Ep 395 – Acts 7:17-29

In Acts 7:17-29, we have Stephen continuing his history lesson on the Jewish people and, his audience, made up of Jewish religious leaders, had to be scratching their heads as to what his point was in this little exercise. He wasn't telling them anything they didn't already know. Or was he? Upon closer inspection, we see that Stephen was retelling the story of Israel's past, but in a way that highlighted some glaring flaws in their corporate character as a people. While the high priest and the members of the Jewish council would have bragged about their love for Moses and the law, Stephen was subtly exposing that they were just like their ancestors, who had been stubbornly resistant to the very one God had sent to deliver them. They had rejected Moses' original offer to help free them from the oppression of the Egyptians, forcing him to flee to the Midian wilderness, where he would stay for 40 long years. Moses was God's choice to be the deliverer of the people of Israel. God had arranged for him to be rescued by Pharaoh's daughter and raised in the Pharaoh's household, ending up as a powerful figure among the Egyptians. But God greater plans for Moses. He had a job for him to do. And yet, the very people God had chosen him to redeem and rescue were going to fight him every step of the way. And Stephen's point in all of this? Jesus was God's appointed redeemer and rescuer of the people of Israel in his day, and here they were rejecting their rescuer once again.