THE MASTER PLAN
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Opening Prayer
Father in Heaven, thank you for your Word and for its power to change lives, for its power to restore and transform. Thank you for its power that is at work in me.
Read ACTS 7:1–16
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
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.
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
In what ways do you thank God for the people he has used to teach you more about himself?I wonder if Stephen was even listening to the high priest’s question (v. 1)! His face was shining (6:15) and he was full of the Holy Spirit (6:10). I don’t get the impression he was being like a politician and refusing to give a direct answer to a direct question. Rather, I suspect he was simply aware that everyone was watching him and waiting to hear what he would say, so he made full use of the opportunity to tell as many people as possible how the entire history of God’s chosen people points to the coming of Jesus.
Stephen began his retelling of Israel’s history with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. His emphasis was on God’s faithfulness and his nearness. God used each of these lives to further his plans. Stephen must have carried the crowd with him as he recited the key events and God’s promises.
One thing I’m sure didn’t even cross Stephen’s mind at this moment was the significance of his own role in God’s great plan of salvation, which we will see in the coming days. We are called to walk in obedience to God day by day and moment by moment; we can never tell which of those acts of obedience will prove significant.
Apply
Thinking back, make note of times when God’s work through you was in evidence, and thank him.
Closing prayer
Thank you, Lord, for leading me in the past. Show me if there are any new ways in which you want to use me in your master plan.
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