Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: moses

The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter: a shepherd
Once upon a time there was a man named Kahyin Smith. (His friends called him Cain, a nickname long forgotten since his time near the beginning.)

Now I know that if you think back to ACT 1, SCENE 1 or most recently SCENE 2 of our story that you might think of Cain in Moses’ story. I mention this not only because we will momentarily continue with ACT !, SCENE 3, but in keeping with our LINE of thought,

I’d like to ask you a question:

IN the beginning..

Do you think that ‘Once upon a time..’ mirrors Moses’ story ‘IN THE BEGINNING’ in some way?
```
Please add your ANSWER to a COMMENT at the end of any of these SCENES.
```
Continuing with SCENE 3 of our Story:

Now Abel was a keeper of flocks..

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.

Abel, on his part also brought an offering, from the firstborn of his flock and from their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard..

Does Cahyin know that Heḇel made an offering that the LORD accepts while this brother of his worked even harder EVERY DAY as a farmer cultivating the soil full of weeds and thistles, I wondered?

I struggled to keep my eyes covered to keep out so many pictures of this world. And without me saying a single word, my Guide answered me with a question of his own.

Why would it make any difference to you if one brother’s offering is better than the other’s OR if either brother knows about the offering of the other?

Hmmm.. I had not considered that they may not have had just one place to make their offerings. Since Cain worked the farm while Able wanders the fields as a ‘keeper of sheep..’ maybe goats.. and other creatures roam the earth too.., I wondered; then I asked my Guide,

But even if they worshiped at the same stone altar, how would they know if God accepted either offering? Could both brothers see the LORD?

Look closer.. What do you see?

Two men approaching each other from a distance.

It seems to be the end of a day — twilight — and a stone altar stands at the edge of one field and also near a field — I think it’s wheat — the one coming from a partially cultivated field behind him has an armful of early, small stalks.

And he seems to have some tinder, like thistles and dry stocks, too. (It must be to start a fire.)

Do YOU see the LORD?

I hear a young lamb in the arms of the shepherd as he also approaches the altar of sacrifice.

I don’t see anyone else.

.. And do you hear His Voice?

I looked back on the scene then listened.. But now the scene had quickly progressed and both men had reached the altar.

I could hear a quick crackling of dry branches and thistles burning away in an instant.. then a low roar of burning fat as the fire brightened where the slain lamb had been laid..

And a bright smoke rose into the darkness from the sacrifice of the lamb, while the fire faded into coldness where so many thistles and an unripened harvest had been lain so hastily.

Do you hear His Voice?

YES!

The LORD’s Voice sounds in my own hearing like a Fatherly rebuke of a child who has done something he shouldn’t have.

“Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy?
“If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door;
and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Genesis 4:6-7 NASB20 – :וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה

a change of Scene..

And Cain talked with Abel his brother..
Genesis 4:8a KJV

What do you suppose Cain said? (I couldn’t hear his words.)

AND What words do you think Cain and Abel had in their conversation of our NEXT Scene?

Synopsis (so far)

I’m going to have to leave our story right here for now.

So far: I had discovered that the garden near Eden was not exactly paradise. And you must realize by now that Cain was a Gardener, and just now that his brother Abel was a Shepherd.

NEXT: We will meet a hunter. (Any guesses who?)

Don’t forget to COMMENT on Moses’ IN THE BEGINNING compared to ONCE UPON A TIME..

The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

Roger Harned, Christian Author
April 16, 2022
God will raise up for you a prophet
I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM

Stephen: ‘God will raise up a Prophet like Moses’

As he stares intently into the souls of those leaders of Jerusalem who have brought him to trial for preaching about Jesus Christ, Stephen continues to compare Jesus to Israel’s ancient fathers. He also compares these judges he faces to defiant Hebrews who rejected Moses for forty years. But what point does Stephen make about Christ when he quotes from Scripture concerning Moses saying, ‘God will raise up a Prophet from your countrymen?‘
“This Moses whom they disowned..

is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer
led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt
and in the Red Sea,
and in the wilderness for forty years.
“This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel,
‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR COUNTRYMEN.’
ACTS of the Apostles 7:37 NASB20 – Defense of Stephen to the Sanhedrin

ACTS 7: of the disciple of the Apostles, Stephen

38 Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God’s people in the wilderness, when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai. And there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us.

To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us:
Acts 7:39-40a KJV – Stephen compares Israel’s leaders to those who turned from Moses to Aaron, asking Aaron to lead them back to Egypt and their gods

“You are to be blameless before the LORD your God.

“For these nations, which you are going to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.
Deuteronomy 18:14 [& 13 above]

A Word from the Source:

Deuteronomy 18:

“Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me..

