Acts 7:30 - Meaning and Application

Stephen goes on with the story of Moses. Anyone can judge whether these are the words of someone who blasphemed Moses. In fact, no words could honor Moses more deeply.

First, Stephen speaks of the vision of God’s glory at the burning bush (Acts 7:30). When forty years had passed, Moses was still in Midian, almost buried alive there, and now he was old and seemed beyond useful service. Yet this was the right time for God to show that Moses’s work came from divine power and promise. Just as Isaac was a child of promise because he was born to parents who were too old to have children, Moses now entered the honorable work for which God had prepared him, after giving up that life at forty.

Notice where God appeared to him, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai (Acts 7:30). When God met him there, it was holy ground (Acts 7:33). Stephen highlights this to correct those who boasted in the temple, as if God could only be found there. God met Moses and showed himself in a remote, lonely place in the wilderness. People fool themselves if they think God is limited to one location. He can lead his people into the wilderness and still speak to them with comfort.

Notice also how God appeared, in a flame of fire. Our God is a consuming fire, and yet the bush was not destroyed. The bush may have pictured Israel in Egypt, burned by suffering but not consumed. It may also point to Christ’s coming in human flesh, and to the union of God and man in him. God shown in the flesh was like the flame shown in the bush.

Moses’s response was twofold. He first wondered at the sight (Acts 7:31). None of his Egyptian learning could explain it. At first he was curious and wanted to look closer: “I will turn aside now and see this great sight.” But the nearer he came, the more amazed he became. Then he trembled and did not dare look closely. He soon understood that this was not just a fiery light in the sky, but the angel of the Lord, indeed the Angel of the covenant, the Son of God himself. This made him tremble.

Stephen had been accused of blaspheming Moses and God (Acts 6:11), as if Moses were some kind of lesser god. But this shows Moses was only a man, with the same human feelings we have, especially fear when faced with God’s majesty and glory.

Second, Stephen speaks of the covenant God declared to Moses (Acts 7:32). The voice of the Lord came to him, and faith comes by hearing. God said, “I am the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” This means, first, “I am the same God I was.” The covenant God made with Abraham long ago was, “I will be your God,” meaning a God who is enough for you in every way. Now God says that covenant is still alive. It has not been canceled or forgotten. He is still, as before, the God of Abraham, and now he will show it openly. All the favors and honors given to Israel rested on that covenant with Abraham and flowed from it.

It also means, second, “I will be the same God I am.” If the death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not break their covenant relationship with God, and it does not, then nothing else can. Then God is their God, both for their souls, which are separated from their bodies, and for their children. Our Lord uses this same truth to prove the future life (Matthew 22:31-32). Abraham is dead, yet God is still his God. So Abraham must still live. God never fulfilled the full meaning of that promise to Abraham in this world alone. Therefore, it must be fulfilled in the world to come. This is the life and immortality the gospel brings to light, and it answers the Sadducees, who denied any life after death.

So those who defended the gospel and spread it were not blaspheming Moses at all. They were giving Moses the greatest honor possible, along with the glorious revelation God made to him at the bush. God is the God of their seed too. By saying he was the God of their fathers, he showed kindness to their children as well, that they would be loved because of their fathers (Romans 11:28; Deuteronomy 7:8). The gospel preachers were bringing forward this covenant, the promise God made to the fathers, and some of the twelve tribes who kept serving God hoped to reach that promise (Acts 26:6-7). So how could anyone, under the excuse of defending the holy place and the law, oppose the covenant made with Abraham and his seed, especially his spiritual seed, before the law was given and long before the temple was built? God’s glory must always be lifted up, and all human boasting must be silenced. Our salvation must come by promise, not by law. So the Jews who persecuted Christians, claiming they blasphemed the law, were themselves blaspheming the promise and turning away from the mercy it offered.

Third, Stephen speaks of the commission God gave Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt. The Jews had set up Moses against Christ, and they accused Stephen of blasphemy because he would not do the same. But Stephen shows that Moses was a clear picture of Christ, since both were deliverers of God’s people. After God had declared himself to be the God of Abraham, he told Moses to take a humble posture: “Take off your sandals from your feet.” He was not to come into holy work with careless, cold, or ordinary thoughts. He was to watch his step and move with reverence. He was not to rush into God’s presence.

Then God gave him a great task. When Moses was ready to receive commands, he received a commission. He was sent to ask Pharaoh to let Israel leave the land, and to press that demand (Acts 7:34). God said he had seen their suffering and heard their groaning. He noticed both their troubles and their deep sense of those troubles. God has a tender concern for the hardships of his church and for the groans of his persecuted people. Their rescue begins in his pity.

God also decided to redeem them by Moses’s hand: “I have come down to deliver them.” Even though God is present everywhere, Stephen uses this language of coming down because this rescue pointed ahead to Christ, who came down from heaven for our salvation. He who ascended first descended. Moses was the man God would use: “Come, I will send you into Egypt.” If God sends him, God will own him and give him success.

Fourth, Stephen speaks of Moses acting on this commission, and in doing so, he was a picture of the Messiah.

Stephen again points out the insults his people had shown to Moses. Their rejection only makes God’s choice of Moses stand out more clearly. God honored the man they had treated with contempt. In the same way, Stephen was showing the council that Jesus, whom their fathers had refused, is the one God has now exalted as a ruler and Savior.

