Act 7:41-60 God Gave Them up to Worship the Host of Heaven

[Study Aired February 5, 2023]

Act 7:41  And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Act 7:42  Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
Act 7:43  Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
Act 7:44  Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
Act 7:45  Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
Act 7:46  Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
Act 7:47  But Solomon built him an house.
Act 7:48  Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Act 7:49  Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Act 7:50  Hath not my hand made all these things?
Act 7:51  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Act 7:52  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Act 7:53  Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Act 7:54  When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Act 7:55  But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
Act 7:56  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Act 7:57  Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
Act 7:58  And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
Act 7:59  And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Act 7:60  And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

We continue with our study in Luke’s account of the kangaroo court of the Sanhedrin, which was convened for the purpose of stopping Stephen’s preaching and teaching in the temple. Stephen was well read in the scriptures and was so persuasive in answering his critics that they were forced to bring him to trial to keep the gospel from literally taking over Jerusalem.

Act 6:7  And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Act 6:8  And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Act 6:9  Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
Act 6:10  And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Act 6:11  Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
Act 6:12  And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,

Stephen used the opportunity of his trial to remind the church of his day, which typifies and signifies the church of today, that according to the scriptures from the time of Joseph, the Lord’s own people have always rejected those whom the Lord sends to show them how far they are from the Lord. Stephen pointed out that the Israelites had rejected Moses just as the patriarchs, Joseph’s brothers, had earlier rejected Joseph, forcing Moses to flee to Midian to save his life. Just as the Lord had brought Joseph forth from the Egyptian prison and set him over all Egypt, so the Lord also brought Moses out of the wilderness of Midian and empowered him to bring Israel out of Egypt and bring them to Mount Sinai where He gave them His laws.

Exodus 19-24 records the giving of the law to Israel at the base of Mount Sinai, just as the very first “feast of weeks” began. The law was given to the congregation of Israel at the base of mount Sinai before Moses went up to receive the two tables of stone with the ten commandments written on them. The leaders of Israel were given the law “and they saw the God of Israel” before the building of the golden calf.

Exo 19:1  In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
Exo 19:2  For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

Exo 24:1  And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.
Exo 24:2  And Moses alone shall come near the LORD: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.
Exo 24:3  And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.
Exo 24:4  And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exo 24:5  And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.
Exo 24:6  And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
Exo 24:7  And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
Exo 24:8  And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

The law was given to and read to all the people and was consecrated with the blood of “offerings of oxen” (Exo 24:5) on the very first “feast of weeks”, later to become known as the feast of Pentecost. This giving of the law to Israel was done a short time before the Lord called Moses up into the mount to give him the instructions for the building of the tabernacle and to give Moses the writing of the ten commandments on two tables of stone.

The making of the golden calf took place after the feast of firstfruits and while Moses was spending forty days fasting on Mount Sinai, where he received the instructions for the building of the tabernacle and the two tables of stone. All the people of Israel had agreed to keep all the words of the law (vs 7), and then immediately after giving their word to do so, they did the exact opposite and built to themselves an idol to worship. This is what took place at the very first ‘feast of weeks’ shortly before the making of the idol of a golden calf:

Exo 24:9  Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
Exo 24:10  And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
Exo 24:11  And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.
Exo 24:12  And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

Stephen continues with the history of the apostasy of the Lord’s people:

Act 7:41  And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

Idols are “the work of [our] own hands.” However, our hands do only what our hearts and minds first conceive. That is what makes a physical idol the perfect type of an “idol of [our] hearts”, meaning a false doctrine. A false doctrine is “the work of our own hands.”

Most idol worshipers honor their idol with festivals, during which they perform rituals which they are taught will appease their false god. These festivals always occur during the various seasons of the year – spring, summer, fall, and winter – and they always require a sacrifice.

This is what the Lord warned Israel not to do to Him after they drove out the idol-worshiping heathen from the promised land:

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise [unto the Lord].
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

There are the words of the Lord at which we are to tremble (Isa 66:2). Do not say to yourself, “How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.” “Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God.” Do not ‘Christianize’ pagan holidays and say you are doing it to the Lord your God! That is exactly what the whole world does.

Stephen continues:

Act 7:42  Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

The Lord had given the heathen (the nations, the Gentiles) to worship “the host of heaven.” He had given His people His “carnal commandment” (Heb 7:12) which included the keeping of days, months, times, and years to worship Him, in type and in shadow:

Deu 4:19  And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

When we understand that the nations, within us and outwardly, are first given by the Lord to “worship… all the host of heaven” then we must understand that that is how they serve their gods, and it is not our job to deprive them of the only thing they have in this world to worship their god.

Here are a few verses of scripture in Galatians 4 and in Colossians 2 which spiritual Babylonian Christians “do… not understand… because [they] cannot hear [the Lord’s] words”, as the Lord Himself tells us:

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech?  even because ye cannot hear my word.

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? [Pray tell, what are these “weak and beggarly elements”???]
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Those to whom the Lord has given to “worship all the host of heaven” simply “do… not understand” what the holy spirit is saying in those verses of Galatians 4 “because [they] cannot hear [His] word.”

