Israel’s History of Unbelief

Transcript

GR 1595
03/06/11
Israel's History of Unbelief
Acts 7:30-43
Gil Rugh

We're going to Acts 7. We're getting a history overview of the nation Israel by Stephen. And Stephen is giving this overview of Israel's history to men who knew the facts of the history every bit as well as he did. This is the Sanhedrin of Israel, men who had the oversight responsibility of the nation. And if anyone at the time would have known the facts of Israel's history, these men would have known that history. But he is giving the history of Israel not to inform them, not even to remind them of facts they have forgotten, but to drive home the significance of certain events in that history that really remind them and are to draw to their attention their own spiritual deadness, that Israel's history has been characterized by unbelief, by a failure to respond in faith to the revelation that God had given.

He started out with Abraham and that laid a good, solid foundation because Abraham was a man of faith. But from there things began to disintegrate. And he moved to talk about the patriarchs, he talked about Joseph first and Joseph was the subject of rejection by his brothers who had formed the patriarchal family of Israel—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then the twelve sons of Jacob form the heads of the twelve tribes. And these leaders of Israel's family joined together in rejecting Joseph, the man selected and appointed by God, the man who received revelation from God, the man who would be the savior of the nation Israel, if you would, because his family would come under his protection and provision in Egypt. But Joseph's brothers rejected him.

He moved on from Joseph and the patriarchs to Moses and the bulk of the message of Stephen is concerned with Moses. Stephen has been accused of blasphemy against Moses but what he will demonstrate is the leaders of Israel are the ones guilty of sin against Moses, just as the people of Israel rejected Moses and his leadership again and again. So also they have rejected the leader and Savior that God provided in the person of Jesus Christ.

You know a reminder, it is important for us to be familiar with the history that God has given us. As I worked through this I thought, I wonder how many of us who have been believers for many years could take and overview the history that God has set forth in the word of God and be discerning in pointing out what we are to learn from that history. We're studying the history of the early church when we are in the book of Acts. There is a purpose in that, not just to learn some of the facts of history but to appreciate from those facts of history the spiritual lessons that carry right down to our day. We've seen in Acts 5 the judgment with Ananias and Sapphira, a reminder of how seriously God takes the holiness of His people and how we are to function. These are things that we are to take seriously and learn from. The danger in history and the history of the scripture in particular, is we read it as history and we fail to consider ourselves in light of that history. We sometimes read it and wonder why they would do what they did. It seems so clear to us. But that's always the case when we look back on something, it seems clear to us. We want to take to heart what we are learning from that so our present situation takes on greater clarity. And that's what Stephen will, he draws the application of this history to those that he is addressing and the impact is overwhelming.

So Moses the great servant of the Lord, greatly used of God. He broke his life down into three 40-year sections. Living in Egypt for forty years and growing up in Pharaoh's household with all the learning and training that would come to one given such a unique and special position. It's going to be forty years later when Moses comes back, but he comes back as a man familiar with being in the courts of Pharaoh, having been prepared by God with the best training in Egypt and the familiarity. He doesn't come back to a strange situation. Interestingly, the second forty years will be spent in Midian, and we'll be looking at that in a moment. Again God preparing Moses because he is going to live in a region where Israel will wander for the last forty years. And God prepares Moses by what he is going to go through—for the first forty years of his life and then the second forty years. When Moses was leading Israel in the wilderness, he wasn't in a totally new area to himself. In fact when God appears to him after forty years in Midian, where is Moses? Do you know where he is? He's at Mt. Sinai. You know where he is going to be with the children of Israel after he brings them out of Egypt, he's going to end up at Mt. Sinai. God has a wonderful way of preparing us for what He wants to do with us in the future. Moses had no way of knowing, I mean, when you leave Egypt with the best training in the household of Pharaoh and he had to leave according to verse 29, because he had intervened on behalf of Israel, thinking that the Jews would understand that God was going to use Him as a deliverer. Verse 25, he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance, salvation through him. But they didn't understand. Remember Moses intervened to protect a Jew from mistreatment by an Egyptian and he killed the Egyptian. But then when he comes back a Jew says why are you here? Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us, verse 27? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? And Moses realizes he is in trouble so he has to flee Egypt. The record in Exodus tells us that Pharaoh was out to kill Moses.

