Acts 7:1 - Meaning and Application

Stephen is now standing before the great council of the nation, accused of blasphemy. We already heard the witnesses’ charges in the previous chapter, that he had spoken blasphemous words against Moses and God, and had spoken against this holy place and the law. Now the high priest calls on him to answer for himself, Acts 7:1.

The high priest was the presiding officer and, as such, spoke for the court. He says, in effect, “Prisoner, you have heard what is sworn against you. What do you say? Is it true? Did you speak words like these? If you did, will you take them back, or will you stand by them?” This seemed fair on the surface, yet it also carried a tone of pride. He had already made up his mind that, if Stephen had said these things, he must be condemned as a blasphemer, no matter what explanation he gave.

Stephen then begins his defense, and it is a long one. It seems clear, though, that he would have gone farther if his enemies had let him speak all he wanted, and he breaks off suddenly just when he reaches the main point, Acts 7:50. In this speech, he shows himself ready in the Scriptures and greatly skilled in using them. He can repeat Bible history, and especially the parts that fit his purpose, without needing to look anything up.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit did not mainly mean that Stephen was given new revelations or secret knowledge about God’s plans for the Jewish nation. Rather, the Spirit brought to his mind the Old Testament Scriptures and taught him how to use them against his accusers. Those who are full of the Holy Spirit will also be full of Scripture, as Stephen was.

He quotes the Scriptures from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. This shows that he was likely one of the Hellenist Jews, Jews who used that version in their synagogues. That explains the differences between his quotations and the Hebrew text. The court did not correct him for this, because they understood how he was speaking, and the differences did not change the meaning. Small legal points are not the same as real justice.

These verses carry his summary of Israel’s history all the way to the end of Genesis. First, notice his opening words: “Men, brethren, and fathers, listen.” He does not flatter them, but he does speak to them with respect. He is asking to be treated with fairness. From men he expects ordinary kindness, and from brethren and fathers he hopes for brotherly and fatherly treatment.

They were ready to think of him as someone who had abandoned the Jewish church and turned against them. But he addresses them as men, brethren, and fathers so that they may see he still counts himself one of them, even if they refuse to do the same. He asks them to listen carefully. Even though what he is about to say is known history, they still need to hear it with attention, because they have not learned how to apply it to the present case.

His speech is not a digression meant only to entertain them with an old story. Every part of it serves his purpose. He means to show that God never cared as much about that holy place and the law as they did. God had a church in the world long before that holy place was built or the ceremonial law was given, and he would still have a church when both of those had passed away.

Stephen begins with Abraham’s call out of Ur of the Chaldeans, where God set him apart to receive the promise and become the father of the Old Testament church, Genesis 12:1 and following, also Nehemiah 9:7-8. Abraham’s native land was an idolatrous land, Mesopotamia, Acts 7:2, the land of the Chaldeans, Acts 7:4. From there God led him in stages, not all at once, dealing gently with him. First he brought him from the land of the Chaldeans to Haran, a place between that land and Canaan, Genesis 11:31. Then, five years later, after his father died, God brought him into the land of Canaan, where Stephen’s hearers now lived.

It seems that when God first spoke to Abraham, he appeared with some visible display of his glory, as the God of glory, Acts 7:2. This established their relationship. After that, God kept speaking to Abraham as needed, without always repeating the visible appearance.

From Abraham’s call, we can learn that we must acknowledge God in all our ways and follow his leading, as Israel followed the pillar of cloud and fire. It is not said that Abraham moved on his own, but that God moved him into this land where they now lived, and Abraham simply followed his Leader. Those whom God brings into covenant with himself are set apart from the children of this world. They are called out of their country and their former life. They must hold the world loosely, live above it, and trust God to make up to them in a better country, the heavenly one, which he will show them.

Now Stephen applies this to his own case. They had accused him of blaspheming God and turning away from the church. So he shows that he is a son of Abraham and is proud to say, “our father Abraham.” He also shows that he worships the God of Abraham, whom he rightly calls the God of glory. He does not deny divine revelation, especially the revelation by which the Jewish church was first founded and formed.

