Read
Stephen's Speech
1The high priest asked Stephen, “Are they telling the truth about you?”
2 Stephen answered:
Friends, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he had moved to Haran. 3God told him, “Leave your country and your relatives and go to a land that I will show you.” 4 Then Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran.
After his father died, Abraham came and settled in this land where you now live. 5 God didn't give him any part of it, not even a square meter. But God did promise to give it to him and his family forever, even though Abraham didn't have any children. 6 God said Abraham's descendants would live for a while in a foreign land. There they would be slaves and would be mistreated 400 years. 7 But he also said, “I will punish the nation that makes them slaves. Then later they will come and worship me in this place.”
8 God said to Abraham, “Every son in each family must be circumcised to show you have kept your agreement with me.” So when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him. Later, Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons. 9 These men were our ancestors.
Joseph was also one of our famous ancestors. His brothers were jealous of him and sold him as a slave to be taken to Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. God made him so wise that the Egyptian king Pharaoh thought highly of him. The king even made Joseph governor over Egypt and put him in charge of everything he owned.
11 Everywhere in Egypt and Canaan the grain crops failed. There was terrible suffering, and our ancestors could not find enough to eat. 12But when Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. 13 It was on their second trip that Joseph told his brothers who he was, and the king learned about Joseph's family.
14 Joseph sent for his father and his relatives. In all, there were 75 of them. 15 His father went to Egypt and died there, just as our ancestors did. 16 Later their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor.
Reflect
Stephen is so audacious! As his defence before the Jewish religious leaders, he gives them a history lesson, re-telling their own history through the lens of God’s sending Jesus the Messiah. What irony that these leaders who claim to know God and to be experts in the interpretation of the Jewish scriptures are treated as novices on both counts.
Stephen hammers at his primary theme: God made a covenant with Abraham and fulfilled it faithfully. The process may seem tortuous and completely unpredictable, but God makes it happen, often in astonishing ways. A really old husband and wife actually conceive and give birth to a son in miraculous circumstances. A Jewish slave becomes the prime minister of Egypt and is able to save his family from starvation. The question that remains unanswered in this context is how Israel has responded to God’s initiative.
God works through people to accomplish his plans. But this is all about God’s story, even though he brings humans into it.
God established a new covenant through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. The way God did this is even more astonishing that his previous actions. He invites us to participate with him in his grand plan for human salvation and blessing now and in eternity. His promise to us is just as firm as his promise to Abraham. As God’s Spirit empowers us, God expects that “all the families of the earth will be blessed.” You, as a Jesus follower, become one of the means by which this divine blessing impacts our world.
Respond
Dear Father God, Your plans are so awesome. Who could imagine that you would make such promises and fulfill them all in such amazing ways. Thank you for your new covenant established in the blood of Jesus the Messiah. Thank you for moving in my life and enabling me to trust Jesus as my Saviour. Thank you for taking up residence in my life through your Holy Spirit. Today let me be the means by which your “blessing” touches and transforms the lives of people at work, in my family, and in my community. Amen.
Larry Perkins
Dr. Perkins is professor emeritus of biblical studies at Northwest Baptist Seminary and the Associated Canadian Theological Schools (ACTS) of Trinity Western University with primary teaching focus in New Testament and Septuagint Studies. He is also director emeritus of NBS’ Korean Language Programs division. He is one of the founding members of the John William Wevers Institute for Septuagint Studies. Dr. Perkins served as Dean and President of NBS, as well as Dean of ACTS, the Graduate School of Theological Studies for Trinity Western University. He is married to Judy and they have four children and eleven grandchildren. They are partners with SouthRidge Fellowship Baptist Church, Langley, B.C. Books: Exodus, in A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included under that Title, ed. Albert Pietersma and Benjamin Wright (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007; The Pastoral Letters. A Handbook on the Greek Text (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2017); The Art of Kubernēsis (1 Corinthians 12:28). Leading as the Church Board Chairperson (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2019).