The Greek word translated as “elements” in Galatians 4:9 is:

G4747
στοιχεῖον
stoicheion
stoy-khi’-on
Neuter of a presumed derivative of the base of G4748; something orderly in arrangement, that is, (by implication) a serial (basal, fundamental, initial) constituent (literally), proposition (figuratively): – element, principle, rudiment.

‘Stoicheion’ is a derivative of:

G4748
στοιχέω
stoicheō
stoy-kheh’-o

From a derivative of στείχω steichō̄ (to range in regular line); to march in (military) rank (keep step), that is, (figuratively) to conform to virtue and piety: – walk (orderly).

Those who worship in the churches of Babylon the Great “conform to [the] virtue and piety” of Babylon and would not dare to fail to “observe [all the] days, months, times and years” which Babylon dictates must be kept by all the churches of this world. These “days, months, times, and years” are all the rituals and the “vanities” which, until this very day, “provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger.” Paul saw the churches returning to the observance of Jewish “days, months, times and years”, which are no different than Pagan rituals. They were doing so because Jewish Christians were telling them that if they were not circumcised, and if they did not keep the law of Moses, they could not be saved:

Act 15:1  And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
Act 15:2  When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

If the holy spirit inspired the apostle Paul to warn the new Gentile Christians about being seduced to return to the weak and beggarly elements of Jewish “days, months, times, and years,” how much more would he not condemn the keeping of heathen days like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, birthdays, and anniversaries, none of which have any affirmation or basis in scripture.

Colossians 2 reiterates Paul’s concerns in a more general tone using the words “traditions of men” instead of ‘days, months’ times, and years’ in the context of “the weak and beggarly elements” of the law of Moses:

Col 2:6  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
Col 2:7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments [G4747: ‘stoicheion] of the world, and not after Christ.
Col 2:9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

The Greek word translated ‘rudiments’ in verse 8 is the same Greek word which is translated as ‘elements’ in Galatians 4:9.

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements [G4747: ‘stoicheion’], whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Here in Galatians Paul reveals that the weak and beggarly ‘stoicheion’ refers specifically to ‘days, months, times and years”, and he is referring to the same “weak and beggarly elements” when he uses the Greek word stoicheion here in Colossians 2.

Col 2:16  Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Col 2:17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Col 2:18  Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:19  And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
Col 2:20  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments [Greek: ‘stoicheion’] of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
Col 2:21  (Touch not; taste not; handle not; [“never has anything common or unclean entered my mouth” (Act 11:8)]
Col 2:22  Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

The idol worship introduced to Israel by Jereboam, the son of Nebat, which none of the kings of Israel or Judah could ever completely purge from among the people, was the keeping of festivals at times not appointed by the Lord:

1Ki 12:26  And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
1Ki 12:27  If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
1Ki 12:28  Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
1Ki 12:29  And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
1Ki 12:30  And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
1Ki 12:31  And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
1Ki 12:32  And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
1Ki 12:33  So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

1Ki 16:26  For he [King Omri] walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities.

1Ki 16:31  And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him [KingAhab] to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

1Ki 22:52  And he [King Ahaziah] did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin:

2Ki 3:3  Nevertheless he [King Jehoram] cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.

2Ki 10:28  Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.
2Ki 10:29  Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.

2Ki 13:2  And he [King Jehoahaz, the son of King Jehu] did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.

2Ki 13:11  And he [King Jehoash] did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin: but he walked therein.

2Ki 14:3  And he [Amaziah, king of Judah] did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, yet not like David his father: he did according to all things as Joash his father did.
2Ki 14:4  Howbeit the high places were not taken away: as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places.

2Ki 14:24  And he [Jereboam the son of Joash, the king of Israel] did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

2Ki 15:3  And he [Azariah, the son of Amaziah, king of Judah] did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done;
2Ki 15:4  Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.

2Ki 15:8  In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.
2Ki 15:9  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

2Ki 15:17  In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria.
2Ki 15:18  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

2Ki 15:23  In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years.
2Ki 15:24  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

2Ki 15:27  In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years.
2Ki 15:28  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

2Ki 15:32  In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign.
2Ki 15:33  Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.
2Ki 15:34  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done.
2Ki 15:35  Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the LORD.

The sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was that he led Israel to keep days, months, times and years which were of his own devices and not according to the commandments of the Lord. They were centered around idol worship just as the days, months, times and years observed by the whole world until this very day.

If we are given to see that the observing of “days, months, times and years” are the very forms of worship of and toward false gods, which is given by the Lord “unto all the nations under the whole heaven” then we surely “[would] not do so unto the Lord [our] God” (Deu 12:31).

The world does so anyway:

Act 7:43  Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

This statement by Stephen references these verses of Amos:

Amo 5:21  I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
Amo 5:22  Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
Amo 5:23  Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
Amo 5:24  But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Amo 5:25  Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Amo 5:26  But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
Amo 5:27  Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

Amos says ‘Damascus’, and Stephen says ‘Babylon’. Of course, Babylon is well “beyond Damascus” which makes both true, and both are inspired and preserved by the holy spirit.

Act 7:44  Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.

Indeed, that was the instruction given to Moses:

Exo 25:40  And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Exo 26:30  And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.

