The Call and Rejection of the Forefathers

Acts 7:1-36 

Stephen's Address: The Call of Abraham

1 Then the high priest said, "Are these things so?"

2 And he said, "Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, 3 and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.' 4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. 5 And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. 6 But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. 7 'And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,' said God, 'and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.' 8 Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.

The Patriarchs in Egypt

9 "And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 11 Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. 13 And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. 16 And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

God Delivers Israel by Moses

17 "But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 18 till another king arose who did not know Joseph. 19 This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. 20 At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father's house for three months. 21 But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.

23 "Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. 25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?' 27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?' 29 Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.

30 "And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. 31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, 32 saying, 'I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses trembled and dared not look. 33 'Then the LORD said to him, "Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt."'

35 "This Moses whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

When Stephen's chance came to speak the words of this life to the religious council after they took him into custody for blasphemy to stop him from upending their control of the people with their supplanted laws overlaid upon God’s, he gave a long spiritual history lesson.  He began with father Abraham’s call by the LORD when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran.  From there he went by faith in God’s calling to leave all he knew to pursue the promised land among the Chaldeans which he would himself not inherit but his descendants would after four hundred years of hard bondage in a foreign land which we now recognize was Egypt.  This was to let the council consider they were to live by faith in the present work of God in Christ and follow Him into an unknown kingdom which they could not see after their own release from the bondage of their sin which they also inherited from Adam long before along with their country from Abraham with whom God covenanted for their good.  God promised to judge that enslaver of His people and bring them out to the promised land which became named after his descendant Jacob called Israel.  The sons of Jacob had become envious of their brother Joseph who heard from God in dreams and knew he would reign over his siblings so they sold him off into the hands of those who took him to Egypt as was planned and foretold (Genesis 15:13-14).  He was placed in Egypt for such a time as this where a famine starved the world and he was sent to provide for the people and his own country by bringing his family under his command and care there.  As it was written, so it was done.  Again, Stephen was building up to God’s word predicting that the Messiah would be coming, be rejected by them, and crucified to bring the penitent into the promised kingdom of God in heaven and not merely on earth as the present Israel was.  Then the tide turned in Egypt and the people of God’s promise were enslaved and worked almost to death until the LORD sent Moses to deliver them after he had run away from Egypt for forty years.  God brought him back to speak to that evil ruler to let His people go free to inherit their promised land after taking shelter and multiplying to fill the earth while in Egypt.  This must have rung truth into the ears of the council in parallel with their subjugation under Roman occupation, but they were blind to the spiritual liberation and opposed the spiritual freedom Jesus had preached bec that did not make their nation great again.  They looked only at what they could see (2 Corinthians 4:18) and not into eternity.  Moses who was called by God’s flaming bush and enabled to display miraculous works was ineffective in moving the evil pharaoh who was a planned vessel of destruction (Romans 9:17) as well as God’s people who refused to believe he was to deliver them, just as the religious leaders of the council still rejected the Christ who had come to bring them out of spiritual bondage (Galatians 4:25, Hebrews 2:14-15) and into the kingdom of God and heaven.  Jesus displayed even greater miracles than Moses and still they had rejected God’s word and will for their redemption and reconciliation.  Surely the council members who knew the scriptures must have been beginning to think of these things as Stephen spoke as the Spirit’s spokesman!  The people complained to Moses, “Who made you a ruler and a judge?” just as the Jews complained against Jesus Christ when He had come to tell of God’s impending judgment and sovereign rule over them, proven by the miraculous works Jesus displayed to them as their Lord equal to God (John 10:30, 33) their supposed Father (John 8:42-43, 44, 58).  These hard words of truth to the listeners by Stephen were by God’s unction to judge the impenitent and offer repentance to those with ears to hear the truth, who were longing for the Kingdom of God and would find it in Jesus Christ alone.  This then is the call and rejection of the forefathers given to awaken awareness to not repeat the same error.