Year 7, Day 240: Acts 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Stephen steps up to speak.  We know the end of the story.  He is stoned.  His life is snuffed out for telling the truth.  The overarching hard lesson of this chapter is that sometimes the world doesn’t like our message so much that they’d rather get rid of us.  When we stand up on the side of truth, we often stand alone.

There is a subtler point throughout this passage that is distinctly related to the overarching point.  Why does the world dislike absolute truth? Absolute truth exposes us for the people that we actually are.

God chose Abraham from among the nations.  After a few generations, we arrive at Joseph.  God clearly chose Joseph, too.  Joseph would save his people.  Joseph’s brothers don’t appreciate God’s preference of Joseph and the sell him to Egypt. Naturally, that’s one move that God can use.  God uses Joseph’s rejection to bring about the salvation of not just God’s people but many of the civilizations around Egypt.  God works through human rebellion.

Then we hear about Moses’ rebellion in killing an Egyptian.  He ends up spending forty years in the wilderness, growing and maturing.  God brings him back to Egypt to lead His people out of Egypt.  Don’t forget that the Exodus only happened the way that it did because Pharaoh rebelled against God.

That leads us to Solomon, who builds a temple for God when God is absolutely content living in a tent among His creation.  That temple allows for a concrete place for human rebellion to continue to grow, even becoming focused on opposing the prophets of God.  We know in reading the accounts of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel just how corrupt the temple area and the religious became before conquest of Babylon.  Yet, God used that very exile to humble His people and bring them back to Him and away from their rebellion.

This leads Stephen to speak about how the religious leaders rebelled against Christ.  Once more God is able to use their rebellion to bring about salvation to the world for the forgiveness of sins.  These religious leaders kill Christ – and they are about to kill Stephen, too.  But God can use the action to further His will and the spread of His kingdom.  That’s what the rest of Acts is all about.

Humans rebel against truth.  We wish to do what makes sense to us and what keeps us happy.  We don’t care to submit to a higher authority, especially when that authority holds us accountable and asks us to leave the path of self-promotion for a high road.  But that doesn’t mean God can’t use us.  That doesn’t mean God can’t work through our rebellion.  All of the incredible things that God has done in this world have been a response in one way or another to our human rebellion and its effects upon us. 

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