..pay attention to him, just as when you were assembled at Horev and requested Adonai your God,

‘Don’t let me hear the voice of Adonai my God any more, or let me see this great fire ever again; if I do, I will die!’
Deuteronomy 18:15-16 excerpt
Complete Jewish Bible

אֲדֹנָי

ăḏōnāy (H136)– an emphatic form of אָדוֹן (H113)

The following Scripture verses precede Stephen’s defense he quotes from Deuteronomy to leaders of the Jewish High Council of the Sanhedrin:

Powerful Pleas of the Prophet Moses
- ‘Lord H136 GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours? – Deuteronomy 3:24
  - – Mōšê, at the time when the Lord God would allow him to see the Jordan, but would not allow Moses to cross over because of his disobedience.
- “And I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘Lord H136 GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand! – Deuteronomy 9:26
- “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord H136 of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe. – Deuteronomy 10:17 *[quotes from NASB20]
Open your eyes to the full context of the scripture above from which Stephen preaches.

Powerful pleas from Deuteronomy by Stephen
- Why does Stephen use this Book of Moses for his defense?
“Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.
Deuteronomy 10:14

Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

for all the signs and wonders which the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land— and for all the mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Deuteronomy 34:10-12
- And the Lord God, who belongs to heaven and the highest heavens is the only One who can send down another Prophet like Moses to earth, a son of man,
- The Apostles and many more disciples of Jesus had witnessed the Lord Christ Jesus taken up into heaven just a few weeks prior to that first Pentecost when Peter had preached in Solomon’s Colonnade.
  - God the Father ‘will raise up another Prophet like Moses: One Redeemer Son of God greater than Moses, as One Perfect Sacrifice for sin for those who believe — Stephen stands accused before these same men who sent the Lord Jesus – the Righteous One — to hang on a Roman Cross.
  - Moses had assured that the Father of all creation and created would ‘raise up’ such a prophet and teacher — and these disciples of the Apostles of the Messiah Jesus are His witnesses.
Stephen has now preached Christ crucified and risen to Jerusalem for two years, prior to his trial.

Tabernacles and Temples

Acts 7: Stephen continues..

⁴¹At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

42 Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods!
```
Remember: Stephen is preaching this to Jewish leaders who idolize Herod's Temple, Israelites who have been dealing with this 'Jesus challenge' for five years now, even as the church grows dramatically even as Rome becomes increasingly impatient with their State of Judah.
```
Stephen now quotes Judah’s Prophet, Amos of Tekoa, a small village just 10 miles from Jerusalem eight centuries earlier.
```
“Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
You also carried Sikkuth [*] your king [*]
And Chiun, [*] your idols,
The star of your gods,
Which you made for yourselves.
Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,”
Says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.

Amos 5:25-27 NKJV - [* pagan idols including Moloch]
```
In the book of the prophets it is written,

‘People of Isra’el, it was not to me
that you offered slaughtered animals
and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness!
No, you carried the tent of Molekh
and the star of your god Reifan [Ῥαιφάν],
the idols you made so that you could worship them.
Therefore, I will send you into exile beyond Bavel [Babylon].
Acts 7:42b-43, Complete Jewish Bible

What is Stephen’s point in quoting Amos to the Sanhedrin?
(Amos 5:1 introduces Stephen’s lament to his Jewish judges:)

Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:

Moloch, god of Canaan
5:24 וְיִגַּל כַּמַּיִם מִשְׁפָּט וּצְדָקָה כְּנַחַל אֵיתָֽן׃

“But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24

The trial and defense of Stephen before Jerusalem’s leaders of the Sanhedrin —–

To be continued…
January 14, 2022
Stephen: Brothers, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
Simon Peter had already preached in the Temple what Stephen would say once again about Moses.

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers also did…
“Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR COUNTRYMEN; TO HIM YOU SHALL LISTEN regarding everything He says to you.
ACTS of the Apostles 3:17,22 NASB20 – The Apostle Simon Peter, addressing the Jews in the Temple.

Stephen’s defense so far:

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

ACTS of Stephen continued

Moses, Ruler of God’s Law

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 God our 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

Shmot (Exodus) 2

2:13 וַיֵּצֵא בַּיּוֹם הַשֵּׁנִי וְהִנֵּה שְׁנֵֽי־אֲנָשִׁים עִבְרִים נִצִּים וַיֹּאמֶר לָֽרָשָׁע לָמָּה תַכֶּה רֵעֶֽךָ׃

2:14 וַיֹּאמֶר מִי שָֽׂמְךָ לְאִישׁ שַׂר וְשֹׁפֵט עָלֵינוּ הַלְהָרְגֵנִי אַתָּה אֹמֵר כַּאֲשֶׁר הָרַגְתָּ אֶת־הַמִּצְרִי וַיִּירָא מֹשֶׁה וַיֹּאמַר אָכֵן נוֹדַע הַדָּבָֽר׃

2:15 וַיִּשְׁמַע פַּרְעֹה אֶת־הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וַיְבַקֵּשׁ לַהֲרֹג אֶת־מֹשֶׁה וַיִּבְרַח מֹשֶׁה מִפְּנֵי פַרְעֹה וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּאֶֽרֶץ־מִדְיָן וַיֵּשֶׁב עַֽל־הַבְּאֵֽר׃

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.’
ACTS 7:32A NASB- Stephen quoting Exodus 3:
```
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...
```
January 8, 2022