‘Make it according to the fashion that he had seen’ is just another way of saying:

Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

Christ is our tabernacle, and he is the “pattern” and the “fashion” by which we are all measured. He wants us to do the things He tells us to do without ‘adding to or diminishing from His words:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Act 7:45  Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;

It is Christ Himself, through His own faith within us, who we bring into the possession of our inward Gentile, our old man, in these earthen vessels of ‘the land of promise’:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made [is making] it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

It is the next verse which speaks of “the redemption of the purchased possession” at the time of the resurrection.

Eph 1:14  Which [“spirit of promise”] is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Being in the land of promise and being given “the earnest of… the spirit of promise” is a wonderful and necessary place to be. It “is not worthy to be compared with… the redemption of the purchased possession” which is being given a part in that blessed and holy first resurrection:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Act 7:46  Who [King David] found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
Act 7:47  But Solomon built him an house.

King David’s desire to build “a tabernacle for the God of Jacob” signifies Christ in the flesh, cleansing the physical temple to signify how He is cleansing us while we are yet in these earthen vessels:

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels [Christ “the… spirit of promise” (Eph 1:13)] that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Act 7:48  Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Act 7:49  Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Act 7:50  Hath not my hand made all these things?

Stephen simply quoted:

Isa 66:1  Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

There was no chapter and verse breakdown of the scriptures in Stephen’s day. Stephen quoted from Isaiah 66:1 to the middle of verse 2.  “What house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?” These words, followed by the rest of verse two revealed that the Lord’s anti-type temple was the hearts and minds of His people and not a physical temple made by the hands of men: “but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Those are words of the Lord Himself. There is not as much as a hint or a suggestion of Christ or any of his disciples wanting to destroy the physical temple.

The Sanhedrin, signifying the church of our day, wanted a physical temple, and had no appreciation of an inward spiritual temple within “him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word.”

At this point, Stephen draws the conclusion of his whole discourse of the history of the rebellions of Israel against the Lord and against His prophets:

Act 7:51  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Act 7:52  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Act 7:53  Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Act 7:54  When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

The “gnashing of teeth” symbolizes extreme mental and spiritual torment in the New Testament:

Mat 8:12  But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mat 13:42  And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Mat 13:50  And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mat 24:51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mat 25:30  And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Luk 13:28  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

Notice how the Truth triggers the guilty:

Act 5:30  The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Act 5:31  Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
Act 5:32  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Act 5:33  When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.

Act 5:30-33 are the words of Peter and all the apostles which were addressed to this same Sanhedrin Stephen is now facing. Gamaliel does not speak up to save Stephen’s life as he did when all the apostles were on trial.

Act 7:55  But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
Act 7:56  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Act 7:57  Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
Act 7:58  And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

This is the same ‘Saul of Tarsus’ who would later express his zeal for the law by persecuting the church above many his equals:

Act 22:4  And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

Act 26:11  And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Gal 1:13  For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:
Gal 1:14  And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Act 7:59  And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Act 7:60  And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Stephen had the mind of Christ, and they both knew these members of the Sanhedrin, signifying the religious leaders of our day who actually teach and encourage their followers to fight against and kill the enemies of the nation of their birth, “cannot hear [Christ’s] words”:

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Stephen was following in the steps of the Lord who said the same thing when He was being crucified:

Luk 23:33  And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
Luk 23:34  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

The Lord meant it when He told us:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
Joh 12:26  If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

Act 7:21-40 This is He That was in the Church in the Wilderness

[Study Aired January 29, 2023]

Act 7:21  And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
Act 7:22  And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Act 7:23  And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
Act 7:24  And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
Act 7:25  For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
Act 7:26  And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
Act 7:27  But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
Act 7:28  Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
Act 7:29  Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
Act 7:30  And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
Act 7:31  When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
Act 7:32  Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
Act 7:33  Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
Act 7:34  I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Act 7:35  This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Act 7:36  He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
Act 7:37  This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Act 7:38  This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Act 7:39  To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Act 7:40  Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

Stephen, like our Lord, is on trial for his very life, and yet his defense is to demonstrate that the entire history of the Lord’s people is one of rebellion against him and His laws and of persecuting and slaying His prophets whom the Lord has sent to call them to repentance. That, of course, is not a defense at all. It is rather an indictment of his accusers.

In our last study, Stephen had just finished reminding the Sanhedrin and all the elders of Israel that their fathers had hated Joseph simply because Jacob favored Joseph above all His brothers, and they all hated him “with envy”:

Act 7:9  And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
Act 7:10  And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

We ended our last study taking note that the Lord increases our numbers while we are in Egypt without increasing our joy. Instead, He causes the Egyptians, signifying the people of this world, to persecute His chosen people causing them to “groan [under their] affliction” (vs 34). This is the final verses of our last study:

Act 7:17  But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18  Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19  The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
Act 7:20  In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:

Act 7:21  And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

Down through the generations of mankind, the seed of the serpent has always attempted to destroy the seed of the woman. However, all the serpent is permitted to do is to ‘bruise the heel of the seed of the woman.’ Cain slew his brother, Abel, and the Lord replaced Abel with Seth. Ishmael mocked Isaac, but the Lord favored Isaac and had Ishmael cast out of Abraham’s house. Esau threatened to kill Jacob, but the Lord kept Jacob safe while judging him in Haran while Jacob worked for his uncle Laban. Then the Lord brought Jacob safely back into Canaan. King Saul attempted to kill David, but the Lord gave David favor in the eyes of King Saul’s own son, Jonathan.

