Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin charged with blasphemy, via a rejection of Moses and the Temple. It must be understood in this context the "traditions of the elders," as a massive layer of Hellenized interpretation of Mosaic Law, later called the Talmud, had been given precedence over the written Torah. It was alleged to be the oral teaching of Moses handed down via some chain of teachers. Jesus pointedly called the Talmud a perversion of Moses, which served to excuse violating what Moses actually wrote. Jesus had also said the Temple was just a building, and the true residence of God was the hearts of those who loved Him. In a manner of speaking, Stephen was guilty as charged for teaching what Jesus had taught.
Caiaphas gave the accused an opportunity to answer, to deny the charges and defend himself. There is plenty of reason to believe there is long precedent for his speech. What he did was recite a selection of well known events to provide a context for his defense, an argument he committed no crime. His primary point was the promises of God did not reside in the land, nor the Temple, nor the people. It always resided in the Person of God, who as Creator, could never be confined to any portion of His creation. Nor could His promise reside in the people of Israel, who steadfastly rejected Him and His promise every step of the way. Saying the Temple did not matter was manifestly obvious, and calling for a change from the bogus human traditions was not a departure from Moses, whom the nation hardly obeyed in the first place.
He begins with Abraham, who lived in Mesopotamia, far away from Jerusalem. Did the location prevent Abraham hearing from God? Not at all. He left Ur and moved north to Haran. He stayed awhile until his father passed on, and he could settle his household obligations by passing the headship to his younger brother. Abraham had no trouble surrendering all his property and privileges for something unknown promised by God. With that business settled, Abraham moved on to Canaan. He was promised the land for an inheritance to his descendants, but gained no possession. Did that hinder God's promises? No; in fact, they still had another four hundred years in Egypt to experience. More, they would be slaves there. Did that hinder the Covenant? No, Abraham was circumcised because he was already pure in heart.
So it passed down to Jacob, the father of the Twelve Patriarchs. They were not nice men. Among other things, they sold their own brother into slavery in Egypt. The Nation of Israel arose from such as these men. But God did not fail His promise, and made Joseph the Viceroy of Egypt. Further, God used a famine to drive the 70-plus members of Jacob's household into Egypt. Things were quite nice for awhile, but this was Egypt, not the Promised Land. So while the bones of the Patriarchs went back to Palestine to keep the promise fresh, it took quite some years of suffering to make Israel leave Egypt.
God kept His promise and raised up a man to deliver Israel when the time came. While everyone else was forced to offer their babies to the Nile gods, Moses was spared. The cost of that was to make him, in effect, an Egyptian royal. And while Moses was quite willing to help his nation leave Egypt, they would rather stay in their misery than follow him anywhere. So when Moses knew he could be charged with a crime, he fled. The point here is the nation was not ready for deliverance, would not accept deliverance, so God let them rot a little longer.
How did God manifest Himself to Moses? The Burning Bush -- a silly piece of vegetation far from the Promised Land, in some scrub desert. What made that ground holy? The presence of God's Messenger Angel, at whom Moses himself would not gaze directly. Moses was called by God because he had a pure heart, too. So the man whom his people had rejected as ruler and judge became ruler and judge. More, he was the agent of God's miraculous powers, including the Red Sea crossing, a scene of such pitiful whining. Moses himself warned Israel there would be a Messiah. Since they didn't listen to Moses too well, would they listen to the Messiah? Well, they demanded Aaron lead them back to Egypt, instead of on to the land promised Abraham on their behalf. That was nothing new, for they had managed to carry several pagan star gods the whole way to Canaan. That propensity is what got them a long vacation in Babylon.
Yet God gave them a highly visible and tangible reminder of His presence in the Tabernacle. It was a conceptual copy of God's courts in Heaven. They managed to carry that into the Conquest, and God drove out the pagan Gentiles, keeping His promises. At one point, He raised up a powerful warrior king, David, who really established Israel as just short of an imperial power in their own right. But as a warrior, his quest for a permanent Temple fell to his son, Solomon. Yet Solomon himself knew it was only symbolic, since God told him He could not be confined to any one place on earth, since He made all things.
God granted the covenant promises to Abraham, including the symbolic ritual of circumcision. God met Abraham in Ur and Haran, as well as Canaan. He cared for Israel in Egypt, in the Wilderness, and gave them the Promised Land. He gave them the deliverer they rejected, the Law they disobeyed, the Tabernacle they neglected in favor of pagan deities. He granted through David and Solomon Jerusalem and the Temple as a way to focus their attention, while crushing every enemy they had. Yet they refused to accept what God intended the Temple for, and made it a god itself. Stephen turns the table, charging the Sanhedrin with rejecting God's revelation and His obvious intent, as the culmination of a long history of fighting the God who made them. They had hounded and killed every prophet. It was no surprise they had rejected the Messiah, too, whom Moses and every prophet had promised. Who were they to rise in judgment against the very Son of God?
Naturally, this didn't set well with the Sanhedrin. If that weren't bad enough, Stephen suddenly claimed to see the same vision they rejected when Jesus said something about the Son of Man coming in clouds of glory. Here Stephen saw Him standing as the Executor of His Father's judgment in Heaven. This was literally the last chance for the Sanhedrin. Here was the Truth Himself so starkly juxtaposed against their sin, but they were nothing if not consistent in their rejection of God. So they mobbed Stephen and lynched him.
We see here such a powerful reaction the Sanhedrin themselves dirty their hands with the stones, leaving their most junior member as the one who had the official duty of witnessing the execution, a fellow named Saul. Barely taking the time to observe legal traditions, the accusing witnesses hastily dropped their cloaks at the feet of Saul and threw the first stones to knock Stephen unconscious. As he knelt, he pointedly called out to Jesus as God, then expired under a growing pile of rocks which would have crushed him to death. His final words were a plea for mercy -- God's mercy on the executioners.
Up to this point, it remained possible for the leaders, and thus the nation, to repent from centuries of rejecting God's ways and His Word. They turned that chance aside more fiercely than they did with the execution of Jesus Himself. The only mercy God granted at Stephen's request was the length of time it took for His wrath to culminate. This was around 35 AD, and it was another generation before the wrath of God through Rome's legions began to fall on the last vestige of the Old Testament nation of Israel.
Return to Acts
Index
[<-- Previous]
[Next -->]
By Ed Hurst
13 June 2008
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior -- "be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23)