But Moses flees and the point that Stephen has made, it was the action in rejecting him by the Jews who had necessitated the flight of Moses. Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? We know who had made Moses the ruler and judge over them, God. Israel doesn't see it so that's part of Stephen preparing the way.

Verse 29, at this remark Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian where he became the father of two sons. So verses 29-35 are about Moses living in Midian. Basically we pass over the forty years in Midian because when we come to verse 30, after forty years had passed. Forty years, that's a long time. Forty years in Egypt being trained and prepared in the best training of the Egyptians. Now he flees to Midian. You know Midian is not a very hospitable place. It's the Gulf of Aqaba, on the east side of the Gulf of Aqaba today we know as Saudi Arabia. So that region around the Gulf of Aqaba. On the western side of the Gulf of Aqaba we have what is usually identified as Sinai. So that was the region he was going to, not a very populous area, not a great place. According to Genesis 25 the children of Abraham's second wife settled here, the land of Midian biblically, children from Abraham's second wife, Keturah, settled in the eastern region. That would have been included there.

Here Moses fathered two sons. We just pass over that. The book of Exodus tells us that one was Gershom, it means a stranger there. And he named him Gershom because he was a sojourner, a “ger.” Gershom meaning a stranger there, what he named his son. I'm a stranger. You see Moses realizes something of God's purpose. He knows he doesn't belong there. He goes there; he marries there a woman of the land, and he father’s two children there. But he realizes this is not God's place for him. His second son is named Eleazer, my God is help. And that's told in Exodus 18. He named him that because God had delivered from the sword of Pharaoh. God is not done training him; He trained him for forty years in the household of Pharaoh and the best of the Egyptians. Now He puts him out in the wilderness for another forty years of training so that when he is eighty is prepared for specific task that God has for him.

So verse 30, after forty years had passed, God appears to Moses. He has been living as an alien in the land of Midian. Exodus 2:15 says that Moses became an alien in the land of Midian where he'll spend forty years. You might think if you were just observing from the outside what is happening to Moses, things had come apart. He had the best training in Egypt, the best opportunity to be an influence in the very household of Pharaoh. But he has failed, made some mistakes as we would look at it humanly, so you spend forty years in the desert. That would seem like a wasted life. But it's not, it’s part of God's plan for preparing Moses for what he will do with the next forty years, the most significant forty years of his life and what we know him for.

So after forty years had passed, verse 30, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mt. Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. How significant this place is going to be in Israel's history. And here Moses out taking care of flocks and so on, he just happens to be in this important area. Moses is 80 years of age because verse 23 told us when he was approaching the age of forty he had to flee Egypt because of the activity surrounding that. Then after another forty years had passed, verse 30, so he is an 80-year-old man.

An angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mt. Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. We're told in the Exodus account that the bush wasn't consumed, so this is what got Moses' attention. Not just that there is a bush on fire here, but a bush is on fire but it is not burning up. So verse 31, when Moses saw it he marveled at the sight. And so he wants to get a better look at what is going on here. As he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord. And so out of this burning bush a voice speaks. And what does the voice say? I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. This carries us back to the covenant that God had established with Abraham, repeated with Isaac, repeated with Jacob. That's where Stephen began his unfolding of the account, with the call of Abraham and then the covenant that God had made with Abraham. And then when God told Abraham that your people will go down into slavery to a foreign land for 400 years. Isn't it encouraging reading that? Four hundred years later God has not forgotten one word of what He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is still the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And it would seem 400 years in a foreign land enslaved to people seemingly without hope. But we know from the Exodus account because we're familiar with the history, it was a hard slavery. They were mistreated and yet now God appears and speaks to Moses.

