Stephen’s Testimony, Part II
TRANSLATION
(17) (Stephen continuing his testimony) “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of Israelites in Egypt greatly increased. (18) Then another king who knew nothing about Joseph came to power. (19) He dealt brutally with our people and oppressed our ancestors by requiring them to disown their newborn infants so that they might die. (20) At that time Moses was born and was favored in God’s sight. He was brought up for three months in his parents’ home. (21) When he was disowned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. (22) And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became powerful in speech and action.
(23) “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. (24) When he saw one of the men being mistreated, he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian (who was beating him). (25) He assumed that his own people would understand that God was using him to deliver them, but they did not. (26) The following day he came upon two Israelites fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you trying to hurt each other?’ (27) But the man who was attacking his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? (28) Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ (29) When he heard this, Moses fled and became a wanderer in the land of Midian. There he fathered two sons.
(30) “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flames of a burning bush. (31) When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he approached, he heard the Lord say, (32) ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled with fear and dared not look. (33) And the Lord said to him, ‘Remove your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. (34) I have indeed seen the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their groaning. I have come down to set them free. Come, now, and I will send you to Egypt.’ (35) This is the same Moses whom they rejected with the words, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ He was sent to be both a ruler and deliverer by God himself through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.”
OBSERVATIONS
In this second segment of his testimony, Stephen focused on the storied career of Moses. Again, we find that repetitions help us grasp the thrust of his message. “God” appeared frequently (six times in vss. 17, 20, 25, 32, & 35) along with the synonym, “Lord” (vs. 33). “Egypt/Egyptian” is found seven times (in vss. 17, 18, 22, 24, 28, & 34). “Moses” was used six times (in vss. 20, 22, 29, 31, 32, & 35). “Man/men” is found four times (in vss. 24, 26, 27, & 35) while “disown/disowned” (vss. 19 & 21), “angel” (vss. 30 & 35), “ruler” (vs. 35), and the phrase “forty years” (vss. 23 & 30) all appeared twice. Family designations were also repeated: “father(s)” four times (vss. 19, 20, 29, & 32), “daughter” (vs. 21), “brothers” three times (vss. 23, 25, & 26), and “sons” (vs. 29).
OUTLINE
Stephen in his testimony to the Sanhedrin recounted…
– the birth and upbringing of Moses in Egypt. (17-22)
– the rejection of Moses as a deliverer and his flight to the wilderness. (23-29)
– God’s commissioning and sending the rejected deliverer to rescue the Israelites. (30-35)
IDEA STATEMENT
The call of Moses and his delivering Israel from Egypt anticipated the ministry of the nation’s ultimate deliverer.
APPLICATION
The reason why Stephen devoted the bulk of testimony to the career of Moses had to do with the prophecy Moses gave the nation in Deuteronomy 18:15 which Stephen would cite in Acts 7:37. There he stated, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen.” In both this segment of his testimony and in the next (tomorrow’s study), Stephen was careful to demonstrate how Moses’ life prefigured the ministry of the Messiah in several important ways. First, Moses as a child was preserved from death by the miraculous intervention of God just as Jesus had been preserved from Herod’s attempt to kill him after he was born. Then, just as Moses had been initially rejected as Israel’s savior according to the words of his fellow Israelite, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?” (vs. 27), so Jesus would be rejected by his fellow Israelites in his first coming as Israel’s Messiah. However, at his second coming, those who rejected him will come to realize, just like they did with Moses, that he is “the same man God sent to be both a ruler and deliverer.”
So far in his message, Stephen had not crossed the line of charging those who were listening to him with executing the Lord of glory. Instead, he was laying the groundwork for that very charge to be leveled at them as he continued to recount the history of the nation in his powerful testimony. In the next segment, his accusation of their complicity in the death of Christ would seal his fate as one who, like the Savior before him, had to be silenced.