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Okay we left off last week at verse 37 where Stephan said:
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
And we covered over fifty similarities of types where Moses and his life pictured the life of Christ. We’re getting close to the wrap up of Stephen’s speech.
At verse 38 Stephen continues and says:
Acts 7.38-45
May 15th 2016
Milk
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, “Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him”.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, “O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.”
(Stephan says at verse 44) Our fathers had the “tabernacle of witness” in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
Alright back to verse 38.
Stephan has identified Moses and then says:
“This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel . . .
which spake to him in the mount Sina with our fathers:
who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Let me reword it for clarity
“This was the Moses that was with the gathering of those called out of Egypt (our fathers, Stephan calls them) and went into the wilderness with the angel, an angel that talked to Moses in Mount Sina while our fathers waiting below as they talked, and this is that Moses who received the living word (or the Law) to give to us.”
Here in the King James Stephen say, This is he that was in the Church but church is word from the King James translators.
The Greek word is “Ekklesia” and means those “called out, the congregation, the assembly.”
In this case called out from where? From Egypt. We read church today and we think of it in terms of a building but in reality it’s just a gathering of people called out, and so this is a perfect word to describe the Nation of Israel, called out of Egypt and assembled together in the desert.
If you are willing, the same application should remain when we talk about church today – “an assembly of people called out from the world.”
With that understanding we can see that the church is world-wide gathering and made of individuals and is not the brick and mortar edifices or institutions. That has supplanted the true definition of the Church or body of Christ.
Now Stephan says here that they gathered “with the angel,” which is in reference to the angel “giving of the law on Mount Sinai.”
But Exodus 20:1-26 says this was done by Yahway. It is clear, therefore, that by the angel here Stephen means “God gave the Law through angels or messengers” and this is what Exodus also means.
We can say this because in verse 53 Stephen reiterates the point and says that the law was given by “the disposition of angels,” and Hebrews 2:2 also points out that the word (of old) was “spoken by angels.”
From all this I think it is safe to say that when scripture alludes to God speaking to Moses and others, even if it says He did so face to face (or mouth to mouth), the way this worked is God spoke through angels or heavenly messengers.
Think about this – if God was able, and man was able – to bear direct relationship with each other then all the stuff about sheol and separation from God and everything else is unnecessary.
God could interact with fallen man and there would be no need for angels or Jesus etc.
Stephen goes on and says:
That Moses “received the lively oracles to give unto us,” which means he received the law, written in stone, or, as it reads here in the New Testament, the living oracles.
The word living in Greek is zaoh and oracles is “log-ee-on” which refers to the living things (as opposed to dead and useless) – so living laws or words (oracles) of God.
In other words, Moses gave them the living Law of God that he received on Mt. Sinai.
Again, this Moses, through utterly miraculous means brought the entire Nation of Israel out of bondage, parted the Red Sea which they crossed on dry ground, went up to Mt. Sinai (which trembled and quaked) to receive the Ten Commandments from God, and listen to what Stephan says in verses 39-41.
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
People often wonder why we have the Old Testament narrative. It’s so full of strange stories and describes a God to whom we often cannot really relate.
In large part I think that God used the entire Nation of Israel, and all the characters in and around it, to illustrate human nature – our unstable and murmuring ways – in and through almost every story we read.
Here Moses has miraculously delivered the nation FROM bondage. Out from hard hard labor, mistreatment, and difficulty.
Plagues, parted seas, deliverance! I mean he has actually had interaction with the living God on their behalf to ultimately bring them God’s law. But . . . like us – they were a fickle crew and while he was absent . . . the forefathers of these Jews became very fickle and weak with regard to him.
So much so that while he was up on the mount they turned from God and became faithless both on Him (and toward Moses) whom God sent.
This is a living picture of all of us – in this life and walk in faith – the moment God “seems to have left us on our own” – we become faithless and openly seek to worship other gods . . . whether they be in pill or liquid form, in glossy or digital form or performers on stages strewn from Hollywood to Nashville we want our idols!
Because in the absence of faith and trust and reliance on the invisible God they give us something tangible, visual, emotional, visceral, comforting, substantive, and assuring.
As infants we learn to cling to the material – the favorite Linus blanket, the pacifier and these reliance’s merely shapeshift over time and with age.