Now not only is Moses not in the land of Canaan, he's not in the land of Egypt. He spent forty years in the wilderness, tending herds and flocks, having married into the family of Jethro to one of the daughters of Jethro, Zipporah. Here you think of a man who lost his opportunity, gone from the household of Pharaoh to forty years in the wilderness taking care of flocks and herds and now God appears to him in this desolate no-place, humanly looking at it. A bush is on fire. Moses turns to see the sight. He's not even reading a portion of whatever revelation he might have had from God. It doesn't even say he was in deep prayer. Out of the middle of nowhere, almost like when God appeared to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abraham part of a family of idol worshipers and God appears to him and tells him leave your family. Now here in the middle of the wilderness out of nowhere a bush is burning.

Moses turns aside to look more closely at the sight and as he does the voice of the Lord comes out of the bush. I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I'm the God of the covenant. And this is a momentous occasion. God is here now to do what He promised because after 400 years He is going to deliver the people from Egypt.

So Moses being removed from Egypt, and the result of the rejection by the people of Israel. Nothing frustrates the plan of God. Forty years in the wilderness, part of the plan of God. Now you are going back to Egypt, Moses. Wouldn't you think that the “best” thing for God to have done was just to use Moses in the household of Pharaoh? Perfect plan. And Moses with a position of influence could have been used of God to have Pharaoh say, I'm going to let those people go. Why don't you go back to the land? And Moses, you be their leader. I'm proud of you; you were raised in our household. No, because God has a second purpose, He's going to judge the Egyptians for having enslaved His people. God uses the sin of people to accomplish His purposes. It doesn't excuse them or relive them from any responsibility. But we need to keep that in mind. Treated unfairly, treated unjustly. Stephen is about to die, do you think that's out of the plan of God? Not a bit. God is sovereignly in control here.

Moses shook with fear and wouldn't venture to look. This is awesome. I mean, you see a bush burning and it is not being consumed and you go over to look whether there is something unique happening here in a natural way. He is not expecting the voice of God to come out of that bush. And when it does he is afraid. So afraid, he is shaking. And he doesn't even want to look anymore at the bush. I might be consumed and burned up here.

But the Lord said to him, take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. You know what is emphasized here is the place where God is, is where holiness is. Right? This Sanhedrin sitting here thinks that because they are in the land that God promised to the Jews and they are the people who have received the promise, the Jews, that everything is okay. But you understand Moses can be outside the land, not even in an important place like the court of Pharaoh, in the wilderness of nowhere but it is holy because God is there. And you know by the time Stephen is giving this sermon, God is no longer dwelling in Israel. They are still His chosen people but in Ezekiel 10 about 600 years before Stephen is giving this sermon, the glory of God departed from the temple in Israel.

Come back to Ezekiel 10. Don't get confused, this is not part of Stephen's sermon, but it is part of the history of Israel. If we had read the opening chapter of Ezekiel we would have seen the glory of God. And here we pick up in chapter 10. And you have the cherubim and the presence of God there. Verse 4, the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple and the temple was filled with a cloud and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of God. Moreover the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks. And on the description goes. Then down to verse 18, then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. When the cherubim departed they lifted up their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight with the wheels beside them. They stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord's house and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. You see what is happening? The glory of the Lord is departing from Israel. The glory was gone; they were an empty shell from here on. And we're going to move into the 400 silent years as we know them, shortly, when there is no prophetic word until John the Baptist comes on to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. But he is rejected. The glory has departed from Israel.

Come back to Acts 7. But here is the glory of the Lord, the presence of God in the land of Midian. And God is speaking to Moses. The place where you are standing is holy ground. Why? Because God is present here. We are in the presence of the living God. And you'll note here, it says in verse 30, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mt. Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. And out of the bush came, verse 31, the voice of the Lord which said, I am the God of your fathers. What you have here is the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament who is the preincarnate Christ. We really identify this angel as the Lord, the God of your fathers. A manifestation, the Angel of the Lord, not that Christ was an angel the same as Gabriel or Michael or other angels, but He is the messenger of the Lord, the One who manifests the presence of the Lord on different occasions as the messenger of the Lord or the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, preincarnate Christ. So this is holy ground on which you are standing.

