Acts 7:1-8
Acts 7:1-8 | Stephen begins his defense with Abraham
Acts 7:1-8
Recap
The apostles appoint 7 deacons to manage some of the affairs of the growing church
Stephen is one of those newly appointed deacons
The deacons job is not primarily to teach, but deacons, like all Christians, are called:
to give a reason for the hope that is in them
To make a defense of the faith
1 Peter 3:15 (NKJV) But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always [be] ready to [give] a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
And that’s exactly what Stephen does — he’s defending the truth of why he has hope — because Jesus is the messiah
But he’s frustrated the Jews with his answers that they then go and compel men to lie or distort his words and accuse him of blasphemy
Acts 6:13-14 (NKJV) 13 They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place[the temple] and the law; 14 “for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place [the temple] and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”
So they brought him before the same council that crucified Jesus to be examined
Prelim
One of the challenges of teaching passages like is is deciding how deep to dive into a particular passage
If we dive too deep and micro-analyze every OT story he references we risk losing the overall context
The context is that Stephen is being accused of blasphemy and is being brought before the council to be examined — essentially a trial
But if we don’t dive deep enough then we risk losing why he’s being accused of blasphemy
Stephen takes them through what it is he’s been saying
It doesn’t paint a very good picture of them — or some of their most revered figures
So in order to keep us from losing context I’m going to summarize the chapter before we dive into some of his arguments
Stephen has been accused of blasphemy
He’s brought before the council and put on trial
He takes them through a panorama of Jewish history beginning with Abraham, the 12 patriarchs and Moses
Not because the Pharisees are uneducated — but to show them something’s from their scriptures that they have neglected to see
They get so upset with the things he’s saying that they ultimately kill him
So Stephen is on trial before the High Priest
Scripture
Acts 7:1-60 (NKJV) 1 Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
Are these things so — have you blasphemed against the temple, the law and Moses?
2 And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, 3 “and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ 4 “Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. 5 “And [God] gave him no inheritance in it, not even [enough] to set his foot on.
So Stephen starts explaining to them what he’s said:
He begins with Abraham (our father)
Stephen points out that God had appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia (Ur) BEFORE he left Ur and told him to leave his father’s house, to leave his relatives, and go to a land that God would show him
Genesis lays out the sequence as:
Abraham, his father Terah, his wife Sarah, his nephew Lot were all dwelling in Mesopotamia
They left Mesopotamia and went to Haran — in ch11 (Genesis doesn’t tell us why at first)
Then God appears to Abraham and tells him:
Genesis 12:1 (NKJV) Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
This phrase “had said” is where the question lies
The Jews had read this that Abraham had received the call in Haran — and thus was faithful to God’s calling
But Stephen says (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) that “had said” means God had appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia (Ur) first and told him to leave his fathers house and go to Canaan
Stephen points out that Abraham didn’t leave his father’s house — he took his father Terah, and his nephew Lot with him
And Abraham didn’t go to Canaan, he actually stopped in Haran and waited until his dad died
Genesis 12:4 (NKJV) So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram [was] seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Abraham stopped in Haran and waited for his father Terah to die
Then it says God moved him out of Haran to Canaan (which will later become Israel) which is the land Stephen says “where they now dwell”
But he still took Lot with him (his relative) and Stephen and Genesis, makes it clear he was supposed to leave his relatives (v3)
Genesis actually records that he came into Canaan and there was a famine — so he took no portion of the land
He went to Egypt and had several issues there
One of which was that Abraham tries to pass off Sarah as his sister so the king there won’t take her and kill him
But God appears to the king and tells him not to touch her and protects them
Then he returns to same place he originally came into Canaan at and has a dispute with his nephew Lot
He gives Lot a choice on what land he wants and Lot chooses the land of Jordan which will take him toward Sodom
And Abraham takes the land of Canaan
Genesis 13:14-15 (NKJV) 14 And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are--northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 “for all the land which you see I give to YOU and your descendants forever.
Stephen appears to be pointing out that even their father Abraham was partially obedient — struggled with faith
He didn’t leave his father or his relatives (Gen 11 according to Stephen)
He didn’t go to Canaan initially
And this explains why verse 5 says “And [God] gave him no inheritance in it, not even [enough] to set his foot on.”
It’s in Gen 13, after Abraham separates from Lot that God says:
“NOW, I will give YOU all this land as far as you can see.”
Abraham had a little faith — he was partially obedient
But partial obedience is still disobedience and he wasn’t able to receive the promise until he had surrendered all
He came into the land but there was a famine
He went to Egypt where he faced trials
He faced tribulation in his own family with Lot and ultimately was separated from him
Then and only then was he given the land that was promised
Not because of Abraham’s faithfulness — but because of God’s
God had worked through his circumstances to produce this faith and obedience
Abraham will become known as a great man of faith (Heb 11, Gal 3) — but he didn’t start there
Abraham GREW in faith and obedience
5 But even when [Abraham] had no child, He [God] promised to give it [the land] to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.
So he has no land and no children, but God told him “I’m going to give you the land and your descendants will occupy it”
Based on Abraham’s partial obedience, what would you say his idle was? What was first in his heart? His family
He wasn’t willing to leave his father.
He wasn’t willing to leave his father’s house (Lot).
But despite this — He still trusted God enough to leave
So GOD worked with that little faith through his circumstances to remove those obstacles in his life
Ultimately bringing him into the promise that God had for him
6 “But God spoke in this way (prophetically to Abraham): that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress [them] four hundred years. 7 ‘And the nation (Egypt) to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place. (Israel)’
Stephen tells of how God told Abraham that although his descendants would occupy the land for a time, they would dwell in a foreign land, apart from the land, and be in bondage for 400 years
And God told them that He would judge this nation and bring them back into the land of Israel
This is God prophesying to Abraham that as possessive as they were of the land — associating their national identity with it — that there would be periods they were not in the land
To the Pharisee this was heresy
They associated Israel’s identity with the land. But Stephen’s point is that the land was a promise from God
The land doesn’t define us, the promise of God and being His people is what defines us
8 “Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so [Abraham] begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [begot] Jacob, and Jacob [begot] the twelve patriarchs.
So kept his promise
Abraham did receive the land and his sons did inherit it
Based on what we know Abraham had struggled in his obedience with, when God promised him a son, what do you think his test would be? To sacrifice his son
Do you now see why God tested him that way?
It was to show him that now his faith was in God — and that he would no longer withhold anything from the Lord
This was how his faith grew
God in His faithfulness had taken a little faith, and worked in him through his circumstances to perfect that faith
Stephen is portraying Abraham — this great man of faith that the Jews highly revered — as a man with weaknesses just like you and I.
And to the Pharisees this was blasphemy
Do we do this today? Yes, when we elevate the church fathers to a status they themselves never claimed
We should read the wisdom of the early church fathers
But we hold to the fact that these were still flawed men
This is why scripture is our only authority
Not that it’s our only source of information
But it is the sole source of authoritative knowledge we possess
Tradition changes — but the word of the Lord endures forever
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