They were proud of circumcision, so Stephen shows that Abraham came under God’s guidance and into fellowship with him before he was circumcised, which did not happen until Acts 7:8. Paul uses the same point to prove that Abraham was counted righteous by faith, since he was justified, meaning declared right with God, while still uncircumcised. Stephen’s point is the same.

They were also deeply proud of this holy place, which may mean the whole land of Canaan, since it was called the holy land, Immanuel’s land. If the holy house was destroyed, that also meant trouble for the holy land. Stephen’s answer is that they need not boast so much about it. They came originally from Ur of the Chaldeans, where their fathers served other gods, Joshua 24:2, and they were not the first people to settle this country.

Stephen reminds them that God said, “Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were dug” (Isaiah 51:1-2). In other words, they should remember Abraham, their father, whom God called alone. They should think about how humble their beginnings were, and how completely they owed everything to God’s grace. That would leave no room for pride.

God raised up Abraham from the east and brought him near to himself (Isaiah 41:2). If Abraham’s descendants turned away from God, then they should understand that God could destroy even this holy place and raise up another people for himself. He is not indebted to them. God first showed his glory to Abraham far away in Mesopotamia, before he came near Canaan, and even before he settled in Haran. So they should not think God’s visits are limited to this land. The God who brought the church’s seed from so far east can, if he chooses, carry its fruit just as far west.

God also did not rush Abraham into this land, but let him wait for years along the way. That shows that God did not set his heart on this land the way they did. His honor is not tied to it, and the happiness of his people is not tied to it either. So it was neither blasphemy nor treason to say that it would be destroyed.

Abraham and his descendants remained unsettled for many years after God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. God did promise to give the land to Abraham and his offspring as a possession (Acts 7:5). Yet Abraham had no child for many years, and no child by Sarah for a long time after that. He himself was only a stranger and traveler in that land, and God gave him no inheritance there, not even enough ground to set his foot on. He lived there like someone in a foreign country, always moving and owning nothing.

His descendants also waited a long time before they received the land. God said, “After four hundred years, they will come and serve me in this place” (Acts 7:7). Even then, they would first go through great hardship. They would be enslaved and mistreated in a foreign land. This was not described as a punishment for some special sin, as their wandering in the wilderness later was. It was simply what God had planned, and it had to happen. At the end of the four hundred years, counting from Isaac’s birth, God said he would judge the nation that enslaved them.

This teaches us that all God’s works are known to him beforehand. When Abraham had neither land nor heir, he was still told he would have both. One was a land of promise, and the other a child of promise. So he received both by faith. It also shows that God’s promises may move slowly, but they are sure. They will come true at the right time, even if not as quickly as we expect. And though God’s people may suffer for a while, he will eventually rescue them and deal with those who oppress them. Truly, there is a God who judges the earth.

This also served Stephen’s purpose. The Jewish nation, which they defended so fiercely, had very small beginnings. Their common father Abraham was brought out of obscurity in Ur of the Chaldeans, and their tribes and leaders came out of slavery in Egypt, when they were the smallest of all peoples (Deuteronomy 7:7). So why act as if their downfall, when they brought it on themselves by sin, would mean the downfall of the whole world and all God’s interests in it? No. The God who brought them out of Egypt can bring them back into it again, as he warned (Deuteronomy 28:68), and still lose nothing. He can raise children for Abraham out of stones if he wishes.

The slow way God carried out the promise to Abraham, along with the many seeming contradictions here, clearly show that the promise had a deeper, spiritual meaning. The main land meant by it was the better country, that is, the heavenly one. The apostle uses this same fact to show that the patriarchs lived in the land of promise as strangers, and from that he concludes that they were looking for a city with foundations (Hebrews 11:9-10). So it was no blasphemy to say, “Jesus will destroy this place,” while at the same time saying, “He will lead us to the heavenly Canaan and give us possession of that, of which the earthly Canaan was only a picture.”

