Acts 7:1-36

7:1-53 | The council had levied four charges against Stephen: blaspheming God, Moses, the law, and the temple. If true, all would have been worthy of death. In his response, Stephen surveyed the entire OT to show that what the Jews called blasphemy was actually a description of the changes God was bringing to Israel through the Just One, the long-awaited Messiah whom they had just crucified.

7:6 | God’s judgment on His chosen was strict because He was guiding and disciplining them, preparing them for His ultimate blessing. Christians are protected from God’s wrath through the cross, but no one is exempt from God’s correction (Heb. 12:3-11).

7:9-10 | Hardships and difficulties, even tragedies, do not mean that God is absent. The Lord was with Joseph in the midst of his trials, shaping him into the man Egypt and his own people needed (Gen. 39:21-23). God’s presence is never passive. The silence of God should never be attributed to the absence of God.

7:16 | Jacob had made his sons promise to carry his bones back to the land God had promised (Gen. 50:13). Jacob had faith in that promise; he knew the time in Egypt was temporary.

7:17-34 | In this section of Stephen’s remarks, he uses the three periods of Moses’ life – 40 years of education among the Egyptians, 40 years of isolation in Midian, and 40 years of ministry leading the children of Israel – as an outline (Ex. 3:7-10; Heb. 11:27). He highlighted the persecution of Moses, not his victories, and pointed to the miracles of Moses as proof of God at work through him.

7:35-37 | Stephen’s references to Christ were all but explicit at this point. His audience knew the stories of the OT, and they were listening not so much to the facts as to the implications of the facts Stephen chose.