In this case to which Stephen alludes concerning Moses, the Lord had Pharaoh’s own daughter take in and nourish the very person He would use to bring Israel up out of Egypt. The Lord is still able and still does use those in the world to preserve us for His own purpose and His own service.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The adversary does exactly what he is sent to accomplish which is to “bruise His heel”, the heel of “the seed of the woman”.

Nevertheless, the adversary is not permitted to keep the Lord’s work from going forward. The Lord even uses His enemies to unwittingly further His purpose. In this event it was Pharaoh’s own daughter whom He used to nourish and bring up the very man who would be used to “destroy Egypt”:

Exo 10:7  And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?

Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

The Lord “makes… all things” work out “after the counsel of His own will”:

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Stephen continues his discourse:

Act 7:22  And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Act 7:23  And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

Typifying the time which we all must spend in Babylon the great, Moses had to be in Egypt before he could come out of Egypt. He lived to be one hundred and twenty years old, and the first forty of those years was as a member of the very family of Pharaoh. ‘Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds’ tells us that we are all first ‘Egyptians’ with our whole heart and soul in this world.

We are not told just how he was made aware of the events surrounding his birth, but it is apparent that the daughter of Pharaoh, or his sister Miriam who served Pharaoh’s daughter, informed him that he was the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Signifying how we all begin our service to the Lord with an overzealous enthusiasm which invariably makes us “hated of all men”, Moses thought of himself as the savior of his people in his own power.

Act 7:24  And seeing one of them [a fellow Israelite] suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
Act 7:25  For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

This is a perfect example of how we all run out and tell all our families and friends and church members how wonderful it is to discover that the whole established Christian religion is wrong about eternal torment and that the Truth is that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive… but they understand not.”

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

We realize the Lord has given us a great revelation, and we think our families and friends will be so happy that they will see us as a messenger of God. Instead, they react just as this fellow Israelite reacted, and they adamantly refuse us and our newly discovered knowledge of the mind of Christ as their savior, which is exactly what we will be at the appointed time:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Act 7:26  And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
Act 7:27  But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
Act 7:28  Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
Act 7:29  Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.

Moses came out of Egypt long before the congregation of Israel did. He spent his own forty years in the wilderness of Midian keeping the flocks of his father-in-law before he became a ‘savior’ to Israel. He even married a Gentile wife who detested the idea of circumcision while he was there in Midian:

Exo 2:15  Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
Exo 2:16  Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
Exo 2:17  And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
Exo 2:18  And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?
Exo 2:19  And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
Exo 2:20  And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.
Exo 2:21  And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
Exo 2:22  And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

Exo 4:25  Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
Exo 4:26  So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

The only thing more despised than physical circumcision in this world is spiritual circumcision:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Moses was “a stranger and a pilgrim… in a strange land” just as Israel had been in the land of Egypt, and as their father Abraham had been in Canaan before them:

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

If we are true to the Lord, then we, too, are strangers and pilgrims in this world:

1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

Christ has placed us in this world to salt it and to be a light in this present dark and evil world. The Lord wants us to be a witness to this evil generation for Him. He does not want us to come out of this world in the sense of physically living apart from this world. What the Lord wants us to do is to follow in His steps and be witnesses of Him and His Father, while living in and associating with this world, just as He did:

Mat 5:13  Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Joh 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Moses being the first to come out of Egypt and then being sent to bring the rest of his people out of Egypt, signifies how we are “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” being the first to come out of this world and eventually become the saviors of the world.

Again, I must quote:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Act 7:30  And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

‘When forty years were expired’ signifies the time we all spend in the wilderness of “mount Sinai [which] answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Act 7:31  When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
Act 7:32  Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
Act 7:33  Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.

Mount Sinai is in Arabia, it is not in the so-called ‘Holy Land’. The only thing that makes any part of this ‘earth’, this ‘land’, holy is the presence of the Lord, and Jesus Christ is not ‘present’ in any of the governments of any of the nations of this world, including the physical nation of modern Israel.

Act 7:34  I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Act 7:35  This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

The calling of Moses, the very man His own people had refused, signifies our own calling to become rulers and deliverers of this world and then, if we are given to remain faithful until the end of our physical life, we, too, will be used by God to show His mercy to and to deliver our fellow man from the curse of death:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Act 7:36  He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

The Lord had shown Moses signs and wonders at the burning bush after forty years in the wilderness of Midian. It was done to convince Moses that he was talking with “the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (vs 32). All Israel witnessed the ten plagues which the Lord poured out on the Egyptians, culminating in the deaths of the firstborn both of Egypt’s people and of their cattle:

Exo 12:29  And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
Exo 12:30  And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
Exo 12:31  And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said.
Exo 12:32  Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also.
Exo 12:33  And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.

Act 7:37  This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

This verse is a direct reference to Christ, and the Sanhedrin knows that is Stephen’s point.  Stephen goes beyond that and indicts his accusers for rejecting Christ, just as their Fathers had rejected Moses:

Act 7:38  This is he [Moses], that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel [Christ] which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Act 7:39  To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Act 7:40  Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

This verse demonstrates that we come out of Egypt while Egypt is still within us. Here are some New Testament realities of what these verses signify and foreshadow:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2  This only would I learn of you Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Stephen is showing his accusers, who are types of us, that it is in their (our) nature to hate the Lord and His ways.