Moses was the one they rejected, saying, “Who made you a ruler and judge?” Yet God sent that very Moses to be their ruler and deliverer, with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. Stephen’s point is clear. God’s choice does not depend on human approval. The One men reject, God can appoint to save.

God also showed kindness to Israel through Moses, even after they had pushed him away. Moses led them out of Egypt after God had done wonders and signs there, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. Stephen is not speaking against Moses at all. He honors Moses as a great instrument in God’s hands for forming the Old Testament church, the people of God under the old covenant.

But Moses was only an instrument. He does not lose honor because Jesus is greater than he is. Stephen wants these Jews to see that Jesus is the true fulfillment of God’s saving work, and that they should receive him. If they do, they will find the same favor and help from Christ that Israel received through Moses, even though they had once refused him.

Moses also spoke about Christ and his grace. He told the children of Israel, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers” (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18). That was one of the greatest honors God gave Moses. Through him, God prepared the people to expect the coming prophet, and he required them to listen to him.

This is very important for Stephen’s case. He was not attacking Moses by saying Jesus would change the customs of the ceremonial law, the outward religious rules tied to temple worship and sacrifices. He was honoring Moses by showing that Moses himself pointed forward to Christ. As Jesus said, if they had really believed Moses, they would have believed him too (John 5:46).

Moses had told them that, in the fullness of time, God would raise up a prophet from among their own people who would be like him. This prophet would be a ruler and deliverer, a judge and lawgiver, like Moses. Because of that, he would have authority to change the customs Moses had delivered and bring in a better hope, as the mediator, the one who brings two sides together, of a better covenant.

Moses also charged them to hear that prophet. They were to receive his teaching, accept the changes he would bring, and submit to him in everything. That would be the greatest honor they could show Moses and his law. God repeated that command by a voice from heaven at Christ’s transfiguration, when he said, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).

Moses continued to serve Israel after the exodus as well. He was in the church in the wilderness, meaning the covenant people of God while they were traveling through the desert. He guided their affairs for forty years, like a king in Jeshurun, Israel’s poetic name in Deuteronomy 33:5. It was a great honor to Moses that he belonged to that sacred community and led it. Many times, it would have been destroyed if Moses had not stood before God to plead for it.

Yet Christ is the head and guide of a far greater and more glorious church than the one in the wilderness. He is more fully present in it, as its life and soul, than Moses could ever be. Moses was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with the fathers of Israel. He was with the angel of the covenant, whom the source identifies as Michael, our prince. Moses came close to God, but he never rested in the Father’s heart as Christ did from eternity.

These words may also mean that Moses was with the angel who spoke to him at the burning bush, which is called Mount Sinai in this passage (Acts 7:30). That angel went before Moses and guided him, and without that guidance he could not have led Israel. God had said, “I am sending an angel before you” (Exodus 23:20; Exodus 33:2; Numbers 20:16). Moses served the church with the angel’s help, and without that help he could have done nothing for it. Christ, however, is himself that angel who was with the church in the wilderness, which gives him authority above Moses.

Moses also received the living oracles to give to Israel. That includes the Ten Commandments and the other instructions the Lord gave him to pass on to the people. God’s words are oracles, sure and trustworthy words with unquestioned authority. They are to be consulted like an oracle, and every dispute must be settled by them.

They are living oracles because they come from the living God, not from the silent, dead idols of the nations. God’s word is spirit and life. The law of Moses could not give life by itself, but it showed the way to life: if a person wants to enter life, he must keep the commandments. Moses received these words from God and gave nothing to the people as God’s oracle unless he had first received it from God himself.

The living words Moses received from God, he faithfully passed on to the people so they could keep and guard them. One great privilege of the Jews was that God entrusted them with his own words, and Moses was the one who delivered them. Moses did not give the people their bread, and he did not give them their law from heaven either, as Jesus said, “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32). The same God who gave them those customs through Moses could also, when he pleased, change those customs through his Son Jesus, who brings us even fuller and more living words than Moses did.

After all this, the people still showed contempt for Moses. So those who accused Stephen of speaking against Moses should consider what their own ancestors did, because they were following the same path. They would not obey Moses. They rejected him, complained against him, and were even ready at times to stone him (Acts 7:39). Moses gave them an excellent law, but their behavior showed that the law could not make them fully right before God on its own (Hebrews 10:1). In their hearts, they turned back to Egypt and wanted the garlic and onions there more than the manna they had under Moses’ care, or the milk and honey they hoped to receive in Canaan. They may have been moving toward Canaan outwardly, but inwardly they were clinging to Egypt.

Many people still do the same thing. They seem to be moving forward toward God while keeping up a religious appearance, yet in their hearts they are turning back to the world. It is like Lot’s wife, who looked back toward Sodom. God judges the heart, and people who secretly hold on to what they left behind will be treated as deserters. If the customs Moses gave them could not truly change them, then it should not surprise anyone that Christ comes to bring a deeper change and a more spiritual way of worship.

They also made a golden calf instead of Moses, and in doing so they insulted both God and Moses. Their excuse was that Moses, who brought them out of Egypt, had disappeared, so they asked for gods of gold, as if a calf could take Moses’ place or lead them into the promised land. While the law was being given, they made this calf, offered sacrifices to it, and rejoiced in what their own hands had made. They were so proud of their new god that, after eating and drinking, they got up to celebrate wildly.

All this shows how much the law could not do, because it was weakened by human sin. For that reason, it was necessary for this law to be brought to completion by a better hand. So no one was speaking against Moses by saying that Christ had done what Moses could not fully do.