Call to Commitment

  

Chapter 7:36-45 

Resistance to God in the wilderness and the Promised Land 

      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.

37. "This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, 'THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN. HIM YOU SHALL HEAR.'
38. "This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to
him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give
to us,
39. whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back
to Egypt,
40. saying to Aaron, 'MAKE US GODS TO GO BEFORE US; AS FOR THIS MOSES
WHO BROUGHT US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT
HAS BECOME OF HIM.'
41. And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the
works of their own hands.
42. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in
the book of the Prophets: 'DID YOU OFFER ME SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS AND SACRIFICES DURING FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?
43. YOU ALSO TOOK UP THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH, AND THE STAR OF
YOUR GOD REMPHAN, IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP; AND I WILL CARRY YOU AWAY BEYOND BABYLON.'
44. "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed,
instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,
45. which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David

 

Acts 7

      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.  

Good preachers often make the point that the Greek word, which is translated witness, is martus, from which we get our word for martyr. I have noticed in traveling to other countries that some of their versions of the New Testament, choose the word martyr in their translation, instead of witness. It is sound principle in gospel teaching that the Christian is to be a witness unto death, therefore a martyr. This chapter 7 in Acts, tells the story of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, who is a wonderful example of this principle.

 I often try to show, as I will again, that the title for Stephan’s message is found in his own words in verse 51, “You Always Resist the Holy Spirit.”  I will try to show how he does this throughout his presentation to the Sanhedrin and the Synagogue of the Libertines. I do not want to convey the idea that the all of the Old Testament people, of whom he spoke, were generally disobedient or unfaithful. That is not the case, but they were flawed human beings, whom God corrected and gave faith, so to accomplish His purposes through them. The high priest opens the door for Stephan to defend himself (v. 1) and he begins by addressing those present as brothers and fathers, his fellow Jews, and their God as the God of glory. He goes all the way back to their patriarch, Abraham, giving a reminder of their entire national history (v. 2). Genesis 11:10-26 gives us Abraham’s genealogy and you will notice that his father, Terah, moved the entire family from Ur of the Chaldeans and crossed the Euphrates into Haran (Ge. 11:29).

 Joshua took his generation back to the beginnings of their race to an idolatrous people up to the time of Abraham’s father, Terah, named Abraham and his brother, Nahor, and showed that they served other gods. Israel’s roots were idolatrous and they included father and sons (Josh. 24:2). God, gloriously revealed Himself to Abraham, in His mysterious way and called him out of paganism. Jamison-Faucett-Brown comments, “The conversion of Abraham is one of the most remarkable in Bible history.”