Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!”
Have you ever been talking with someone and suddenly, or at least it seems that way, they flip a switch and tears or anger just seem to leak out? “Where did that come from?” “That came out of nowhere.” What is even more interesting, it can be just a surprising to the person who cried or shouted. They might not know where it came from either.
People are complicated beings, made in God’s image. We were placed here as God’s representatives. We were here to be like Him, ruling and reigning over this small corner of creation, just like He rules over all of creation. When we look at each other we should see God’s image looking back.
We are not simply creatures driven by an urge to reproduce, to ensure the survival of our species. We have a much higher calling that this. We make art and music to express the fullness of who we are as reflections of Him. We write poetry, not simply on Valentines Day, but to express deeper longings that prose is unable to handle.
So as Stephen seems to suddenly flip the switch in our text, we wonder what is going on with him. Or at least I was, until I went back and examined his whole speech delivered to those who seized him with the intent of silencing him. He is before the leaders of the Jewish community when he says these words.
But these words don’t drop out of no where. Stephen has been recalling the history of Israel from its beginnings. Two things repeat in his speech: God’s faithfulness and Israel’s rebellion.
And if you look carefully through this speech, you will see parallels between Israel’s history and what these Jewish leaders of Stephen’s day are doing. These echos from their history would have struck a chord with these Jewish leaders. Let’s look at a couple of them.
Stephen recounts the jealousy of the eleven sons of Jacob. Joseph, the twelfth son, was favored by their father. He seemingly had all the love that should have been distributed to all twelve, and they felt it. And they became jealous!
The theme of jealousy on the part of the religious leaders is one of the themes that runs through this two volume Luke-Acts account. It was jealousy that drove the leaders to do much of what they did to Jesus. They were afraid everyone would follow Jesus and they would loose their power.
Another theme is that their ancestors had missed what God was doing in the moment. Moses thought the Israelites would know that it was through him that God would bring their deliverance. Instead, they rejected Moses, and he had to flee for forty years. The Jews of Jesus day rejected what Jesus was doing for them, and Jesus had to go away.
The people in Egypt were under oppression, and the Jewish leaders felt the oppression of Rome every day as they saw the soldier occupying their city. Stephen taps into each of these themes from the past as a bridge to the present moment, to help his hearers make the connections. And they did make the connections!
The problem was, they were stubborn and jealous. They didn’t want to give up their power, so they used their power to enforce their will. They use the one power that humans have used down through their history, the power of life and death. They kill Stephen.
There are many other echoes of the past used by the writers of Scripture to tie the whole story together into one narrative, beginning to end, unified and compelling. But we have to be willing to hear these themes and explore them in order to more fully understand and apply the message to ourselves.
Stephen’s words don’t suddenly pop out of nowhere. His words flow from the history of Israel and the connection the leaders had with that history. The same is true for us.
The Arnold Journey 