After being accused of blasphemously teaching that Jesus would destroy the temple and remove Moses’ law (Acts 6:12-13; cf. Matthew 24:1-2), a faithful disciple named Stephen is arrested and brought before the Jewish council and the High Priest to give an account (Acts 6:12-15; 7:1-2; cf. Mark 13:9-11). What proceeds next from the mouth of Stephen is perhaps the most beautiful, concise, heart-breaking, and sin convicting history lesson recorded in the New Testament scriptures … a history lesson that would that reveal how things had gone so wrong with the Jews and their Deliverer in Stephen’s present-day.
"History repeats itself," is a common saying and Stephen’s lesson proves it was a common theme with the physical descendants of Abraham. They had rejected their deliverer in the flesh (Acts 7:9-14), they had rejected their lawgiving deliverer (Acts 7:25-28; 35-40), and they had rejected their deliverer king – God himself (Acts 7:44-50). Stephen culminates this historical recount (being repeated by a people who had rejected Jesus: their brother in the flesh, their lawgiver, and their God as king) by telling his false accusers they were guilty of the very sins their ancestorial fathers were guilty of – a resistance and rejection of God’s deliverance!
“51 “You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors did! 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become! 53 You received the law by decrees given by angels, but you did not obey it.”” (Acts 7:51-53)
From that point on, the people sadly proved Stephen correct when they forced him outside the city to murder him, even as he displayed with his last words the same forgiving spirit of his rejected Deliverer (Acts 7:54-60; cf. Luke 23:34).
Hindsight can indeed make the things of the past clear and easy to see, but what do we see when we look at ourselves in the present? Has our heart learned from the historical mistakes of God’s people as we should (1 Corinthians 10:1-11), or are we also rejecting our deliverance by resisting the grace of the gospel within our hearts and ears? (2 Peter 2:20-22) Time will certainly tell, the present will soon become the past, and the past will determine our future, so may we be tender hearted enough to allow the past to create a desire that obeys the word of God today.
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