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Okay, we left off last week with Stephan talking about Abraham and how we are “made righteous by our faith” – as he was – and so are we.
Stephan continues here at chapter 7 in verse 6 and we read:
Acts 7.6-8
April 10th 2016
Milk
6 And God spake on this wise, “That his seed (Abraham’s) should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Okay, let’s go back to verse 6 where Luke has Stephan say:
6 And God spake on this wise, “That his seed (Abraham’s – the Children of Israel) should sojourn in a strange land; and that they (those who were of the strange land) should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
God had promised Abraham, before he had any children and was in his eighties, that he would have one heck of a lot of offspring or seed.
And then Stephan tells us that God said to Abraham that . . .
“this (or his) seed would sojourn in a strange land; and that they (those in the strange land, in this case the Egyptians) should bring them (Abraham’s seed) into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.”
The line that Abraham’s seed “should sojourn” in a strange land means that they would have a “temporary residence” there in Egypt and the word sojourn is used in opposition to them having a fixed, permanent home as they would once they entered into their own “promised land.”
But prior to entering the promised land this seed of Abraham would be in miserable bondage for 400 years.
Throughout scripture this term, “to sojourn in a strange land” is applied to travelers or foreigners, which is what Abraham’s seed would be in the land of Egypt.
Notice that well before Abraham even had the seed of one Isaac (let alone the offspring of a million plus that would be put in bondage in Egypt) that God told him what would happen to them – quite frankly both what He knew would happen and what He would allow to happen to them – they would be brought into bondage by the Egyptians for 400 years, or as Luke has Stephan say it,
They of the strange land “should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.”
The Greek for entreat them evil means that they would hurt them, exasperate them, vex them, and that this would be their lot for four hundred years.
Now, a couple things about this passage. First, we cannot help but note that God was fully aware that His chosen Nation, the very offspring of Abraham (which was not yet living) were going to suffer as a people, under the vile hand of unfair oppression.
And yet knowing this God still had Sarah conceive, didn’t He? Knowing that from that conception millions of sorrows would occur – in the minimum for 400 years – but in reality they continue on until this very day, do they not?
Hurt, sorrow, vexation, bondage?
Why would God allow for this? Is He mean? Is He indifferent to pain and suffering and bondage of human beings?
Remember, there are several spokes leading to the hub called “God and His wisdom and ways.” Only He understands them all but we are, if we try, able to see a few of them which helps us understand Him a little better.
(HUB AND SPOKE HERE)
Short term forging of character
Lessons, teaching, growth
The Long view
Providing Types and Pictures
His ultimate purposes
And His ultimate end.
(All mixed in with the factor of human freewill!)
These are some heavy elements that have to be included into our understanding His ways and will. And they are elements we cannot fully comprehend.
But in the face of them we can, by faith, learn to better trust in the Lord and accept that what He allows are purposeful and needed, right?
We also see that God is not adverse to letting those who are His suffer. I mean before the Nation has even begun materially He allowed it in His mind.
In my estimation we as believers have to see this as His all knowing benevolence and not His being indifferently evil.
It’s what caused God to say to Jeremiah
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
He knows what’s coming, He knows how to prepare us and get us to grow – even if it seems like he is being brutal and mean along the way.
I’ve told this story before but it was so impressive upon me as a kid I will never forget it.
When I was a young teen I was in a program called Junior Lifeguards. It’s a summer program to teach kids how to handle themselves in the ocean and to prepare them to become ocean lifeguards if they want.
In my last year my instructor was a legend named Ray Bray – who has since passed away.
(Tell the story here.)
And so it is with God – He’s preparing, teaching, and toughening us up – sometimes to the point where we will allow us to break before Him in humility because He is GOD, and we are His children and He does have our best interest at heart . . . and will therefore, out of love, allow some great hardship as a means to accomplish His good and expected ends.
Finally, regarding Stephan’s use of 400 years we have a bit of a problem. Gotta teach it because the truth will set us free.
First of all 400 years is the precise time which is mentioned by Moses in Genesis 15:13. So that’s good.
However, 400 years is used (in all probability) due to the fact that rounding out numbers was practiced anciently and 400 years was actually representative of another number that was close to this rounded figure.
A great deal of perplexity has occurred trying to explain this passage – especially when it comes to reconciling it with other statements in and outside of scripture.
For example, in Exodus 12:40, also written by Moses, we read that their sojourning in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
Then Josephus (in his “Antiq. b. ii.chap. ix. 2 ]) says that “the time in which they were in Egypt was four hundred years.”
