Acts 7:20-36 At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other? But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt. This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, Who made you ruler and judge? He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.
In defending himself before the Sanhedrin, against the false accusations presented to them, Stephen speaks blasphemous words against Moses and against God. (Acts 6:11) He alleges that the children of Israel have always been rebellious, living unto themselves and not under God’s canopy of love. In the wilderness, they opposed Moses’ leadership often, even threatening to stone him a couple of times. Many times they expressed a desire to return to Egypt, even though they were slaves there. Now because of false accusations, Stephen is on trial before the most religious men in Jerusalem. These religious elite claim Abraham as their father. However, Jesus in addressing these same religious leaders told them that their father is really the devil, not God. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.” “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. (John 8:38-40) Stephen knows these leaders live with uncircumcised hearts. They live by following rules and regulations of the law, but their hearts are far from God. Jesus characterizes these leaders' inner thoughts and desires as rotten bones, decaying within them even as they walk through the communities of Israel. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:27-28) Now these same religious hypocrites are brazenly accusing Stephen of denigrating God and his servant Moses. However, in their own lives, they lack true fidelity to the God of grace, mercy and love. If they would have lived in Moses’ time, they would have been just as unfaithful to Moses as their ancestors, not willing to follow God’s plan for their lives. These leaders' hearts were as uncircumcised as their forefathers'. Before God introduced himself to Moses, Moses was uncircumcised in the flesh. The Lord introduced himself to Moses from a burning bush and then called him to deliver the Jewish slaves from the hands of Pharaoh. After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Later, Moses experienced circumcision, not only in the flesh but also in his spirit. God would lead him not through regulations and commandments but by his own voice. Moses was imbued with power; his words would be wondrously implemented by the Lord. God placed several plagues on Egypt, causing Pharaoh to finally release the Israelites from their slavery. The Israelites fled Egypt carrying much booty from the land of their former captors. The Egyptians were glad to see them leave their land. The Israelites were glad at first for their freedom, but soon realized they were traversing a very hostile environment. This caused them to complain to Moses because he led them into such a stark environment, a place of little water and not enough food. The prospect of surviving in such a wilderness very long was not good for them. Their uncircumcised hearts still belonged to their idols; therefore, they could not envision what God had planned for them, a destination in a land of milk and honey. Now Stephen was faced with the same lack of vision in the Sanhedrin’s heart. They were blind to God’s mission of delivering them permanently from a temporary physical life to an eternal existence by the works of Jesus. They could not picture themselves in heaven without obeying all the laws and regulations laid down on Mount Sinai. They served God through rituals, commandments and regulations. However, God was revealing to them a God of mercy, grace and love through a born again man: Stephen. Stephen’s life demonstrated power, love and wisdom. His life revealed a freedom that the religious elite abhorred. They were still in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle where men service God, not in the Holy of Holies where God services men. Through Christ’s death on the cross, the curtain between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies had been torn from top to bottom. Christ, the Lord God, performed the final and complete work of pleasing the Father God by dying on the cross for all men and women. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) But because of a veil of unbelief on these men before Stephen, they could not see the truth of the new covenant that they might have an intimate relationship with God, the Holy of Holies is available to them. But as with their ancestors in the wilderness, they could not comprehend what Moses was really doing in the Tent of Meeting, nor understand his closeness to the God of all creation. So, when Moses came out of the Tent of Meeting, Moses had to put a veil over his face, for the Israelites' unbelief in knowing God in a personal way was beyond their understanding. Moses when he possessed an uncircumcised heart was warned when he approached the burning bush. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. No man can approach God with an uncircumcised heart or he will face eternal judgment.
Moses led the Israelites for 40 years. He led a people who had little vision of a promised land. They still carried their own gods in their satchels. They reluctantly followed the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When they first arrived at the promised land, they refused to go in—not only refusing, but threatening to stone Abraham, Aaron, Caleb and Joshua. Because of uncircumcised hearts, they had no vision of taking Canaan, the land of milk and honey. They had seen all kinds of miracles in the wilderness; they had seen the plagues that God had put on the Egyptians, but their hearts were still cold towards the Creator who chose them out of all the people on the earth as his own. The veil to the plan of God for their salvation was fixed on their faces. Now Stephen is addressing men who still have veils on their faces to the eternal plan of redemption. The new covenant had been introduced to them through the life of Jesus Christ. He had done more miracles and wonders than any man from the beginning of time. God verified who Jesus was through the miraculous works that Jesus performed. But most of the Sanhedrin wore the veil of avoidance to Jesus' amazing life. They really did not see or hear the Good News that Jesus introduced to them. They did not accept that Jesus was THE WAY to eternal life. For them, Jesus was but a hindrance to their position of authority in the Jewish community. Paul likened them to their ancestors in Moses’ time. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. (2 Corinthians 3:13-16) Stephen now faces the prospect of being put to death because of these people who have a veil over their hearts. They saw Stephen and all other Christians as a threat to Judaism. For them, these apostates must be killed or persuaded to recant their belief in Jesus as the Savior of all mankind. These apostates carried the aroma of death to their way of serving God. If the Jewish people grasped this new idea of Jesus being the way to God, their position of deference would be gone, and the Temple would no longer be essential in honoring God. Stephen, because of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, knew the hearts of these religious leaders who were confronting him. He understood he was an aroma of death to them. To the religious leaders he was an aroma of death, but to those who know Jesus brings life, he is a sweet aroma. The old covenant would be replaced by the new covenant of life through faith in the Son of God. This eternal Son came to the world through the womb of Mary. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7) This Good News of salvation through Christ would eventually be heard around the world, but Stephen would experience physical death at the hands of the uncircumcised in heart and mind. May we rejoice that our hearts and minds have been made holy and pure unto the Lord that we might rejoice in Christ our Savior.
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