Physical Israel rejected Moses and told him that his coming into Egypt to deliver them had only made things worse for them:

Exo 5:19  And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task.
Exo 5:20  And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:
Exo 5:21  And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.

Moses himself had his faith tried:

Exo 5:22  And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me?
Exo 5:23  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.

God’s timing is seldom ever our timing.

When Israel arrived at mount Sinai, they had already seen many wonders and miracles. They had witnessed all the ten plagues upon Egypt, including the death of all the first born. Beginning at the side of the Red Sea the Lord revealed Himself in a cloud that shadowed them from the heat by day and a pillar of fire by night. Then the Lord blew a dry path through the Red Sea. They saw the Egyptian army destroyed in the sea (Exo 14:21-31). Three days later they saw the bitter waters of Marah made sweet (Exo 15:22-25).

Just a few days after the miracle of making the bitter waters sweet, the children of Israel accused Moses of bringing them out into the wilderness to die of starvation:

Exo 16:1  And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

The fifteenth day of the second month is one month after leaving Egypt on the Passover, which was on the fourteenth day of the first month (Exo 12:6).

Exo 16:2  And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
Exo 16:3  And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

This is just one month after coming out of Egypt and just two weeks before coming to Mount Sinai in the third month:

Exo 19:1  In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
Exo 19:2  For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

“The same day” means the first day of “the third month”. They get there just in time for the first “feast of weeks”, also known as the feast of Pentecost, the date on which the New Testament was born.

The law was given to Moses at the first “feast of weeks” in the Old Testament, and the holy spirit was given on the “feast of weeks” in the New Testament.

While on their way to Sinai, “all the congregation”, with the Cloud over them by day and a pillar of fire by night, are accusing Moses of bringing them “into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” So, the Lord rains manna from heaven in the morning and sends quail for meat in the evening (Exodus 16:4,13-18). As they continue their journey toward mount Sinai, they camp again in a place  called Rephidim. Once again “there was no water for the people to drink”, and the people of Israel again accuse Moses of bringing them out in the wilderness to kill them with thirst:

Exo 17:1  And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
Exo 17:2  Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?
Exo 17:3  And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
Exo 17:4  And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
Exo 17:5  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
Exo 17:6  Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

As a type of our own old man, the congregation of Israel were never willing to endure hardship and depend upon the Lord. They apparently saw no need to be tried or tested to show them how faithless they were, and to show us how faithless we are. The instant they became hungry or began to thirst, they immediately began to accuse the Lord of trying to destroy them.

It is while Israel is camped here at Rephidim, before they even get to Mount Sinai, that they are attacked by Amelek.

Exo 17:8  Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

This ‘Amalek’ is the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau:

1Ch 1:35  The sons of Esau; Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah.
1Ch 1:36  The sons of Eliphaz; Teman, and Omar, Zephi, and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and Amalek.

Genesis tells us that ‘Timna’ was a concubine of Esau’s oldest son Eliphaz, “and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek”:

Gen 36:12  And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife.

Deuteronomy adds more details to this attack by Amalek, and it tells us of the Lord’s relationship with Amalek:

Deu 25:17  Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt;
Deu 25:18  How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.
Deu 25:19  Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.

All the following verses concerning Esau align and accord with what the Lord says about Esau’s fate here in Exodus and in Deuteronomy:

Jer 49:8  Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.

Jer 49:10  But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.

Oba 1:8  Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
Oba 1:9  And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

Oba 1:18  And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Mal 1:3  And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Their victory over Amalek is the last miracle Israel experienced before coming to Mount Sinai. When Moses held up “the rod of God in [his] hand” Israel prevailed but “when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed” (Exo 17:11). So, Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands until “Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people”:

Exo 17:13  And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Exo 17:14  And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
Exo 17:15  And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:
Exo 17:16  For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Amalek is the seed of Esau, and Esau is the rejected twin brother of Jacob, signifying those who are the rejected seed of Abraham. Ishmael is also the rejected seed of Abraham, but Esau is closer even than Ishmael to those who are the Lord’s elect. It is apostate Christianity with whom “the Lord will have war from generation to generation”, and that is the spiritual significance of ‘Amalek’.

Stephen’s point as we will see is that physical Israel and apostate Christianity are the anti-type of Amalek. At virtually every trial physical Israel encountered while in the wilderness, even with the Lord being with them in the form of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, “the whole congregation” revealed they had no faith in Moses or in the Lord who was there in the cloud and in the pillar of fire.

That is the point Stephen is making, and it all points to our own flesh and our own old man who will not give up his throne in our hearts without a mighty battle which he is doomed to lose.

Next week we will see that while Stephen never once called for the destruction of the temple, and he never once said that Christ ever called for the destruction of the temple, Stephen does point out what the prophets have said:

Isa 66:1  Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Solomon himself admitted:

1Ki 8:27  But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?

Nothing has changed in the past two thousand years. Quoting the scriptures to make a scriptural point did not go over well with the established religious leaders of Stephen’s day any more than it does today, as we will learn in our next study.