God then built up Abraham’s family and carried forward his gracious purpose through it, as the rest of Genesis shows. First, God promised to be a God to Abraham and his descendants. As a sign of this, he appointed circumcision for Abraham and every male in his household (Genesis 17:9-10). He gave him the covenant of circumcision, meaning the covenant that circumcision marked and sealed. So when Abraham had a son, he circumcised him on the eighth day (Acts 7:8). This placed the child under God’s law and within God’s promise. Circumcision pointed to both sides of the covenant, God’s part, “I will be your all-sufficient God,” and man’s part, “Walk before me and be blameless.”

Once God had taken care to preserve Abraham’s seed as a people who would serve the Lord, they began to multiply. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs, the heads of the twelve tribes. Then Joseph, the beloved child of his father’s house, was mistreated by his brothers. They envied him because of his dreams and sold him into Egypt. Even this early, the people of Israel began to resent those among them who stood out and outshone the others. Their hatred of Christ, who was like Joseph, set apart among his brothers, was a great example of this.

God was with Joseph in his trouble (Genesis 39:2, 39:21). By the work of his Spirit, God gave him comfort in his mind and won favor for him in the minds of others. In the end, God brought him out of his suffering and made Pharaoh place him second in the kingdom (Psalm 105:20-22). So Joseph rose to high honor among the Egyptians, and he also became the shepherd and stone of Israel (Genesis 49:24).

Then Jacob was forced to go down into Egypt because famine drove him out of Canaan, and the shortage was so severe that our fathers found no food in Canaan (Acts 7:11). That fertile land was turned into a barren one. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, stored up through the wisdom of his own son, he sent our fathers there first to buy food (Acts 7:12).

When Joseph’s brothers came the second time, he first kept himself unknown to them, then made himself known. News was also given to Pharaoh that these men were Joseph’s relatives and depended on him (Acts 7:13). With Pharaoh’s permission, Joseph then sent for his father Jacob and all his family to come down into Egypt, seventy-five people in all, to be cared for there (Acts 7:13).

In Genesis, the number is given as seventy souls (Genesis 46:27). But the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament used by many Jews, gives seventy-five, and Stephen, or Luke, follows that version here, as in Luke 3:36, where Cainan is included though he is not named in the Hebrew text. Some explain the difference by leaving out Joseph and his sons, who were already in Egypt, which brings the number down to sixty-four, and then adding the sons of the eleven patriarchs, which gives seventy-five.

Then Jacob and his sons died in Egypt (Acts 7:15), but their bones were brought back to be buried in Canaan (Acts 7:16). A difficulty arises here, because the text says they were carried to Shechem, while Jacob was not buried there. Jacob was buried near Hebron, in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Isaac were buried (Genesis 50:13). Joseph’s bones were buried in Shechem (Joshua 24:32), and it seems likely that the bones of the other patriarchs were carried with his, each one having given the same command about burial. If that is so, then this part should be understood of the other patriarchs, not of Jacob himself.

Another question is raised, because the burial place in Shechem was bought by Jacob (Genesis 33:19), yet here it is said to have been bought by Abraham. Dr. Whitby’s explanation is enough to clear this up. He understands the sense like this: Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers, and our fathers were carried over into Shechem; and Jacob was laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a price (Genesis 23:16). Or, if taken another way, they, meaning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were laid there, and the rest were buried in the tomb bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

This whole account serves Stephen’s purpose well. First, he reminds them how small and lowly the Jewish nation began, which should have kept them from boasting in its outward glory. God raised them from almost nothing into a great nation by pure mercy. If they do not answer the purpose for which they were so honored, they can expect destruction, not safety. The prophets often reminded Israel of their rescue from Egypt to show how serious their sin was in rejecting God’s law, and Stephen uses the same fact to expose their contempt for Christ and his messengers.

Second, he reminds them that the very patriarchs, the fathers of their tribes, acted wickedly when they envied Joseph and sold him into Egypt. That same sinful spirit was still at work in them against Christ and his servants. Third, their beloved holy land was not always theirs to enjoy. Their fathers were long kept out of it and suffered famine and hardship there, so they should not be surprised if the land, after being so long polluted by sin, is at last destroyed.

Fourth, the patriarchs showed their faith by wanting to be buried in Canaan. That plainly showed they were looking beyond an earthly land to a heavenly country, and that was the very end to which Jesus was leading them.