HOWEVER in another place (Antiq. b. ii. chap. xv. & 2) he says, “that they left Egypt four hundred and thirty years after their forefather Abraham came to Canaan, but two hundred and fifteen years after Jacob removed to Egypt.”
This suggests that the COI were in actual bondage to Egypt on 215 years not 400 or 430.
Additionally, Paul says (in Galatians 3:17) that it was four hundred and thirty years from the time when the promise was given to Abraham to the time when the law was given on Mount Sinai.
This extends the time out from “the actual years of bondage” to when Abraham was first promised the Land by God all the way out to when Moses received the Law.
The Samaritan Pentateuch also says in Exodus 12:40,) that the “dwelling of the sons of Israel, and of their fathers, which they dwelt in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.”
The same language is found in the Septuagint.
So we can see that there is numerological discrepancies present here amidst all of this.
Part of this problem is easily solved, as I said, with the fact of Stephan and Moses in all probability rounding off the figure 430 to 400. Not a biggie – unless you are a biblical literalist.
However we are still faced with an issue that is not so easily resolved.
From the account which Moses has given of the lives of certain persons, it seems apparent that the amount of time which they spent in Egypt was not four hundred years at all.
Herein lies the biggest problem with Stephan’s 400 year citation. Let me explain.
First, in Genesis 46:8 and 11 it appears that Kohath was born when Jacob went into Egypt. And he lived one hundred and thirty-three years (according to Exodus 6:18.)
Then his son, Amram, who was the Father of Moses, lived one hundred and thirty-seven years (according to Exodus 6:20.)
And then Moses was eighty years old when he was sent to Pharaoh, according to Exodus 7:7.
Add it all up and the total time thus mentioned, including the time in which the fathers lived after his son was born, and we get 350 years.
However, according to another account of Josephus, the actual time of their actually being in Egypt could not have been more than about two hundred years!
So the question is, “How can all these accounts be reconciled?”
I would suggest that the only satisfactory way is to believe that the four hundred and thirty years includes the whole time from the calling of Abraham to the COI departing from Egypt and up to Moses receiving the Law.
To support this approach we must try and remember that . . .
The main purpose of all the narratives on this subject is to trace the period before they (the Nation) became finally settled in the land of Canaan and out from bondage to Egypt. During all this period from the calling of Abraham, they were (even through the sole life of Abraham the father of the Nation) in a wandering, unfixed situation. This constituted substantially one period, including all their oppressions, hardships, and dangers – so we might see this accounting as a natural reference this entire period.
Also remember that all of “this period could properly be called the period of promise, not of possession.” In this respect, the wanderings of Abraham and the oppressions of Egypt came under the same general description and therefore are included in the chronology of years. Also,
Because even Abraham was himself occasionally in Egypt (and in an unsettled state) and since Egypt was pre-eminent in scripture as a source of trouble for the Nations it is natural to speak of all their oppressions as having occurred in that country – including those that Abraham himself had prior to his seed growing in number.
Both the Septuagint and the Samaritan texts support this thinking, and
We ought to also remind ourselves that when it comes to biblical congruity, numbers and chronology are the most difficult to which we can affix certainty.
I tell you all of this to prepare you for the reality of the passages, to give you reasonable responses, and enable you to walk in truth rather than fables of dogmatism.
(Okay verse 7, where Luke continues siting Stephan’s speech)
7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage (Egypt) will I judge, said God: and after that shall they (the Nation of Israel) come forth, and serve me in this place (the place where Abraham first received these promises from God).
So God has told Abraham (foretold) what will happen to his seed when they get to Egypt but here God says that the nation that placed his people in bondage would He judge.
Now, this admits something to us about who was responsible and culpable for putting the Nation in bondage and treating them wrongly – not God, but Egypt itself.
In other words this is evidence that God’s foreknowledge of a matter in no way causes evil to occur. This is further supported by that fact that God here says that He will judge those who commit sin – in this case, Egypt.
From these words it is obvious that God (who is good and just) will both pronounce and execute judgement upon these evil doers because they were culpable of the evil they did.
Again, His knowing what they would do does not justify or cause the acts they chose to commit.
And then Stephan reminds his audience that God told the Father of the Faith (Abraham) that once his seed came out of bondage that they would worship him in the very same land where Abraham was given the promise.
Alright at verse 8 Stephan continues, and going back to the story of God working with Abraham now says :
8 And he (God) gave him (Abraham) the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
I want to spend the rest of our time discussing this first line – so that we all understand what is meant by it.
