SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/28/2017 8:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Death and
Life
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 7:58-59
Message of the verses: “58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"”
I suppose that all who have read this account of the
death of Stephen and have compared it to the death of Jesus realize that when
Christ was crucified that it was stated by the Jews who were behind this that
they did not have the authority to execute anyone, and yet when we read this
account of Stephen’s death we see that he was killed by stoning, which was how
the Law stated that one who blasphemes is to be executed. This leads me to believe that this was mob
violence and not a legal execution even though done according to the law. It seems that they did try and do this with
some semblance of being legal as “they had driven him out of the city.” Leviticus 24:14, 16 state “14 "Bring the one who has cursed outside
the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then let all
the congregation stone him. 16
’Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to
death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the
native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.” I can’t help but think of what Polycarp said
when he was being burned because he would not worship the emperor as I think
about those who were stoning Stephen.
Polycarp stated that the fire that was being used to kill him would
eventually go out, but the fire that those who were killing him would never go
out. The same is true of the Sanhedrin
as only one of them who took part in this will become a believer as far as
Scripture tells us.
We read that before they “began stoning” Stephen, “the
witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.” Deuteronomy 17:7 states “"The hand of
the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the
hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” John MacArthur writes that “Perhaps the false
witnesses did.”
John MacArthur writes “Despite their anger, the Sanhedrin
apparently tried to give Stephen’s death the appearance of formal justice. It is true that the Romans reserved the right
of capital punishment for themselves.
Pilate, however, was still governor, and the Sanhedrin knew that they
had nothing to fear from him. He had
proved his vacillating weakness in permitting the execution of Jesus, whom he
knew was innocent. But he had Him killed
anyway, because he feared the Jews would cause him to lose his position as
governor (cf. John 19:1-18). In spite of
his efforts, he was in serious trouble with Rome, which would shortly recall
him as governor. Also, he normally lived
in Caesarea, not Jerusalem, and hence was probably nowhere near this scene.
“It is doubtful, however, that the full procedure for
execution by stoning prescribed in the Mishna
was carried out in Stephen’s case. That
procedure called for the victim to be pushed off a ten-foot-high parapet. If that did not kill him, the first witness
dropped a large stone on his heart. In
the unlikely event that he survived that, the second witness then dropped
another on him. It is highly unlikely
that Stephen would have been in any condition to speak if that had been done in
his case (cf. vv. 59-60). More likely is
the scene of uncontrollable angry people pushing, shoving, and throwing rocks
at random at Stephen. It should be noted
from Acts 8:2 that they did not follow the legally prescribed manner of burial
given in the Talmud, adding more evidence that the whole affair was illegal.
“The mention of ‘a young man named Saul’ marks a major
turning point in salvation history.” We
wrote earlier that eventually Saul who would be later name Paul would pick up
the mantle of Stephen, but if we did not know the rest of the story we probably
would not figure it out from this scene.
Paul would be the dominant figure from Acts chapter 13 until the end of
the book, and as mentioned he probably thought about this scene many times
later on in his life.
“59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord
and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"” We see what Stephen said was similar to who
Jesus said when He said from the cross “Father, into Thy hands I commit My
spirit” (Luke 23:46).” Just as Jesus
knew that He would soon enter the presence of His Father, so Stephen knew that
he too would soon be entering the presence of His Lord, and this gives comfort
to all true believers when they face death.
We know from the teaching of Scripture that Stephen’s prayer was
answered immediately as we read that Paul writes “absence from the body is
presence with the Lord.”
We have one more section to look at in this section from
the life and death of Stephen and we will do that tomorrow, Lord willing.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful for
the truth that Paul wrote “absence from the body is presence with the Lord.” “2Co
5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and
to be present with the Lord.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: My study for this week’s Sunday school class
is on the “worldly church” and my prayer is that God will give me wisdom to say
what He wants me to say.
Memory verse: Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if
anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “He was blind” (Luke 18:35).
Today’s Bible
question: “The shortest verse in the
Bible records that Jesus did what?”
Answer in our next SD. 11/28/2017 9:30 AM
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