As adults we’ve learned to cling to food, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, materialism, notoriety, popularity, porn and sex, even our occupations, jobs, marital relationships and family can be used as idols to take the place of God who we might feel has become an absentee manager in our lives.
I’m personally convinced that God will step back (through His Spirit) at times and as a means for us to experience life without a knowledge of His immediate and full presence . . . to give us a chance to decide if we too long for an immediate, more satisfying and tangible replacement in our lives.
Like the COI, believers too have witnessed miracles or God’s hand in our lives, His living reality, His love – and yet we also quickly forget . . . and turn to lesser and more basal things.
Where does the turning begin? Stephen says that the Nation of Israel began to turn “in their hearts” – to yearn for their “former lot,” for the things of their flesh, for the security and certainly they had from that life – even though they lived it under the hand of great oppression.
We later read (in the book of Numbers chapter 11) that God had provided the Nation “manna in the wilderness to sustain them as they sojourned.” But in time the manna was not enough to satisfy the Nation and we read . . .
4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who shall give us flesh to eat?
5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
Again, a picture of the human condition. Where often, when our hearts and eyes are not resting on Him and trusting in His ways, and believing that he will care for us, might look over our shoulders . . . back to our former days – to the days of wine and roses – and long to be under the oppressive hand of our former lives (with certainty) rather than suffering in a life of not knowing what’s ahead – which is what walking a life of faith entails.
I’ve witnessed this happen when people have left Mormonism. They exit the well-oiled religion thinking that Christianity must be a “walk in the park” by comparison only to discover that both the freedom and the uncertainty in the faith is often too much to handle – and also yearn for the salad days of cultural halls, Stake Conferences, and being told what to think and do. Some go back.
Here Stephan says that it was in their hearts the Nation of Israel turned back to Egypt – that’s where everything happens first, right? And once the shift occurres in their hearts the next step is easy – idolatry.
Stephan says here that not knowing where Moses had disappear to, they went to Aaron and said:
“Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.”
Note their contents of their request:
They “went to Aaron”
Said “Make us gods”
“To go before us”
That their reasoning was: “For as for this Moses that brought us out of the land of Egypt , we don’t know what has happened to him”
“And they made a calf in those days”
“And offered sacrifice unto the idol”
“And rejoiced in the works of their own hands.”
Once they turned back “in their heart” toward visible Egypt (which was a symbol of the physical seen world, of sin, and of bondage) they took a stop gap measure to bring that world back to them while they were out in the wilderness and they asked the second in command, Moses brother Aaron, to act.
Why Aaron? We can’t say, but we do know that Aaron was second in command in some sense, and so to go to him was a bit of a compromise between Moses (for whom Aaron spoke and acted) and a regular old non-prophet member of the community.
In other words by going to Aaron they were, I my estimation still clinging to authority of some sort and in doing so still shirking personal responsibility for their request.
This again is part of human nature – to look to an authority figure and appeal to them to make decisions rather than make the decision for oneself.
It continues to happen today but I believe it does not occur so much in those who seek God in Spirit and in Truth.
And what did they say to Aaron?
“Make us gods” (eloheem) the plural name of gods – any kind of god’s but often a supreme god of all gods.
“Make us idols, Aaron.”
Isn’t it interesting. They asked Aaron to make them something that they could see, and touch, and worship.
Moses had, in their estimation, disappeared and God was not so present to them, was He. So “Aaron, make us an idol.” Something tangible that we can rely upon rather than trusting in what (in our estimation) is intangible.
And this, friends presents us with the extremes of the materialist (represented by an idol made with hands) and the metaphysical view of things (meaning the invisible intangible powers the idol is supposed to possess).
On the continuum of faith we have at one end those who consider themselves the ultimate materialists (who are also most often considered atheists and who reject all metaphysical realities) and then there are ultimate metaphysicians (who place no trust in the material but look to find reality in spiritual or invisible things).
The COI turned from placing their trust in the invisible God (who in many ways was represented to them materially through fires by night and clouds by day, by divided seas, miracles and an actual man named Moses) and looking to a more literal material created object that they hoped would lead them through similar powers.
It’s the hope all of us have in false gods and idols – that they will manifest the same powers as the omnipotent God of all things.
And we are always disappointed.
Isaiah points out that we can only be as inspired and lead and improved by the type of idol or false god we embrace.
