Commentary on Acts 7:1-16

By Bob Myhan

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

It appears, at first that the council intends to hold a much more legal proceeding than it did with Jesus of Nazareth. This will be a public not a secret trial. There is more at stake now than there was previously. Priests were obeying the gospel. From the council’s perspective, this could not be permitted to continue.

Stephen does not answer their question directly but rehearses their history in such a way as to prepare them for what they need to hear above all else. They need to be made to understand that they not he have spoken and acted blasphemously against Moses and God.

²And 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, ³and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.'

Stephen begins his reply speaking of God not contemptuously but reverentially, not belittling but magnifying Him. He shows respect for the older members of the council addressing them as fathers. And he identifies with his audience by referring to Abraham as “our father.”

⁴Then 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. ⁵And 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.

We learn, here, that God had appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, which is now called Iraq.

We also learn that Abraham received no personal inheritance from God, not even a foot space. It was understood by Abraham, however, that the land would be given to his descendants. He understood this and believed it though he had no child when God first made the promise.

⁶But 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.' ⁸Then 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.

Before the descendants of Abraham would actually receive the land they would go into a foreign land and be oppressed. God also told Abraham, on this particular occasion,

“But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." (Gen. 15:16)

This statement provides a key to a better understanding of the sojourn in Egypt. We will return to this theme later.

God frequently used nations to accomplish His purposes. But He never caused anyone to sin. He would allow His people to be oppressed but He would punish the oppressors.

Stephen mentions the sign of circumcision, showing his respect for the covenants of God.

⁹"And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him ¹⁰and 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.

Everything said prior to this has been introductory and preparatory. We now get to the first major point of Stephen’s speech. Joseph was rejected by his brothers but God delivered him and delivered them through him. God was not merely rewarding Joseph for suffering himself to be defrauded; He was using Joseph to move the entire family to Egypt so they would escape the adverse influence the Amorites and other nations would have had on them if they had remained in “the land of promise.”

¹¹Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. ¹²But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. ¹³And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh. ¹⁴Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. ¹⁵So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶And 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.

The “seven years of great plenty” and the “seven years of famine” were not coincidental but tools used by God to put Joseph in power and to move the family to Egypt.

It is not the case that Stephen says Jacob was buried in Shechem. Jacob clearly wished to be buried in the cave of Machpelah and his sons did as he wished. Notice.

And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out the silver for Ephron which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency of the merchants. So the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as property for a burial place. (Gen. 23:16-20)

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them; he blessed each one according to his own blessing. Then he charged them and said to them: "I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is there were purchased from the sons of Heth.” (Gen. 49:28-32)

So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place. (Gen. 50:12-13)

Stephen is stating where the sons of Jacob were buried.

McGarvey comments that it was Jacob not Abraham who purchased this land. Jacob did indeed purchase the land but it may be that the land was purchased twice—first by Abraham and later by Jacob.

(To be continued)

Benevolence and Relief (Part 13)

By Bob Myhan

Having  unintentionally overlooked verses 16-18 in the September 22 and September 29 issues, we turn our attention to them now.

¹⁶I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

To “walk in the Spirit” is to walk according to the leading of the Spirit in the New Testament for He no longer leads through the Law of Moses. The Law could never have “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” for then it would have given life, which it was not designed to do. (Gal. 3:21) But the New Testament was designed to do just that or to enable us to do it through faith in the Lord Jesus. The “flesh” here is the totality of “the passions and desires” which cry out for fulfillment without regard for right or wrong. This is why the man and woman of God must develop and maintain self-control. Paul saw the need to discipline his own body. (1 Cor. 9:27)

¹⁷For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

The apostle deals with this at length in the following passage.

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. (1 Cor. 7:4-6)

The Galatians once served “in the newness of the Spirit” but had since been influenced to serve in the oldness of the letter.” This gave to them a false sense of spiritual security while it took away the hope of life after death.

18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

To be “led by the Spirit” is to “walk in the Spirit.” The “Spirit” here is the New Testament as in the following passage.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor. 3:5-6)

By His death Jesus took away the first to establish the second. (Heb. 10:5; Col. 2:14)

Still Paul has not said one word about the use of the church treasury. Nor does he say anything about such in the rest of the epistle.

(To be continued)