Acts 7:1-20  The Patriarchs Moved with Envy Sold Joseph into Egypt

[Study Aired January 22, 2023]

Act 7:1  Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
Act 7:2  And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
Act 7:3  And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Act 7:4  Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
Act 7:5  And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
Act 7:6  And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
Act 7:7  And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
Act 7:8  And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9  And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
Act 7:10  And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Act 7:11  Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12  But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
Act 7:13  And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14  Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15  So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
Act 7:16  And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
Act 7:17  But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18  Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19  The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
Act 7:20  In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:

Our last study ended with Stephen being dragged before the Sanhedrin on the same trumped-up charges the Sanhedrin used to condemn the Lord. Stephen ends up being the first person to literally lay down His life in defense of the gospel of Christ. Stephen was so persuasive that his opponents had to falsely accuse him of saying that Christ said He would destroy the temple:

Mat 26:59  Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;
Mat 26:60  But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,
Mat 26:61  And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.

Of course, there was not one word of Truth in that accusation. Here is what Christ had really said:

Joh 2:18  Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? [Christ had just cleansed the temple]
Joh 2:19  Jesus answered and said unto them, [You] Destroy this temple [speaking of His own body], and in three days I will raise it up.

How objective was the Sanhedrin when they heard this ludicrous accusation against Christ? This was the response of the high priest:

Mat 26:62  And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?

Stephen’s false accusers had very little choice but to run with the same exact lie and same exact false accusation:

Act 6:12  And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
Act 6:13  And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Act 6:14  For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Act 6:15  And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

Of course, it was all a lie. Christ had said no such thing, and Stephen certainly had said no such thing. His life was centered around that physical temple because he had not yet been shown that the reformation of Christ would indeed eventually make the physical temple obsolete and unnecessary. It took the destruction of the temple to make that point clear for many Jewish Christians.

Nevertheless, the same High priest, Caiaphas, asked Stephen the exact same question He had asked Christ.

Act 7:1  Then said the high priest, Are these things so?

The high priest knew this accusation against Christ was not true when they suborned the two false witnesses. He therefore knew that Stephen was not putting these same false words into Christ’s mouth.

It was a fabricated lie then, when they pinned it on Christ, and it is simply being repeated by the false witnesses who are testifying that Stephen is teaching that Christ had said that He would destroy the temple. Here is how that false accusation played out with Christ:

Mat 26:59  Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;
Mat 26:60  But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,
Mat 26:61  And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
Mat 26:62  And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
Mat 26:63  But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.
Mat 26:64  Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Mat 26:65  Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.
Mat 26:66  What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.
Mat 26:67  Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands,
Mat 26:68  Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?

When we read these words we just naturally think, “Wow, I certainly would not want to be those guys who spit in Jesus’ face and who smote Him with the palms of their hands and said Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who smote thee!” However, according to Christ, that is exactly what we ourselves do to the Lord every time we mistreat our brother in any way:

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

We are Christ’s spiritual body whether we fully realize that or not. If we as a ‘good Samaritan’ are granted to treat our “least… brother”, a total stranger, with love and sincere concern we are doing that to Christ. If we ‘pass by on the other side’ (Luk 10:31) and fail to minister to the needs of “the least of these [our] brothers”, we have failed to do so to Christ Himself. It is Christ Himself who informs us that if we follow in His steps we are “Jesus of Nazareth”, and when we mistreat our brother, we are persecuting Christ Himself:

Act 22:8  And I [Saul of Tarsus… signifying our own old man] answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

If Christ is within us, we will have the same reaction to our persecution the apostles had when they were beaten with “forty stripes save one” and ordered not to speak at all in the name of Christ:

Act 5:40  And to him [Gamaliel] they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Act 5:41  And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

Christ refused to answer His false accusers simply because His time to be offered up had come, and He would never work against what His Father’s hand and what His Father’s foreknowledge had determined before to be done as we learned earlier in this same book:

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

Christ’s witness against His accusers was the life He lived among His accusers. It was a life of healing the blind and the lame and the sick of the very people who were now calling for His crucifixion. Christ was condemned by a kangaroo court in which He was already condemned before He was even apprehended. When the apostles were arrested shortly before Stephen was apprehended, they had told the Sanhedrin and the elders of the Jews that they had crucified the innocent Son of God. It was only on the advice of Gamaliel and because of the undeniable miracles surrounding their arrest, they were simply beaten in hopes that would deter them from continuing to accuse the Sanhedrin and the elders of Israel of murdering their own Messiah.

This discourse by Stephen will demonstrate to the leaders of the Lord’s own people that they have a long history of rejecting and killing the Lord’s prophets out of nothing more than envy.

Stephen, just like the Lord, had done nothing but heal the sick among the people and ‘serve tables’. Yet he is now the first person who will suffer the same fate His Lord suffered, and it proved the accuracy of the Lord’s own words:

Mat 10:16  Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Mat 10:18  And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

Mat 10:24  The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
Mat 10:25  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Joh 16:1  These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
Joh 16:2  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Joh 16:3  And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

How true those words are! Especially since Stephen is granted the opportunity to show us all how our entire history, the life of every man, is a life of rebellion against the Lord and His Christ. Even the Lord’s Christ is rebellious before being processed through fiery judgments to become pliable in His hands. Rebellion against the Lord and His prophets is the essence of Israel’s [and our] history which Stephen recounts to the people who He considers to be the Lord’s chosen people. Remember, the gospel has never yet gone to the Gentiles, and Stephen considers physical Israel, the people before whom he is making his defense to be the Lord’s saints and His chosen nation.

