Acts 7: 35-43

(Acts 7: 35-43)

This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.  He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.  This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:  To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,  Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.  And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.  Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

 

Deacon Stephen's argument for himself was debated in the synagogue, and some defeated in this controversy urged the people, elders and scribes, and Stephen spoke against the holy temple and the holy scriptures, the Mosaic Law. This was because he accused the Sanhedrin Council of blaspheming Moses and God. The reason they accused Deacon Stephen, even by proclaiming false witnesses of blasphemy against the holy temple and the Mosaic Law, was not simply against Deacon Stephen, but against the Gospel of Stephen, that is, the fact that Jesus is the Christ.

Regarding these arguments, Stephen said, "By revealing the conflict between Moses, who led the exodus boldly at the public assembly, and the Israelites at that time, Israel at the time rejected Moses established by God to save Israel from Egypt. By identifying them with the current Israelites who are rejecting Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, which God established for them, they reveal their unbelief" to people. Moses was a person whom Israel rejected at the time.

However, God made Moses, whom Israel rejected, as the leader, and the people made the exodus through Moses, and in the wilderness they were able to live under God's protection for 40 years. Thus, through God's grace, they were liberated from Egypt and became free men, but they wanted God as a visible entity rather than an invisible God. Eventually, the people mobilized Aaron to make the shape of a calf as a visible entity, and the people rejoiced with it. Furthermore, he was not satisfied with this, and he worshiped the sun, moon, stars, and gods served by foreign nations. As for the reason why Israel forsook the God who saved him and worshiped idols, Deacon Stephen pointed out that the people said, "Make Gods for us to lead us."

The reason why the exodus of Israel "longed for their life in Egypt and obsessed with idols" is that although Israel experienced miracles in Egypt and the Red Sea vividly, the wilderness that unfolded after the exodus heightened anxiety about the future, and they They had to be scared of the field, and with anxiety about the future, they wanted to create a visible entity and receive comfort from it, rather than following the invisible God's guidance, and they wanted to receive comfort from it.

Those who accused Stephen of the council were also denying Jesus out of anxiety about the future coming from the status of a dominated country. The Messiah they wanted was not Jesus, a weak and weak young man who died on the cross so vain, but rather a person who would stand independent of Rome and lead Israel to the most powerful nation in the world. From this point of view, Stephen's conduct of evangelism was regarded as a heresy with dangerous ideas that would disrupt Jewish society.

They were also taking the fault of their ancestors who said, "Make the gods who will lead us for us." Their ancestors were deprived of vain idols, they could not go to the Promised Land and lived in the wilderness for 40 years and died in vain. Among the first generations of Exodus, Joshua and Caleb, who normally believed in God, and the second generation of Exodus, who were new people born in the wilderness, promised Entered the ground. Deacon Stephen said, "Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? 』.