Day Thirty-Two

If you have 5 minutes!

Read Acts 7:30-38

30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. 33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 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.’ 35 “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. 36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness. 37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’ 38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

One of my favourite clips from the TV series “Friends” is the time Ross and Phoebe argue about evolution. Phoebe is not convinced by the theory but Ross is adamant it is 100% scientific fact. Phoebe then begins an effective series of arguments resulting in Ross having to admit that there is a chance this theory could be wrong. Her strategy is to go back through history pointing out where scientists have previously made mistakes…

“Wasn’t there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And up until about 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing – until you split it open and this, like, whole mess of stuff came out…”

She then delivers her finishing blow… 

“Now are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can’t admit that there’s even a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?”

Ross concedes that there is!

Stephen’s strategy in his speech is not too dissimilar from Phoebe’s approach here. Like Phoebe, he looks back over history charting the mistakes people have made in the past in order to try and persuade his listeners that, like their predecessors, they are making shocking error here! Unlike Phoebe’s speech, however, Stephen has three main points to make.

Firstly, as implied from Abraham onwards – and explicitly stated in vv. 48-50 – the temple is not unimportant but it has never been the only place people have encountered God. On the contrary, arguably the most important God-encounters in the Old Testament, including Moses’ call here, occurred outside of its walls; even outside of the city within which it was based – in fact they didn’t occur in the Promised Land at all! Moreover, although the temple could be a place of worship, it becomes a place of idolatry when people start to see God as somehow contained within it.

Secondly, and more importantly, Stephen deliberately recalls Israel’s history in such a way as to draw attention to the Israelite’s inability to see what God is doing and their rejection of his chosen servants. This was implicit in the abrupt beginning to his retelling of Joseph: “The Patriarchs were jealous of Joseph…” In his recap of Moses, it is even more explicit with Stephen adding in additional details (absent from the Exodus text) to ram home his point further: e.g. v. 25 “Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not;” v. 35 “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.” v. 37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’”

Why is he doing this? Well, like Phoebe he is building to a grand climax. He is preparing the ground before pointing out to his opponents their biggest act of blindness and rejection of all; their rejection of Jesus.

Thirdly, although Stephen’s opponents have accused him of “speaking against the law,” in rejecting God’s chosen Messiah, it is ironically they who are guilty of breaking the law – not Stephen.

If you have a bit longer :-)

• Do you think it was reasonable that the Israelite’s didn’t see Moses as God’s appointed rescuer following his killing of the Egyptian?
• Think of another occasion when the Israelite’s missed what God was doing. Spend some time meditating on this event, imagining that you were there at the time. Try to imagine what it would have been like and how you would have felt. Do you think you would have seen God’s hand at work and responded positively to this? Or would you have reacted like the other Israelite’s who missed it? (e.g. Imagine that you are one of the Israelites waiting to invade the Promised Land when the spies come back with reports of how massive the inhabitants look. Would you press on regardless or would you – like the Israelites did – turn back in fear? Imagine you are living in the prosperity of Israel when the prophet Amos suddenly arrives from Judah [who you’re not on good terms with] to tell you all that God is angry with you. Would you believe Amos or just think he was scare mongering? Imagine you are a first century, devout, monotheistic Jew living in a hostile land within which your culture and faith are constantly under potential threat. Someone comes into your temple and tells you about a man called Jesus who, you’re told, was killed but then rose from the dead. This man is now God’s appointed means of salvation and so in order to be in a good place with God you have to worship this resurrected man and put your trust in him. Would you believe this person? Would you feel warmly towards them or would you – like Stephen’s opponents – see this movement as a significant danger to not only your faith but your whole community and way of life?)
• As I reflect back on God’s works throughout the Bible I am very unsure that I would have been one of the ones who did get it; who did see that God was moving and respond positively to this. Of course I like to think that I would! However when I take the time to try and see it from the Israelite’s point of view, I often find myself more similar to them than I’d like to think. So, the challenge is this: how can we help one-another to be attune and open to what God is doing now?! How can we best ensure we are working with God and not against him?