With absolutely no time to prepare a defense, the holy spirit inspired Stephen to show the church council of his day exactly how much like their envious and rebellious fathers they are.

Act 7:2  And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
Act 7:3  And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Act 7:4  Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father [signifying the dying of our old man] was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

Stephen is telling the Sanhedrin and us that we all must come out of Babylon, which is what ‘Ur of the Chaldeans’ symbolizes. The Sanhedrin, just like the religious leaders of our day, think they have already come out of Ur and out of Egypt. They certainly do not see themselves as that “great city where also our Lord was crucified”:

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified [The religious system of His day].

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Here we have revealed to us who the great whore of Revelation 17 and 18 is. It is not physical “Judah and Jerusalem” alone, rather it is the religious systems of the whole world through whose offences Christ was offered up and through whose justification He was raised up:

Rom 4:25  Who was delivered [to be crucified] for [G1223, ‘dia’, through] our offences, and was raised again for [G1223: ‘dia’, through] our justification.

Act 7:5  And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
Act 7:6  And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.

The churches of our day are as spiritually deaf and as spiritually blind as the Sanhedrin in the days of Christ and Stephen, and to them Stephen was giving them nothing more than a summary of Israel’s history. However, to those who have been given to ‘compare spiritual [types and shadows] with spiritual [realities]’ Abraham’s calling out of Ur of the Chaldeans signifies our being called out of spiritual Babylon, “the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8).

Typifying each of us, Abraham did not immediately obey the Lord’s commandment to leave his father’s house and the country in which he lived. The fact is that we are told that it was Abraham’s father, signifying his own flesh, that took him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan:

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Instead of leaving his father’s house, it was “[his] father’s house” which took him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to go into Canaan:

Gen 11:31  And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Gen 11:32  And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

“Terah died in Haran” tells us that we do not begin to enter into our own calling until after our old man begins to die, while still in the land of the Chaldeans, while still in Babylon. When our old man dies, then we immediately begin to come out of Babylon and into the land of promise:

Gen 12:5  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Like Abraham, as Stephen pointed out, we are not given a possession in this present world, but as the spiritual seed of Abraham we, too, are promised “the [whole] world [G2889: kosmos]”:

Rom 4:13  For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

This promise of ruling all the nations of the whole world is one of the “many things” to which Christ referred when He told His apostles:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

According to the letter of the promise, Abraham was only to inherit from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates River:

Gen 15:18  In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Gen 15:19  The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
Gen 15:20  And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
Gen 15:21  And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Looking at the letter of those words you do not see the words “the world”. All you see is a very small country stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers. Nevertheless, all flesh, the flesh of “the world,” is signified by listing ten nations in those verses.

The number ‘ten’ signifies the bankruptcy of the flesh of all men in its negative connotation:

 The Number Ten

The number four signifies the whole of whatever is under consideration:

The Number Four

The four hundred years of servitude in Egypt (4x10x10) signify the whole of our spiritual indebtedness because of the sins of our flesh:

Mat 18:23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
Mat 18:24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

It is only after the Lord begins to drag us out of this world that He also begins to give us the dominion over our flesh which we never had before:

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
1Pe 2:12  Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Act 7:7  And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.

We will miss the fact that Stephen thought he was witnessing to the Lord’s chosen people if we do not realize and remember that at this time the apostles were all still living with the doctrine that one must be physically circumcised and become a part of the physical nation of Israel to be saved. That doctrine prevailed all the way up to Acts 15:

Act 15:1  And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
Act 15:2  When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

By the time this conference took place in Jerusalem, Peter had already been sent to the house of the Gentile Roman centurion, Cornelius, and had been told that he was not to call any man common or unclean (Act 10:15). To the apostles who heard what the Lord told Peter, that was still not a commandment for the Jews to forsake the law of Moses, and they continued to be circumcised and to offer blood offerings at the temple.

Therefore, even after this Jerusalem conference, the conclusion was that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised or offer offerings in the temple, but the Jewish Christians were still expected to do so:

Act 15:23  And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The [Jewish] apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
Act 15:24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
Act 15:25  It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
Act 15:26  Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Act 15:27  We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
Act 15:28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
Act 15:29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Acts 15 is years in the future at this point, and even after it was agreed at this conference that the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised or keep the law of Moses, it was also agreed that the Jews must continue to do so:

Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Act 21:25  As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.
Act 21:26  Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

This trial of Stephen was very soon after the death and resurrection of Christ. It was under the same high priest, Caiaphas (Act 4:6). It was long before Peter went into the house of the Gentile Roman centurion, Cornelius, where Peter admitted to Cornelius that it was ‘unlawful’ for a circumcised man to go into the house of a Gentile:

Act 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Stephen’s trial was long before there was yet any hint to the apostles that the gospel would ever be preached to the Gentiles. The point being that at this time the physical nation of Israel was still considered by Stephen and the apostles to be the chosen people of God, and Stephen is witnessing to his own people just as Christ had done before him:

Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Joh 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Stephen was circumcised, and still believed it was essential for salvation:

Act 15:1  And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

Stephen is identifying with ‘his own’ nation while making his defense and showing them their own “envy” and rebellion against their own Messiah:

Act 7:8  And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9  And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
Act 7:10  And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

Stephen simply could not possibly have seen the spiritual significance of Joseph saving the Egyptians from starvation before he, through the Egyptians, saved his brothers from starvation, just as the Lord will use His elect to save apostate physical Israel and apostate Christians who claim to be spiritual Israel:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Stephen obviously saw the “envy” which motivated Joseph’s brothers to sell him into Egypt. Stephen knew the high priest and the Pharisees had delivered the Lord up to be crucified out of envy:

Mat 27:17  Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?
Mat 27:18  For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

Mar 15:9  But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
Mar 15:10  For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.
Mar 15:11  But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.

Those with whom God works are always envied and persecuted by those who envy their relationship with God. Joseph’s brothers envied his close relationship with their father Jacob. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses out of envy over the close relationship Moses had with the Lord:

Num 12:1  And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Num 12:2  And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.
Num 12:3  (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

The Lord chastened Miriam and Aaron by making Miriam leprous for a week. She was healed only after Moses prayed for her.

Just a few weeks afterward, Korah and Dathan and Abiram, a man named ‘On’ and two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, famous men of renown, all envied Moses’ and Aaron’s close relationship with God and falsely accused them of ‘lifting [themselves] up above the congregation’:

Num 16:1  Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
Num 16:2  And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
Num 16:3  And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?

This was a work of the Lord to demonstrate who those were whom He approved as Moses told Korah and his company of envious rebels:

Num 16:4  And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face:
Num 16:5  And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.

Paul had read these words and knew the purpose for heresies and schisms within the body of Christ:

1Co 11:18  For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
1Co 11:19  For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

While the Lord’s emphasis is on “they which are approved [being] made manifest” that manifestation also reveals those who are heretics.

Stephen continues to witness against the envy of those who are falsely accusing him:

Act 7:11  Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12  But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.

In this story, Jacob signifies our old man who must begin to die before we can embrace the Lord’s promised salvation.

Gen 50:15  And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
Gen 50:16  And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17  So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Gen 50:18  And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
Gen 50:19  And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Gen 50:21  Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

Joseph had told them when he first revealed himself to them seventeen years earlier that He had already forgiven them and he would nourish them, but they were not given faith in his words:

Gen 45:10  And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:
Gen 45:11  And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.

Jacob did not believe that he and Rachel or Joseph’s brothers would ever bow down to Joseph any more than his other sons believed that they would bow down to him:

Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Gen 37:11  And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

Act 7:13  And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14  Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15  So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,

While we are in this world, signified by Egypt, we are all as spiritually dead as Jacob and his sons who all died in Egypt. In that spiritual state, we live outwardly, but we are dead spiritually.

Luk 9:59  And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Luk 9:60  Jesus said unto him, Let the [spiritually] dead bury their [physically] dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

1Ti 5:6  But she that liveth in pleasure is [spiritually] dead while she liveth.

Act 7:16  And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.

We are told the Lord did not give Abraham an inheritance in Canaan, and we are told that he was a stranger and a pilgrim in the land he was promised as an inheritance:

Act 7:5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

At the same time, we are told that Abraham did own a place to bury his dead there in Canaan where he was a stranger and a pilgrim. That is all we have in this world, a place for our old man to die and be buried.

Act 7:17  But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18  Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19  The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
Act 7:20  In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:

We are all being born into the kingdom of God at a time of great growth in our unchosen family which is still in Egypt. When the time arrives to ‘come out of her’, then the Lord begins to send trials into our lives, and we are caused to cry out to him to deliver us from Egypt.

It is important we understand that it is while we are still in Egypt, still serving the gods of Egypt, that the Lord begins His work of deliverance in our lives. His choice of calling us is entirely of Himself and has nothing to do with us or our falsely labeled ‘free will’. Being brought out of Egypt is just an earlier stage and a less mature type of coming out of Babylon. It is also while we are in Babylon that the Lord comes to us and begins His work of salvation within us:

Mic 4:10  Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

The Lord’s people “come out of [Babylon]”, but it is only while we are there in Babylon that He begins the process of delivering us out of her power over us:

Our deliverance out of Babylon is the seventh and last of the seven plagues which we must begin to fulfill before we will be given to begin to enter the temple of God in heaven:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Rev 16:17  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19  And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20  And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

A “great earthquake [and] a great hail” are both an integral part of the destruction of “great Babylon”, the pillar and ground of all the false doctrines of this world. This is what that ‘great earthquake and great hail’ accomplish:

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

We ‘grow and multiply’ in false doctrines while we are in Egypt and while we are in Babylon:

Jer 29:4  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
Jer 29:5  Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
Jer 29:6  Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
Jer 29:7  And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

We are not commanded to pray for Babylon or this world to be saved at this time, but we are to pray that we can live in peace while we are in this world:

1Ti 2:1  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2  For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. [Not that the Lord will save the world in this present time]

Joh 17:9  I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.