And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said:

“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died,  into this land in which you are now living. 5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

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. (ESV)

I noticed, first of all, that Stephen was tender and respectful in his address (2), even though he was also forthright and direct, as we will see later.

We are going to read through this sermon in three sections, because there is so much material to cover, but just a general comment here on the sermon as a whole: he takes them on a journey; gives them a potted history of their nation, and its halting, limping, often straying relationship with God. He takes them through facts which would be well known to them. The depth and breadth of his understanding, and his ability to communicate these details to his contemporary situation is breath-taking. The whole sweep of it shows that ‘History is His (God’s) Story.’

‘The drift of the whole speech, which must be borne in mind as we read it, is that again and again the Chosen People had rejected their God-sent deliverers and prophets, and had taken their own evil courses. The rejection of the Saviour was only a parallel to that of Joseph by his brethren, and that of Moses by the nation. Israel had always been stiff-necked and froward, and ought not history to warn Stephen’s hearers against taking a similar attitude towards Jesus of Nazareth?’ F.B.Meyer

Just one little thing to leap out at me in the section about Abraham is the comment that ”God removed him from there” (4). May the Lord direct our paths and choose our homes.

PRAYER: ‘Yea, choose the path for me, although I may not see, the reason thou dost will to lead me so…’ – from the hymn ‘Thy blessed will divine’)