Therefore we ought to seek to worship a God who has it all and transcends way beyond human limitations because if we make a human our God we can only grown as much as a human can grow.
Isaiah used the example of a man taking a stump of wood, chipping away at it to make an idol and then doing and expecting some really extreme results from this.
For example he points out how ridiculous it is to take a piece of wood that we would ultimately worship, chip away from it, then actually use the chips of wood in our fires – to be consumed.
He also points out that if we worship an idol that cannot see (like a piece of wood) then we will wind up blind.
Or an object that can’t hear we would wind up deaf. Can’t speak – mutes.
We therefore, if seeking the ultimate to become and to adore, we would look to a God without such limitations – the God of all Gods.
In our case the true and living God.
At the bottom of the desire to embrace idols or false Gods is faithlessness in the living God, distrust in Him and His abilities, desires or abilities to save.
It was really what was at the heart of Adam and Eve – and drove them to choose with own will and the ways of another over the ways of God.
And if we really allow ourselves to think about it it’s the driver behind all actions we take that cause us to trust our flesh, and ways, and desires over His – because we honestly don’t trust in Him (His abilities or inclinations) to help, save or provide for us.
I mean Moses was gone a maximum of 40 days and before he reappeared Stephen points out that they nation had turned in their heart back to Egypt by asking Aaron to make them material gods.
To do what?
“to go before us.”
Prior to this and after they had God as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day go before them – to guide and protect them and go before them.
It seems that in that culture (and in cultures around them) that their pagan Gods – like flag bearers – would go before them into battle, and this was one of the things they wanted the idol Aaron would create for them to do – go before them.
What was the reason they wanted this idol to be created for them:
“For as for this Moses that brought us out of the land of Egypt , we don’t know what has happened to him”
Apparently they felt abandoned and though its pretty obviously that it was the true and living God who had been leading them, they felt lost without the Man Moses at the helm.
So, again, in His absence their hearts began to long for the certainty they in Egypt. Make us an idol that will go before us and represent that former life under burdens but with certainty.
“And they made a calf in those days”
This was a superstition taken straight out of the bowels of the Egyptian’s idolatry: because they worshipped a strange calf known as Apis and were known to make beautiful images of cows as well.
One of the reasons I enjoy cow skulls is their appeal to western culture but also I see them as very emblematic of the reality of earthly power and life, meaning that if a brazen powerful bull with horns ends up dry brittle and hollow eyed we ought to take note.
So Stephan says that they made a calf in those days. And then we read
“And offered sacrifice unto the idol”
“And rejoiced in the works of their own hands.”
The actual biblical account of this is found in Exodus chapter 32 beginning at verse
1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Quite the party before the Golden calf, eh? Meanwhile Moses is up on the mount with God on their behalf and we read at verse 7
7 And the LORD said unto Moses, “Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”
At this point Stephen sort of speaks about the general relationship that God has with the Nation of Israel from that point forward as they sojourned in the prior to going into the promised land and then thereafter.
So he says (at verse 42)
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
It’s an interesting line “then God turned” because we see that the people first turned in their hearts from Him and back to Egypt and idols, and so now Stephen writes:
“then God turned.”
In Christianity today there is a lot of discussion about our certainty with God – that he will never turn from us as believers. I would concur. God would NEVER turn from us as believers.
But if we choose to turn from believing there remains no sacrifice for sin – so we seek and strive to live in the faith. Let me use a board example to illustrate this.
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL
GOD
Turned in Heart to Idolatry and from the living God
Turned from them as the practice was indicative of their heart.
CHRISTIANS
GOD
Turn to idolatry due to weakness in the flesh?
God is always with us by virtue of the finished work of Christ.
Turn from God in the heart and do not believe in or on Him regardless of the flesh?
Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Note: This is not the ebb and flow of wondering or doubts or fears. This is certainly not suggesting fleshly perfection. It is talking about turning from God once and for all and rejecting Him.
When Stephan says that God turned from them it means that He, being a gentleman, abandoned them to indulge in their own corrupt desires.
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to???
. . . worship the host of heaven;”
This speaks of the stars or heavenly bodies and the term means the armies of heaven or the heavenly bodies which, being uber numerous, appear to be marshalled or arrayed in military order.