And why is God appearing to Moses? Because now is the time, just as God said, 400 years in a foreign land, enslaved. After that I will bring them out. God never forgets, He is never early and He is never late. He is always exactly on His schedule. I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groan and have come down to rescue them. What a statement—God has come down to rescue them. Here He is appearing to Moses in Midian on the earth. What is He doing here? I have come down to rescue them. I will send you to Egypt. That's God's plan. It was His plan to have Moses raised in the household of Pharaoh in Egypt, it was God's plan to have Moses spend forty years in the wilderness. Now it's God's plan for Moses to go back to Egypt.

We have the highlights here in what the Spirit of God is directing Stephen to bring to their attention. He doesn't talk about the trouble that Moses saw with this plan and his talking it over with God that this is not a good plan, and I'm not the right person to go. Because the point is not to give all the details of the history, but to give the points of the history that are particularly pertinent to their condition. And this one that God had selected when He says, I have come down to rescue them, I will send you, God will send you. Note verse 35, this Moses whom they disowned. And what happens now, Stephen at verse 35 becomes more direct. We have seen how he has been preparing the way by what he has said and it has been made clear back in verses 9-10 that the patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, yet God was with him. And there you have in not a pointed way yet but a clear way that God was with Joseph but because of jealousy his brothers rejected him. But God rescued him, verse 10, and granted him favor. And so you see that Israel is operating, even in the activity of the patriarchs in opposition to what God is doing. And so we see it with Moses in verse 27 when the Israelite said to Moses, who made you a ruler and judge over us? Well verse 25, Moses thought his brethren understood God was granting them deliverance or salvation through him. But they are acting in opposition to God's plan. So God uses their sin for the accomplishing of His purposes. But it does in no way excuse them for their sin in rejecting God's person, Joseph and Moses.

So here Moses again, God has come down to rescue Israel by sending Moses to Egypt. So Moses the man they disowned saying, who made you a ruler and judge? And he inserts that, this Moses whom they disowned is the one whom God sent to be a ruler and a judge, the very one about whom they said, who made you a ruler and a judge? I'll tell you who, God did. So you see now he is becoming more pointed and clear. This Moses whom they disowned by saying, who made you a ruler and a judge, is the very one that God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer. And the very words they used in rejecting Moses reveal their hardened condition. The one that God sent to be both a ruler and a judge, they challenge and reject as their ruler and a judge. The one who would function with the help of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush, the enabling power of the preincarnate Christ, that one who says I am the Lord, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That messenger would be the One who helps him; He is there to enable him to do what God has told him to do.

You know that word deliverer here, when he says he is to be both a ruler and a deliverer? Lutrotes is the Greek word, means redeemer, speaking of the redemption that Christ accomplished. He was sent to be a ruler and a redeemer. And so we've seen the words that Stephen is directed to use drive home the point that the ruler and the deliverer, Redeemer for Israel. Well what is Christ? He is the ruler and Redeemer. And he is preparing the way for driving home the point that Stephen is becoming more direct, beginning with verse 35. They disowned the ruler and redeemer, the one who would function with the help of the Angel who was the God of Abraham and Jacob.

Now we move quickly to the life in the wilderness. So we jump over Moses going back to Egypt basically and all he does. This man led them out, performing signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. So you see he just pulls together the leadership of Moses validated and supported by ongoing miraculous activity that happened in the land of Egypt with the plagues on Egypt, that happened with the crossing of the Red Sea, that happened again and again in the wilderness—water from the rock, manna from heaven, quail and ongoing provisions, sandals that didn't wear out.

So this man led them out performing wonders and miracles in the wilderness for forty years. Here is our third 40-year segment of Moses' life. Deuteronomy tells us he was 120 years when he died—forty years in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness of Midian and forty years leading the children of Israel in the wilderness. Forty years. But God had prepared him with miracles, signs and wonders.

Back up to Acts 2. Peter is preaching the first sermon with the establishing of the church on the Day of Pentecost. He is preaching it to Israel. What does he say in verse 22? Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst. What has Stephen just said about Moses? Well with the help of the Angel who was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the preincarnate Christ, this man, Acts 7:36 led them out performing wonder and signs for forty years. So you see the connection here. The one Moses to be a ruler and a redeemer pictures when God would send the ultimate ruler and redeemer who was attested by signs, wonders and miracles.

