The Father's Story on Trial

Asked if the charges are true, Stephen answers with Israel's whole story: our Father appearing to Abraham, Joseph, Moses rejected by his own, a golden calf, a temple never needed. He names his hearers as their fathers' heirs. They stone him, and he asks forgiveness for them.

Chapter 7.

Then the high priest asked, "Are these things true?"

Stephen said, "Brothers and fathers, listen: Our Father of glory appeared to our father Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

and told him, 'Leave your land and relatives, and go to the land I'll show you.'

He left the Babylonians' land and settled in Haran. After his father died, our Father moved him from there into this land you now live in. He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground—yet promised it to him and his descendants after him as a possession, though he had no child. And our Father said his offspring would be foreigners in a land not their own, enslaved and mistreated 400 years.

'I will judge the nation they serve,' our Father said, 'and after, they will come out and worship me in this place.'

He gave him the covenant of circumcision. Abraham fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob the twelve ancestors.

The ancestors, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, but our Father was with him, and rescued him from all his troubles, gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and Pharaoh's whole household. A famine and great suffering struck all Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no food. Hearing there was grain in Egypt, Jacob sent our fathers there first. On the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Pharaoh learned of Joseph's family. And Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five persons in all.

And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers. They were taken back to Shechem, and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought for silver from Hamor's sons in Shechem.

As the time of the promise our Father gave Abraham neared, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. This king exploited our people and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants to die.

At that time Moses was born, beautiful in our Father's sight. He was raised three months in his father's house. And when he was abandoned, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was trained in all Egyptian wisdom, and was strong in speech and action.

When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. Seeing one of them wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He thought his brothers would understand our Father was giving them salvation through his hand, but they didn't understand.

The next day he came upon them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?' But the man wronging his neighbor shoved Moses aside, saying, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' At this word, Moses fled and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

Forty years later, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a burning bush's flame. Moses saw it and was amazed; as he approached to look closer, our Father's voice came:

'I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses trembled, not daring to look. Then our Father told him, 'Take the sandals off your feet, for the place you're standing on is holy ground.' I have indeed seen my people's suffering in Egypt, heard their groaning, and come down to rescue them. Now go—I'm sending you to Egypt.

This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you ruler and judge?'—this is the one our Father sent as both ruler and redeemer, through the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who told Israel's sons, 'Our Father will raise up a prophet like me for you, from your brothers.' This is the one who was in the wilderness assembly with the angel speaking to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers—he received living words to give us.

Our fathers refused to obey him; they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, telling Aaron, 'Make us gods to go ahead of us. As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him.' They made a calf in those days, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and celebrated what their hands had made. But our Father turned away, giving them over to worship the host of heaven, as written in the prophets' book: 'Did you bring me slaughtered animals and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel? You carried Moloch's tent and your god Rephan's star, the idols you fashioned to worship them; so I will banish you far beyond Babylon.'

Our ancestors had the tent of witness in the wilderness, as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, matching the pattern he'd seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that our Father drove out before them. So it was until the days of David, who found favor with our Father and asked to find a dwelling place for our Father. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says:

'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says our Father, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?'

"You stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, always resist the Holy Spirit—like your fathers, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who announced beforehand the Righteous One's coming—whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You who received the law through angels and yet did not keep it."

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked into heaven, saw the glory of our Father, and Jesus standing at the right hand of our Father. ^a

And he said, "Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at our Father's right hand."

But they cried out with a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed at him. They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And as they were stoning him, Stephen called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." ^b

Kneeling, he cried out loudly, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Then he fell asleep.

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Acts 7

The Father's Story on Trial

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