I must confess that one of my favorite phrases of conviction today comes from one of several sermons which was not well-received by its audience: Stiff-necked!
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
“This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’
σκληροτράχηλος, σκληροτράχηλόν (σκληρός and τράχηλος), properly, stiff-necked;
tropically, stubborn, headstrong, obstinate:
Acts 7:51; the Sept. for עֹרֶף קְשֵׁה, Exodus 33:3, 5; Exodus 34:9; (etc.)
Stephen’s single use of ‘stiffnecked‘ peoplein the New Testament points to those who CLAIM the Old Covenant of the LAW of Moses.
Keep in mind that I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the LORD your God or seen his greatness and his strong hand and powerful arm.
Exodus 24:3b KJV – .. and all the people answered with one voice, and said, ‘All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.’.
פָּקַד pâqad, paw-kad’; a primitive root; to visit (with friendly or hostile intent)
to attend to, muster, number, reckon, visit, punish, appoint, look after, care for
“But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you; nevertheless on the day when I punishH6485, I will punishH6485 them for their sin.”
Then the LORD struck the people with a plague, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.
This is punishment: that the Lord attends to His own and that our reckoning will be by the hand of our Creator and Heavenly Father, who must punish His children who break our promises and violate our covenant.
“Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to disciplineH3256you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. – Deuteronomy 4:36
“So you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was discipliningH3256you just as a man disciplinesH3256his son. – Deuteronomy 8:5
“.. but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which He did.
“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today..
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children..
עָוֹן — ʿāôn – perversity, depravity, iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquity
‘You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, inflicting H6485 the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Beware that your hearts are not easily deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods, and worship them.
“Otherwise, the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; then you will quickly perish from the good land which the LORD is giving you.
Deuteronomy 11:17 [11:16 quoted above]
‘You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me..
Deuteronomy 5:9
Will you receive the Discipline of the LORD our Father OR Punishment for your Sins?
“Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the disciplineH4148 of the LORD your God—His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm.. but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.
Deuteronomy 11:2,7 on the discipline of the LORD. – NASB
What is your Short Take on these Scriptures about Discipline and Punishment?
Please add your COMMENT at the bottom of this post. - RH
Stephen also addressed his accusers respectfully as ‘brothers and fathers.’ (For these are rulers and judges of Jewish Law to the extent Roman rulers and governors will allow.)
“The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham,” Stephen had begun.
“And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.
ACTS 7:8
He then pointed to Israel’s founding fathers as poor judges of God’s will when it came to their own brother Joseph.
“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him,
ACTS 7:9
Stephen then chronicles the years when the Lord used Joseph in Egypt, with his brothers bringing Jacob to Egypt during a time of famine. So through Joseph, Israel (Jacob) and his other sons shared in the blessings enjoyed by Joseph, who had become a ruler and leader of the land for Pharaoh.
Then Steven reminds us that their fathers were enslaved in Egypt after Joseph was forgotten.
It had been about four hundred years, not unlike the previous four centuries Before Christ, when the word of God had not been heard in Israel until John the Baptist.
Israel is enslaved in Egypt; Judah is captive in their own promised land by Rome.
At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight.
Acts of the Apostles 7:20 CSB – from Stephen’s defense before the High Priest
22 So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.
“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his relatives, the Israelites.
And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended and took vengeance for the oppressed man by fatally striking the Egyptian.
Stephen then presents the rulers of Jerusalem with the same dilemma as Moses faced:
You MUST choose sides.
Where will the LORD lead you, as His ruler of a land which is not under Godour Father?
God leads Moses away from his ‘chosen’ people for a time.
Did YOU force the LORD’S Anointed One to flee from YOU?
Do YOU obey the LORD and will you faithfully remember your covenant of circumcision of promised redemption?
A Ruler must also choose
25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.
Of course, the Apostles had already taught that Jerusalem’s leaders had not recognized that Jesus had come to redeem Israel from their sins, not to become their ruler and King who could expel Rome from its gates.
Stephen continues from Scripture they all knew well:
.. he tried to reconcile them to peace, by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you injuring each other?’
27 But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying,
Who made you a ruler and judge over us?
ACTS 7:27B – Stephen quoting Exodus 2 account of Moses fleeing Egypt
But he said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known!” When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian…
Exodus 2:14-15a – Challenge of Hebrew slaves to Moses when he fled to Midian for forty years
After forty years
.. an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush.. the voice of the Lord called out to him,
I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.’
Stephen continues to quote Scripture from Shmot (Exodus) 3 ::
He likely quotes it Hebrew, even as all had memorized the Scripture, though Stephen would have conversed with the ruler of the Hebrews in the common Greek of the Roman Empire.
Stephen Compares these Hebrew leaders to those from whom Moses fled for forty years
Then after forty years in Midian, MOSES STEPS UPON HOLY GROUND OF THE LORD!
Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.
ACTS 7:32B CSB
STEPHEN continues in the familiar Hebrew Scripture, quoting THE LORD GOD:
.. 34 I have certainly seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them; and now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
And looking intently at one leader, the High Priest; and then a leader of the Sadducees and several leading Pharisees;
Stephen’s shining light upon Scripture pierces some in the room who recognize the rejection of Moses by the Hebrews for forty years.
Perhaps some recall how they too had rejected Jesus for three years as our Lord preached and healed in their Temple and many synagogues throughout Judea, Galilee and in many towns.
“This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.
ACTS 7:33 – Stephen’s indictment of Jerusalem’s leaders
36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
Every leader in the room recalls signs and wonders recently performed in Jerusalem, yes even at the Temple by the Apostles. They could not restrain these disciples of Jesus from preaching the Gospel, even as Peter and John had mysteriously walked out of Herod’s prison.
To be continued...
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