What did Israel do over these forty years? Verse 37, this is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. You see now he is making the connection to Christ more direct and clearer. What did Moses prophesy? That God would raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brethren. The prophecy comes from Deuteronomy 18:15

Come back to Acts 3, Peter is preaching his second sermon. He has been preaching about Christ, verse 11, He is called the holy and righteous One. The Jews rejected Him, verses 14-15. They would rather have a murderer set free than have the One who is the author of life set free. Verse 18, the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of the prophets, that as Christ would suffer He has thus fulfilled. Then he calls them to repent and believe that Christ might return from heaven. Verse 21, this One whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. To Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you. It will be that every soul who does not heed that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people. You see how Peter has used the same portion of scripture to draw attention to Christ. And He is the prophet like Moses that God would send. And if you don't respond in faith to Him you will be destroyed, cut off from the promises God has given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

So what is Stephen doing? He is bringing that same message to the leadership of Israel. Back in Acts 7. So Christ is the prophet that was promised and prophesied by Moses. Stephen doesn't blaspheme against Moses, he presents clearly the truth concerning Moses and how he was rejected by Israel again and again. And after leading them for forty years in the wilderness he told them of the promised coming Prophet that would come. That Prophet has come, but Israel has responded the same way—they have rejected Him.

This is the One, verse 38, who was in the congregation in the wilderness. This is the word; you have it in your margin, ecclesia, usually used for church later in the New Testament. Used in reference to the assembly of Israel in the Old Testament, not the church as it would be started in Acts 2. He's talking about the assembly of Israel in the wilderness. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the Angel who was speaking to him on Mt. Sinai and who was with our fathers. And he received living oracles to pass on to you. Moses received from this messenger living oracles to pass on to you. This is what Moses received at Mt. Sinai with the giving of the Law, Christ clearly involved here. These are living oracles. That drives home the accountability of his listeners to this truth. The word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, the writer to the Hebrews said in Hebrews 4. It is alive. And when God speaks His word is alive. Moses received from Christ living oracles, word to which we are accountable. And that's why the one who does not heed that Prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people, as we read in Acts 3 in Peter's sermon, quoting from the account in Deuteronomy 18.

The account of Israel's rebellion, verses 39ff, to this leadership of Moses to the living oracles that Moses received, to the clear testimony. Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him. And in their hearts turned back to Egypt. This is why they are going to spend forty years wandering around on what should have been a very short trip to the Promised Land. Forty years going nowhere, if you will, just wandering around in circles. Going nowhere because they can't go into the land, because they have to wait until everybody who is twenty years old and older dies because of unbelief.

Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him. This is the one, verse 35, they disowned, the one that God sent to be a ruler, a redeemer, the one who was validated by signs and wonders and miracles. Verse 38, the one who received living oracles from God. Verse 39, our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, they repudiated him. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt. So you see what he has done here. Our fathers' rejection of Moses. They repudiated. Back in verse 27, the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away saying. Remember that Israelite pushed Moses away. That word translated pushed away is the word repudiated. We have it translated repudiated in verse 39. Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him but repudiated him. You see Israel he is establishing a pattern of their history. Forty years, after forty years in Egypt Moses is repudiated. Forty years in the wilderness and now he leads the nation and they still repudiate him. God has validated him. They have been at Sinai; God has given him living oracles. I mean all the other miracles and then the awesome appearance of God which caused Israel to tremble. And yet they repudiated him. Their hearts went back to Egypt. Remember they said I wish we had never left Egypt.

And so what did they do? Verse 40. It's not enough just to reject Moses, you see in rejecting Moses they are rejecting God because what Moses had was the word of God, the living oracles. They didn't want to hear it; they didn't want to submit to it. They are unhappy. So they were 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. Where is Moses when this is going on? He's up in the presence of God receiving living oracles. What is Israel doing down there? Make gods for us. We don't know what happened to Moses. Moses is in the presence of God, he has been validated by God. God's presence on Sinai has been clearly demonstrated. Their mind is off. Make gods for us who will go before us. Where do they want to go? They want to go back to Egypt. Their heart is turned back to Egypt. Make gods for us.