“And God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision . . .”
Let’s talk about those two terms for a moment – covenant and circumcision – and their use and meaning in scripture.
Both terms (and the implementation and practice of them) are extremely emblematic and are interposed in scripture as representations of something much (shall we say) bigger than what the individual acts of covenant making or circumcision provide.
Try and think of it this way – a covenant is an agreement and circumcision is removing the foreskin of a male’s penis.
A very basic and yet odd combination of words and deeds.
Remember though that God (who is spirit) is working in and through – here at the start – a single man, Abraham, who will father an entire nation, as a means to bring salvation to the world.
In this vast plan and approach God weaves His ways into the fabric of human history and those threads wind up giving us some wonderful principles by which God accomplishes His good will . . . among a fallen world of fallen people.
The Hebrew word translated covenant in the King Jaems is “beer-eeth,” and it apparently is derived from two other root words:
(barah) BAW RAW (with an H) which means “to select or choose” and (bara’ – no H) which means to “create or form or cut down.”
So the word “beer-ith” in its most literal, biblical sense means “a confederacy or agreement made between something that is cut.”
Between two people the term covenant properly relates to an agreement that is made (as in “we cut a deal”) and such deals are typically attended with pledges, sanctions, seals, tokens or signs.
“Bob and Jim entered into an agreement where they would each promise to do certain things, obey certain stipulations, and then they each “signed” the contract, pledged their own homes as financial surety, shook hands, and tattooed a star on their right shoulder to signify that they were a team.”
Though extreme – these are elements of covenant making between men.
In Genesis 15 and 17 (and in other places) it says that God would establish his “covenant” (God’s agreement or deal – not mans and not Abrahams, but God’s covenant) with Abraham and this covenant came with pledges and signs too.
That is, God made Abraham certain definite pledges and Abraham was commanded to apply the sign or token of God’s covenant to himself (and to all males who would ever come into the National family).
The circumcision was a token or sign of identification – first for Abraham, then his son Ishamael, then all the rest of his house, and then all the rest of his male seed that would spring forth from Isaac and Jacob.
Now, listen –this is important when understanding biblical covenants where God is involved – ready – the idea of a strict agreement (covenant) between God and man, as between equal parties here on earth, is not really found in the Bible.
What is found is God promising to do something and Man agreeing to a stipulated act to signal that he and his family are recipients of God’s promises.
A (biblical) covenant is therefore another name for describing two things on the part of God:
First, it is a command from God and one that man is not at liberty to reject, as he could be if was a literal covenant between he and another human being; and then
Second, it is a promise, which God is at liberty to fulfill on the condition of obedience to terms He has established.
So let’s go to Genesis chapter 15 and read to learn about this Abrahamic Covenant. Listen for key terms used here
Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”
2 And Abram said, “Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?”
3 And Abram said, “Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.”
4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”
6 And Abraham believed in the LORD; and God counted it to him for righteousness.
Now listen to the key words related to this covenant
7 And God said unto him, “I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.”
There is God’s promise.
8 And Abraham said, “Lord GOD, whereby shall I know (what is the surety or witness) that I shall inherit it?”
9 And he said unto him, “Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
(it is believed that God here allowed Abraham here to experience what would happen to his people here vicariously when they would be placed in bondage and this is the horror of great darkness that fell upon him.)
13 And he said unto Abram (presumably while he was in the darkness or therafter), “Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
This is extremely symbolic stuff but to simmer it all down we note the following:
First of all, it was God who made a promise to Abraham not Abrahams promise to God. God would do “the blessing” and all Abraham had to do was receive what God would do and bear the token of the covenant in his flesh – which we will read about next.
Then we also note that when there is a covenant established from God to Man (when God makes a promise in other words to man) a sacrifice is required associated – here the bodies of a number of divided animals were laid out on the ground which Abraham oversaw.
Then we note that to give Abraham the surety or sign or signature on the deal we read that once night fell “a smoking furnace of AFFICTION” and “a burning LAMP passed” between the divided, sacrificed animals as if God was saying:
“All I have said will happen. Here is the evidence for you Abraham. And I will do what I have said,” (I will give your inheritance the land of promise after they have gone through suffering as I’ve described) “I swear this to be upon the loss of life laying out before you, Abraham, that amidst darkness, and smoking furnaces of affliction I will be a shining burning lamp to guide them.”
We also note that in the face of God’s covenant Abraham was not at liberty to reject His promises. It was from God to man. Period.
What God did establish, however, was that amidst all members of the Nation of Israel there was to be a “token” that they would bear in their flesh to prove that they were the recipients of God’s promises.
