"The Law" (Acts 7:38-43)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/19/2017 8:49 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  “The Law”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 7:38-43

            Message of the verses:  “38 "This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you. 39  "Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, 40  SAYING TO AARON, ’MAKE FOR US GODS WHO WILL GO BEFORE US; FOR THIS MOSES WHO LED US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT-WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM.’ 41 “At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 "But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ’IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? 43 ’YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF THE GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL REMOVE YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’”

            I suppose that when one thinks of Moses his next thought may be the Law for many call the OT Law, the “Law of Moses.”  Verse 38 speaks of Moses being in the congregation with the children of Israel in the wilderness and then with the angle he was spoken to on Mount Sinai.  Mount Sinai was where God game Moses the Ten Commandments and in the book of Hebrews we see that angels were involved in the giving of the Old Testament Law.  “For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty (Hebrews 2:2).”  “Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made (Gal. 3:19).”  Now as we look at these two verses, three including the one in Acts chapter seven we are never told what the involvement of angels was in the giving of the Law, and so this remains a mystery.  When Luke writes and Stephens uses the term “living oracles” he is speaking of the Law making this a seamless transition from Moses to the Law of Moses. 

            John MacArthur writes “Stephen affirms his belief in the law, again making a ‘not guilty’ plea.  He declares that God was the author of the law, angels were its mediator, and Moses was its recipient.  That certainly was not blasphemy, and the Sanhedrin knew it.”

            We see Stephen now moving onto the offense as he had sufficiently defended himself, and even more.  “39 “Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.”  Stephen was not the one who disobeyed the law, but it was their fathers of the Sanhedrin who disobeyed the Law as Jesus had told people like this that they were of their father the devil.  It was the Sanhedrin’s fathers who were the ones who repudiated Moses and the law.  Their fathers in their hearts wanted to return to Egypt, even though they had been cruelly oppressed there, they still wanted to return to Egypt.  They were not really making sense then and the Sanhedrin were not making sense here either.

            Most of us know that when Moses was up on the Mountain with God for forty days that the children of Israel convinced Aaron to make a golden calf, and idol which represented the god who brought them out of Egypt.  They not only rejected Moses, but they rejected the Law too.  John MacArthur writes “Calf worship was an integral part of Egyptian religion.  Israel’s penchant for idolatry, which began at Sinai, contradicts the proud claims of the Sanhedrin that Israel was the people of the law.  Before it was even delivered to them, they had rejected it.”

            God had every right to destroy the nation of Israel, but actually Moses pleaded with Him stating that it would not be good for His character if He destroyed Israel, but what did happen was three thousand souls died.  I have always read that the day the law was given three thousand people died, but the day the church began on the Day of Pentecost three thousand souls were saved for “the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.”  “42 "But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ’IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?”  In Romans 1:24, 26, 28 we read that God had judicially abandoned the Gentiles and so also did God abandon His people to idolatry.  From the time that Israel wondered in the wilderness until the Babylonian captivity Israel ceaseless had a problem with idols.

            Stephen supports his point by quoting God’s word beginning with the last part of verse 42 “written in the book of the prophets, ’IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? 43 ’YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF THE GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL REMOVE YOU BEYOND BABYLON’ (Amos 5:25-27).”  John MacArthur points out that Amos used the word Damascus where Stephen uses the word Babylon, and both the Hebrew and the Septuagint say Damascus.  MacArthur adds “Amos was prophesying the captivity of the northern kingdom at the hands of Assyria—a deportation which took them beyond Damascus.  Later the southern kingdom was taken captive to Babylon.  Stephen, led by the inspiring Spirit, chooses to expand the text of Amos to embrace the judgment of God on the whole nation.  Stephen’s use of that prophecy succinctly summarizes the sad, idolatrous history of Israel (cf. Deut. 17:3, 2 Kings 17:16; 21:3; Jer. 8:2; 19:13), which culminated in the Babylonian Captivity.” 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Pastoral epistles.”

Today’s Bible question:  “How many people were saved in the ark during the flood?”

Answer in our next SD.  11/19/2017 9:29 PM