DEEP ROOTS
Opening Prayer
Lord, make me like a tree planted by a river, rooted in You and nourished by Your Word.
Read Acts 7:1–8
Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin
7 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”
2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’[a]
4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’[b] 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Do you feel rooted in your faith?There are many yew trees in churchyards around the British Isles that have survived for more than a thousand years. One of the factors contributing to their longevity is that branches grow roots if they make contact with the soil. Even if they topple over, they won’t necessarily die.
Standing before a court of religious Jews, Stephen goes back to the beginning of their common story. He traces the roots of his belief that Jesus is the Messiah all the way to God’s call of Abraham (2). Those who followed this new way, later called ‘Christianity,’ are, as Paul put it in his letter to the Romans, supported by the root of Judaism and nourished by its sap (Romans 11:17, 18). There has been a graft on the original tree.
In our era and culture, progress often overshadows history; the individual trumps the corporate. Like the yew tree, the church has survived against the odds. But we’d do well to tend to our roots in the long, long story of a chosen nation, whose favor we share by the grace of God. These roots keep the church strong and alive in challenging times.
Apply
Stephen gives a concise and coherent account of God’s work in the history of the Jewish people. How would you tell the story of the roots of your faith?
Closing prayer
Jesus Christ, I want to live my life in You, rooted and built up in You, strengthened in the faith as I was taught (Colossians 2:6b-7a).
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.