which says Jesus ascended & sat at the Right Hand of GOD. Now we do see Him again/yet standing in PerMtMkLk26 D.39.(4th pt.)-- the reference about the New Song in Reve 5:9-13. In Acts 8 & 9 Chapter 8 <1> we see the church at Jerusalem was scattered after Stephen was persecuted; in Reve, just after the descriptions of the 6 churches & the general description of the Throne, we see there was a Lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the Throne. Again, it demonstrates how much Jesus cares about our welfare.  Look, He said, I see Heaven open & the Son of man standing at the Right Hand of GOD. At this They covered Their ears &, yelling at the top of Their voices, They all rushed at Him, dragged Him out of the city & began to stone Him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid Their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. While They were stoning Him, Stephen prayed, LORD Jesus, receive My spirit. Then He fell on His knees & cried out, LORD, do not hold this against Them. When He had said this, He fell asleep.