Isn't the stupidity of that overwhelming? Make gods for us? I mean, turn back to Isaiah 40. You know you are not supposed to make fun of other people's religion, people say. The prophets didn't know that, God doesn't hold to that because every false religion is an occasion to be mocked. It is stupidity, it is the utmost foolishness. Isaiah 40. Isaiah is to cry out in verse 6, all flesh is grass, all its loveliness like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our God stands forever. Come down to verse 18, to whom then will you liken God? What likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, a silversmith fashions it with chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering, you don't have enough money to make a god out of silver and gold and precious things; you select a tree that doesn't rot. He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter. You want someone who can make it so it will have some stability because you don't want your god to fall over all the time. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth, it is He who sits above the circle of the earth? Its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. This is the One who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, spreads them out like a tent. It is He who reduces rulers to nothing, makes the judges of the earth meaningless. And what are they doing? They are making an image. Make us gods. What kind of god is it that man can make?

Turn over to Isaiah 44:9, God is declaring His uniqueness through this entire section of Isaiah. Verse 8; is there any god besides Me? Is there any other rock? I know of none. Verse 9, those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile. Their precious things are of no profit, their own witnesses fail to see or know so that they will be put to shame. Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? Behold all his companions will be put to shame, the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them be put to shame. The man shapes iron into a cutting tool, does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers. Working with his strong arm. He gets hungry, his strength fails, he has no water, and he becomes weary. I mean, the point is the one making the god gets tired. The maker of the god is a frail piece of grass that will blow away, has such limited strength. He gets tired making his god. Another shapes wood, verse 13, extends a measuring line. He measures it, he plans it, he works it with planes, he outlines it with a compass, makes it like the form of a man, the beauty of a man so it may sit in a house. Surely he cuts cedars for himself, takes a cypress and oak, raises it for himself among the trees. Plants a fir. The rain makes it grow, and then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them to warm himself. He makes a fire to bake bread; he also makes a god and worships it. Takes the same tree, part of the tree you use for firewood to keep yourself warm, the other part of the tree you made your god. How stupid can you be? Did you ever think about it? I just made my god out of the same thing I just put in the fire to keep me warm.

What he is doing here is showing how futile, how empty man is in his thinking. Make me a god. Half of it he burns in the fire, over this half he eats meat and he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He warms himself, I am warm, I have seen the fire. The rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships, he prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my god. They do not know nor do they understand, for he has smeared over their eyes so they cannot see and their hearts so they cannot comprehend. And of all people Israel saying to Aaron, make us gods. What is Aaron's futile response going to be? I don't know, I threw some gold into the fire and out came a calf.

And the fact that we create our own gods today. People go to church, they go to various places, religious centers, and we are supposed to treat it as though this is really serious. That is the dumbest thing I ever saw. Where did you ever get an idea that God wants to be worshiped like that? Where did you ever get any support for thinking that God would do that? My parents raised me that way. The people that had living oracles are telling Aaron make us a god.

Come back to Acts 7. We could have gone to Jeremiah 10. You understand you don't have to have any fear of idols. I read something here in the last week or two; I thought this foolishness had passed. One of the things you have to do if you are having trouble is go through your house and see if you have any items that may have been associated with idolatry at any time because this could have brought demonic influence into your home. I thought that stuff had blown away in the wind as a passing fad. I mean, read Jeremiah 10, don't fear them, they can't do anything good, they can't do anything bad. It's just a pile of wood; it's just a piece of metal. It has no power of any kind. So I don't go through, oh, we were in another country, maybe we picked up this item and maybe somebody worshiped it. I better get it out of here; it's probably filling my house with demons. It's a piece of wood. I mean, it is nothing else. Somebody who had skill as a carpenter, that's all it is. I have no fear of it. Christians running around, get it out of our house.

Back to Acts 7. This is the stupidity, the foolishness; this is what shows the foolishness of Israel. He brings this in. Make us gods. Why? Because their hearts have rejected Moses and in rejecting Moses they have rejected God and the word that God has given to them. So now they want to make gods and their heart has gone back to Egypt. Verse 41, at that time they made a calf, brought a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. It doesn't take much to make foolish sinners happy. Give them a worship that they want, a worship style that they like, and a god of their own making. When Moses gets down from the mountain they are having a great time. What do they have? They have gods that they like.

