Anti-Moses and Anti-Christ

“Listening to Stephen Preach About Moses”

(Acts 7:17-43, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, August 7, 2011)

17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, …

The so-called Synagogue of the Freedmen, a group of foreign born Jews zealous for Jewish tradition and living in Jerusalem, had captured the Jewish Christian leader, Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. They made claims that he was the anti-Moses. They could not deal with Stephen on the fair playing field of debate, so they used force. They may not have been happy about the Sanhedrin giving this Stephen a chance to defend himself. But God has His plans, and He has His ways, and Stephen still speaks today in this message in Acts 7.

He has spoken to this assembly of religious leaders in earlier verses about the Old Testament men of faith Abraham and Joseph. Now he comes to Moses. The key question is this: Who is with Moses? Is it the Synagogue of Freedmen as they follow the traditions handed down through the centuries, or is it Stephen who has a face like an angel and is willing to confront proud men?

God's people, Israel, lived in Egypt for over four hundred years. Eventually they were enslaved there, but God had made a promise centuries before that He would give them a land, and the time drew near for that promise to be fulfilled. They would face murderous opposition from their captors, but God would use Moses to bring them out of bondage so that they might worship Him. God saved Moses from sure destruction and then He used him as a mediator between Himself and His Old Testament people. Stephen says this about Moses: “He was beautiful in God's sight.” Why might that be? Moses had all of the advantages of an adopted child in the highest home in Egypt, but he was called to suffer for the good of Israel. For Israel's part, they were never particularly ready to receive this man chosen by God as their deliverer. Early on in his first efforts to walk in the calling that God had placed within his heart, an anonymous Israelite expressed well the unwillingness of the people to follow Moses when he said to him, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?”

Moses tried to run away from the calling that God had placed upon his life, but you cannot run away from God. Why do we try? Why don't we yield to the one who has prepared good works for us that we might walk in them?

30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him …

God called Moses back to Egypt through the amazing experience of the burning bush, which Stephen says involved the appearance of an angel, a heavenly being, a messenger of God Himself, the great I-AM, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses had humility and even fear before God. God had seen the troubles of His people, and He was determined to send Moses back to Egypt to serve as an agent of deliverance. This Moses was rejected by the people before he left Egypt, and he faced trouble from the people after he came back. He had this: God sent him as both ruler and redeemer as confirmed by a messenger from heaven, and by the wonders and signs that he performed throughout this entire period of over forty years. In his day, the people of Israel troubled him over and over again, but as the centuries moved forward to the time of Christ, everyone adopted his name in order to baptize their own pet religious practices. They all claimed to be followers of Moses, but were they?

Stephen points out that Moses was more than a giver of the Law. He was a prophet, a miracle worker, a man who heard from heaven, and an agent of divine rescue. Though he brought living oracles from God to the hundreds of thousands of Israelites, they would not obey his word. Though he was used to bring them out of Egypt, over and over again they contended that the former days of slavery were better.

The plain fact of Old Testament witness is that Israel refused to obey Moses. They turned to Aaron and had him make a golden calf. They assumed that Moses was dead and gone since he had not been seen for forty days after he went up Mount Sinai. The Sanhedrin assumed that Jesus was dead and gone too. They would be happy to see Stephen dead and gone. But God cannot be easily dismissed and put aside. He is more than a golden calf fashioned by the hands of men.

42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, …

Israel not only rejected Moses. They rejected the Lord who brought them out of Egypt with such great signs and wonders. The prophets, Amos and others, make this point in their writings. Israel was not faithful to God in the wilderness. They worshiped the gods of the nations, and the constellations in the heavens. God rejected His people for a time, and sent them far away into exile, as He had warned them He would do in the earlier books of Moses.

Stephen was not the anti-Moses. Moses believed in a coming Messiah, a prophet like him, but greater than him, a prophet worth listening to. When Moses appeared with Elijah at the Transfiguration during the ministry of Jesus, He was with Jesus, that greater prophet. He heard what Peter, James and John heard when a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the heavenly cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Luke tells us that, “two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” Jesus was talking to Moses and Elijah about something that all the Old Testament followers of God longed to understand. The Messiah would make peace with God for us by suffering and dying for us, and then ascending to heavenly glory and power. Moses had longed for the age of the coming Holy Spirit. Stephen would not allow false religionists to co-opt this iconic biblical figure for their own man-made traditions and power plays. How much more must we stand firm for the true Jesus of the Scriptures, the one Moses loved, and who like Moses, was rejected in His day.

1. What does Stephen teach his hearers concerning Moses?

2. What does Stephen teach his hearers concerning Israel in Egypt?

3. What does Stephen teach his hearers concerning Israel in the wilderness?

4. What does all of this have to do with their rejection of Jesus and Stephen?

OT Passage: Psalm 90