Now a token is a symbol or visible or tangible representation of a fact.
(This tattoo is a token of mine to represent my allegiance and belief in the work of Christ on my behalf).
As the people who would be the recipients of God’s promises they were to identify themselves through a specific sacrifice of their own – also a cutting – that of the foreskin of every male – even of male servants or even foreigners that were to come into the land that they were to inherit.
The phrase, “covenant of circumcision,” means, therefore, “the covenant or promise which God made to Abraham, of which circumcision was the distinguishing mark, sign or token.”
Why this particular token?
Circumcision served as a sacrifice of sorts (especially to males – we don’t like losing ANY part of that appendage (but it is a sacrifice that included the cutting or dividing of flesh from flesh), it includes a shedding of blood, and (listen) a token in the flesh of a separated people, and “as an identifier which is especially tied to family, reproduction and marriage.”
Circumcision separated them (the Nation of Israel out as a peculiar people) a people whose peculiar characteristic it was that they obeyed and served the God who had made promises to Abraham.
Now, we refer to the words of God as His covenant to us. That is why the proper name of the Old and New Testament is the Old and New Covenant.
They are God’s promises to us, and then what He asks that we bear in terms of a token to show we are partakers of these promises.
If we are partakers of the Old Covenant then us males ought to partake in the sacrificial covenant of circumcision to identify with those promises and that token.
But if we are partakers of the New Covenant we ought to partake in another type of sacrificial token.
We’ll speak to this in a minute. Getting back to Abraham we read in Genesis 17:7-13 about God giving Abraham the covenant of circumcision. There we read God say:
Genesis 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
9 And God said unto Abraham, “Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.”
We note that God repeatedly speaks of this agreement as “HIS (or “My”) Covenant.”
We also note that in God says that “His Covenant shall be in your flesh . . .”
And again – LISTEN – all of this was part and parcel of Gods OLD Covenant with the Children of Israel.
So there we have it.
Promises of God to Man (Abraham and his offspring)
The demand that those who are to be the recipients of his promises place a token in their flesh that would require sacrifice, the cutting of flesh, the shedding of blood, and a ready identifier of all who are his through flesh and blood lineage to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
This is what Stephan is preaching to his audience of Jews.
Verse 6 and 7 are taken right out of Genesis 15
6 And God spake on this wise, “That his seed (Abraham’s) should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
And then verse 8 taken right out of Genesis 17, saying:
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
So, what about now. Here we are, gentiles first and foremost, under the New Covenant, with all the same things being applicable but in a new or different way.
In the Old Covenant God deal directly with males who were descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He promised them a literal land for their literal fleshly genealogical offspring, and commanded that they place in their flesh the token or representation of this covenant, circumcision, which required sacrifice on the part of each male, the cutting away of flesh from other flesh, the shedding of blood, and marked in their actual skin their identity as part of the House of Israel.
But instead of animals being slain and laid out on the ground or on an altar to signify sacrifice His gave His only begotten Son.
And instead of those who are part of direct physical male lineage being recipients of God’s promises, all – male, female, bond, free – are adopted by faith into His promises.
And instead of actually cutting off a literal appendage those under the New Covenant, male and female, because of God’s promises to them, circumcise their hearts (which is a wholly spiritual action).
This is the token believers bear as people adopted into the House of Israel – it is the token we are identified by as recipients of God’s promises – a circumcised heart.
Paul puts it this way:
Romans 2:28-29 “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that outwardly in flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart; in spirit and not in letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.”
In other words the Old Covenant, where men were physically identified as God’s and could even receive the praise of man because they had been snipped, has passed, and God, now seeks those who seek to worship Him from the heart and identifies those as his who have cut away the hardness of heart by faith.
Now there is no outward Jew – we are all justified by faith, as we read:
Romans 3:30 which says,
“Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision (actual Jews) by faith, and uncircumcision (Gentiles) through faith.”
He adds in Galatians 5:6 “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
Sacrifices that dwell and come from the circumcised HEART! God is not looking on a Nation of physical believers offering physical sacrifices (which, whether an animal or a piece of flesh end the life of the item) but of individuals who offer up spiritual, living sacrifices.
Romans 12:1 says:
“I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.
Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision has any strength, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
And Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
That’s radical.
In conclusion Colossians 2:8-14 summarizes a lot of this well for us, saying:
“Beware lest anyone rob you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power,
11 in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in whom also you were raised through the faith of the working of God, raising Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
(beat)
Q AND A