Jehovah is called the Lord of Hosts because He is the Ruler of these well-arranged heavenly bodies and to prove that they worshipped the hosts of heaven (the stars and planets etc) Stephen quotes from “the prophets,” and says
“as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?”
Now, when Stephen mentions, “the Prophets” he is speaking of what is called, “the book of the Prophets” because the twelve minor prophets were commonly written in one volume known as the Book of the Prophets and they contained Daniel, Hosea, Amos, Micah etc.
They were small tracts separately, and were bound up together to preserve them from being lost.
What Stephen cites here apparently comes from Amos 5:25-26. It’s not a literal quote (as Stephan was not accustomed to reciting scripture verbatim) and this is what it says:
Amos 5:25 “Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? (The way this is written is Hebrew idiom for saying, You have NOT offered me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years)
26 But . . . (Amos says, supporting Stephan’s use of the passage) But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.”
In other words Stephan is describing to these Jewish leaders that their forefathers were by no means devout in their allegiance to the living God, but instead, “bore the tabernacle of their Moloch and also “Chiun in their images, the star of their God which they created or made for themselves.”
In other words, and as Stephen says in Acts 7, for the forty years that they were in the wilderness they
43 “. . . took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: (so God said) I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
Instead of following and trusting the Living God they created and followed others. Here Stephan says that they, as idolators in their day were accustomed to doing, made little houses (or tabernacles) specifically for the pagan God Moloch and bore it about inside them.
Moloch was a god of the Ammonites and it was a god to whom human sacrifices were made. The word moloch itself comes from the Hebrew word msignifying king. This was a god of the Ammonites, to whom human sacrifices were offered.
In several places Moses warns the Israelites, under penalty of death, to stay away from the worship of Moloch, which included making their children “pass through the fire.” (you can read about this in Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5)
There is a great suspicion that the Hebrews were almost addicted to the worship of this deity after they entered the land of Canaan.
We know from 1st Kings 11:7 Solomon built a temple to Moloch on the Mount of Olives, and we also read that Manasseh made his son pass through the fire in honor of this idol.
How did it work, this passing through the fire?
The image of this idol was made of brass with arms extended out as if it was willing to embrace anyone.
They filled the interior with conbustables materials and then lit them and when it was heated up it glowed with heat and they would place their children on its outstretched arms – where they would die a horrible death.
We don’t really know what this god was supposed to represent but some suppose it was in honor of the planet Saturn, others the sun, others Mercury, Venus – but most think it was related to the heavenly host.
What Stephen is reminding these Jews of is that their fathers worshipped this deity.
We tend to really recoil from the imagery of causing our children to pass through the fire of Molech but in reality many parents – myself included when I was younger – did something less ultimate but just as barbaric when I exposed my little ones to elements of media, culture, educational demands and other things existing in this world that would consume them when they were placed on their fiery arms.
Finally, Stephen add that they also worshipped the star Chiun (the star of their God) by having its images with them.
This Chiun is akso known as Remphan here in the text and there’s a bunch of speculation how they are both referring to the same heavenly body.
I the end it is generally agreed that the object of their worship was the planet Saturn, or Mars, both of which planets were worshipped as gods of evil influence.
Apparently the COI made figures that represented these heavenly bodies and they apparently either worshipped them to the exclusion of the living God or they worshipped them along with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
As a result Stephen says that God . . .
I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
In Hebrew, the term is not Babylon but Damascus. But both were situated in the eastern region.
At this point Stephen brings up the fact that when their fathers were in the wilderness that (verse 44)
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness (in the wilderness,) as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
We have to remember that Stephan was accused of speaking evil against Moses and the Law and the Temple – and this is what he brings up here – the preface to the temple, also known as the tabernacle, which God specifically designed and which the Nation carried with them as they wandered in the wilderness.
Then he says, speaking of this tabernacle that God had designed and which Moses had the Nation of Israel transport and set up wherever they went:
45 Which also our fathers that came after (Moses) brought in with Jesus (Joshua) into the possession of the Gentiles (the pagan groups that were residing in the promised land), whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
So here Stephan brings us up to date.
Moses and the COI bore the tabernacle with them wherever they went. And then Joshua (Moses successor) brought it with him into the promised land and while there God drove the pagan gentile nations out before them, all the way until the day of David.
And this leaves us with the third main character Stephan uses in his verbal defense – David – to whom we will touch on next week.
Q and A?