Verse 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. The book of the prophets is an expression used sometimes in the New Testament to refer to what we call the Minor Prophets, all those little books. The book of the prophets. And that's what he is talking about here; he's going to quote from Amos 5, one of the Minor Prophets. He jumps to one of what we call the Minor Prophets, the prophet Amos to say what they did.

He turned them over 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, oh house of Israel. You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship. I will also remove you beyond Babylon. And it is taken here, the judgment of God on Israel. These gods here, Moloch that was the god of the Ammonites which was worship of Venus. Rompha was the Babylonian name for Saturn. So worship of the supposed gods of the heavens. From the pagans around them, the Ammonites, the Babylonians, others of the Canaanites and peoples of the region, they just grabbed onto these things and made them objects of worship. Forty years they are wandering in the wilderness, God says, you aren't worshiping Me. These are godless unbelievers.

There were 600,000 men above the age of twenty who could be counted, numbered for war. And they have to die. We're talking about a nation of a couple million it's been estimated, to come out of Egypt. Those that were twenty have to die. Talk about funerals. I mean, forty years and you have people dying every day. And we're just wandering around, waiting for the next one to die. The reality of it is we can't go into the land until you die. The children, the younger ones, the ten-year-olds, the twelve-year-olds, those under twenty, they're saying, what are we doing out here. Why are we wandering around here? You have to wander around here until I die. That's what it is all about.

What are they doing? They are living in unbelief. You aren't sacrificing to Me, God says, you were sacrificing to the gods that you love, that you serve. Took along the tabernacle of Moloch, the images which you made to worship. I will remove you beyond Babylon.

Interesting, Amos when he said that, he said, I will remove you beyond Damascus because the northern kingdom was still in existence. Stephen takes it and applies it to the subsequent captivity not only of the northern ten tribes, but of the southern two tribes, because all Israel was involved in this and those listening would have understood that point, that this was the sin of the nation, even though later the prophet Amos will directly address the northern ten tribes in coming judgment on them. That coming judgment applies to the whole nation and what was said is characteristic of the whole nation, what Amos said back then. And that's how Stephen uses it.

What a sad condition for the nation Israel. And you know what? Sadder still, as Stephen addresses them, that's their present condition. What a sad history, a history of rebellion, that's his point, of rejecting the leaders that God provided for you, rejecting the purpose of God for you, rejecting the word of God given to you and continuing to live in unbelief.

Turn over to Hebrews 3; we'll finish up reading this passage. We want to be careful that we learn the lessons as well. We're not just studying Israel's history, we're studying the word of God and all scripture is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness in order that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished for every good work. The things which were written beforehand were written for our admonition.

Look in Hebrews 3:12, take care, brethren, let there be not in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called the day so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end while it is said, today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me. For who provoked Him when they had heard. Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? With whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest but to those who were disobedient? So we see they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, let us fear, if while a promise remains of entering His rest any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also. But the word they heard did not profit them because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He says, I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter My rest.

Stephen is making this point to the Jews he is addressing, but the Spirit of God has recorded it for our benefit as well. We look and say, how sad Israel's history is, it is a history of unbelief and repeated opportunities are rejected. How sad that we should hear this message of God and persist in the same heart of unbelief. Take care, brethren, that there be not in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. The word they heard did not profit them. Why? Because it was not united by faith in those who heard it. You can hear the word of God again and again, be exposed to the beauty of the word and the power of the word, but if you do not believe the word you rejected salvation.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the testimony of Stephen. Thank you, Lord, that you were using him as our spokesman again to the nation. How tragic it will be that the nation and its leaders will again say no, will again refuse to believe the word that you graciously bring before them. Lord, we would take that message to heart, that we who have had the word and another 2,000 years of history of your graciously preserving and proclaiming your word. May we be careful that there not be in any one of us an evil, unbelieving heart in turning away from you, the living God. May we have hearts that are resting securely and firmly in faith in your word and in the Savior that you have provided. We pray in His name, amen.