Second Look: Truths Worth Dying For

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.... ​Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

Acts 7:54, 58 ESV

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Dear ICB family,

It might be hard for us today to understand how it was that what Stephen said in Acts 7 resulted in getting him stoned. OK, so he called them "stiff-necked." We could understand some nasty comments being posted on his Facebook wall and his not getting inviting to the next social event in Jerusalem, but killed? Wasn't he basically just retelling Israel's history? 

Step into the mindset of a first century Jew for a moment and try to understand why, after Stephen's speech to the Jewish council of elders, they "were enraged," "ground their teeth at him," and ultimately "cast him out of the city and stoned him" (Acts 7:54, 58 ESV).

Here are the charges upon which Stephen was initially brought before the Sanhedrin, Israel's high council of elders: "this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place [the temple] and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us" (Acts 6:13–14). 

Now in light of those accusations, consider the following details that Stephen chose to include in his retelling of Israel's history and see if you can't spot what made the Sanhedrin mad enough to kill him:
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• Abraham was from pagan Mesopotamia, and God appeared to him there in that place, not in Israel. 
• Not even Abraham, the father of the Jews, had an inheritance in the land; instead it would only belong to his descendants.
• The people of Israel themselves were sojourners in Egypt.
• The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him, yet God was with Joseph even when he was in gentile Egypt.
• Jacob, the father of Israel, went down to Egypt (can you believe it!) and lived there.
• Moses was instructed "in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (22). In other words, he had a pagan education.
• The Israelites didn't understand that Moses was going to deliver them and instead rejected him when he killed the Egyptian who had beaten a fellow Israelite.
• Moses fled to Midian—not Israel or Jerusalem—and God spoke to him there. 
• The mountain in pagan Midian was deemed "holy ground."
• For good measure, Stephen repeated the fact that the Israelites initially rejected Moses. 
• This same Moses, who was rejected, was the one who prophesied that God would raise up another prophet like him from among the Jews, implying that that prophet would be rejected and not listened to just like what happened to Moses.
• The Jews refused to obey the "living oracles" that Moses received from God (38).
• Instead, they made idols and worshiped all sorts of other gods.
• Stephen quoted a passage from the prophet Amos in which Amos said that God hated and despised the feasts and solemn assemblies of the Jews. There God said that he would not accept their burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, songs or melodies. Finally, God promised to send the Jews into exile because of their idolatry. (See Amos 5:18–27.)
• Stephen said that God dwelled with his people even "in the wilderness" (44).
• It wasn't until the time of Solomon that God even had a permanent temple, and even after the temple was built, everyone understood that "the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands" (48). To prove his point Stephen quotes Isaiah 66:1–2, which says that heaven is God's throne and all of earth is merely his footstool. The clear implication is that it would be absurd to believe that God only lives in a single place on earth.
• Then Stephen took his gloves off. With the full story of the rebellious Israelites in view, Stephen accused his listeners of being "stiff-necked" and "uncircumcised in heart and ears" (51). In saying this, Stephen was accusing the members of the Sanhedrin, the high council of Jewish elders, of being no better than lowly gentiles who were accursed in God's sight because of their failure to observe the Jewish law.
• If that weren't bad enough, Stephen also accused them of doing the exact same thing that their forefathers had always done, namely, "resist the Holy Spirit" (51).
• Stephen said that just like the patriarchs persecuted Joseph and just like Israel rejected Moses and refused to obey the law he received from God, so, too, had the Sanhedrin rejected and killed "the Righteous One," clearly referring to Jesus. In doing this, Stephen put Jesus on (at least) equal authority with the previous prophets.
• Stephen explicitly accused the Sanhedrin of not keeping the law.

In short, Stephen while commenting on the very things that the Jews held to be most sacred, he was coming to some radically different conclusions than those held by the vast majority of Israelites at the time. Stephen claimed that God was able to speak to his people and dwell with them in places as diverse as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Midian. He dared to imply that the temple, as meaningful as it was in generations past, had become obsolete and that the Jews no longer had a monopoly on God, so to speak. God could even make a mountain in pagan Midian holy if he wanted to come down there.

​He pointed out that both Joseph and Moses (both of whom were decisively changed as a result of the influence of the Egyptians of all people!) were rejected and persecuted by Israel's forefathers, a pattern that goes back all the way to the original patriarchs. Slavery and exile were the things ultimately promised for Israel's disobedience and idol worship, and this current generation of Jews was headed for the same fate as their ancestors for following in ancient Israel's footsteps. And here was the Sanhedrin, the council of Jewish elders, who were acting exactly like their forefathers by disobeying the law, the very thing they prided themselves for keeping.

In this light, then, it's a little easier to understand why the council members "were enraged," "ground their teeth at him," and ultimately "cast him out of the city and stoned him" (54, 57).

The truths for which Stephen died are truths still worth dying for: We don't come to a place to meet with God. We come to a person, the risen Savior and King, Jesus Christ. God isn't merely with us when we're in a particular place. He's with us wherever we go. We don't submit ourselves to Old Testament law codes in order to be found righteous before God. We trust in the "the Righteous One" who made the way for God to be both just and the justified of those who have faith in him, a way that was quite "apart from the law" (see Romans 3:21–26). Not a single group of people on the face of the earth has any privileged position in securing God's favor. The foot of the cross is level ground for every last man, woman, and child ever born at any period in history. Separation from God in exile—and ultimately eternal separation from him in never-ending exile—is the punishment for those who reject Jesus. Enjoying God's presence demands embracing his Son.

May we live, and if necessary die, for these truths, the truths for which Stephen died. 

In awe at the hope that is ours,

Eric