FOLLOWING THE LEADER?
Opening Prayer
Thank you, Lord God, for the many ways you have proven your trustworthiness to your people, not just in history, but also to me.
Read ACTS 7:1–22
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.
9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
11 “Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’[c] 19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.[d] For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
Footnotes
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
‘Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?’ (Numbers 23:19b).Stephen stood accused of criticizing the temple and God’s law (6:14). In answer, he told a story, although its relevance was not immediately obvious! It was the story of God’s promise and the people whom God chose to work it out on the ground—Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, etc. The story involved hardship (slavery, famine, political treachery) and family animosity, along with some success (vv. 10, 17). There was migration but also rescue and return (vv. 6, 7), fulfilling God’s promise and assuring his commitment to, and protection of, that promise. The Egyptians might have tried to kill off newborns, but God still raised up his next leader. Whatever the changes and challenges for the family of Abraham, God continued at work. It’s the same for us. Our lives are not a random series of events. They have coherence because of God’s promise to rescue us and bring us home to be with him.
Stephen asserted that God will work, whatever the obstacles. He built a case throughout his speech that a major obstacle to God’s purpose had been the almost universal rejection of God’s chosen leaders by his own people. Joseph was his first example, jealousy (see Acts 5:17) inciting his brothers to get rid of him. They found themselves opposing their savior!
Apply
Could jealousy prevent us from seeing where God is at work? What else might blind us to this?
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, thank you for your work in me. Please continue to refine me, to give me more of the mind and heart of Jesus, and use me to proclaim the goodness and faithfulness of God.
Book and Author Intros
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