After Stephen speaks truth to the Sanhedrin and his other accusers with beautifully veiled language, he finally lets loose with a seven fold rebuke that rivals any of the fire and brimstone preaching of the Old Covenant prophets. In Acts 7 we read:
51 You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers— 53 you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”
Let’s analyze this prophetic word.
You stiff necked people
The description “Stiff necked” originally referred to stubborn beasts of burden that refused to turn in the direction their human owner required. It meant that the animal refused any correction or direction. Stephen is saying these insecure, jealous religious leaders are like stubborn mules that refuse to move in the right direction.
God desired to lead those same religious leaders to the “water of life”, but they refused to turn toward Jesus, and would not “drink” even when the Messiah brought that “living water” to them personally.
Psalm 32:8-9 says;
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.”
You with uncircumcised hearts and ears
This was not an odd thing to say to a bunch of men who were proud of the covenant sign they bore in their flesh. They had read similar things in the Law.
Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskins of your hearts, and be stiff-necked no longer.
They understood exactly what Stephen meant, but we might require more context, so let’s take a closer look.
God made a covenant with Abraham through the ritual of circumcision and commanded all of his Jewish male ancestors to undergo this “covenant cutting” ritual at 8 days old. Since the promise of God to Abraham had to do with his “seed”, which is a “holy double entendre” referring to his sperm and also his progeny, it made sense that the organ responsible for procreation be “sanctified by blood.” These things might sound strange to our modern ears, but think of the symbolism and it becomes more clear.
The Jewish people were to be a holy nation and a royal priesthood, uniquely set apart from all the nations of the world because of their special purpose in God’s plan of Salvation. This meant that every time a Jewish husband and wife conceived a child “of promise”, it happened only after the blessed “seed” passed through “the blood” line.
Circumcision was the removal of the foreskin and the addition of a covenant scar. Physically, the foreskin was removed, but in Scripture we see the foreskin become a metaphor for things that dull spiritual or mental sensitivities.
There is so much more that can be discussed about this topic, but suffice it to say, Stephen’s rebuke about his accusers having uncircumcised hearts and ears means there was something dulling their spiritual senses that needed to be removed. Stephen was also telling them that if they truly thought of themselves as children of Abraham and his covenant with God to bless the world, they should act accordingly and open their hearts and ears to the true “Seed of Abraham”, Jesus Christ.
You always resist the Holy Spirit
This reminds me of what the writer of the book of Hebrews said as he quoted Psalm 95:
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear His voice,
8 do not harden your hearts,
as you did in the rebellion,
in the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers tested and tried Me,
and for forty years saw My works.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said,
‘Their hearts are always going astray,
and they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore on oath in My anger,
‘They shall never enter My rest.’ ”
He goes on to sum up by saying:
12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute?
We often look back at poor decisions other people made down through history and think, “if it had been me, I would have chosen wisely.”
“I would never have owned slaves, I would have been an abolitionist working to free them.”
“If I was a German citizen in the 1930’s, I would never have given my support to Adolf Hitler or the Nazi party.”
“I would never have shouted, ‘We have no King but Caesar! Crucify Him!!’”
The religious leaders fancied themselves to be the sons of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, but without realizing it, they were actually acting like “sons of the devil.”
They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One
The Apostle John talked about the “spirit of antichrist” in this way:
1 John 2:18 “Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.”
1 John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time.
John said this antichrist influence was already active in the world before he spoke of its role in the last days deception. My personal feeling is that the antichrist spirit was one of the driving forces pushing Cain to kill Abel. No doubt Cain and Abel grew up hearing their mother, Eve, talk about God’s prophetic word to her after the debacle in the garden. She would have told them that one of her sons would ultimately destroy all the offspring of the serpent by crushing them underfoot. Perhaps this spirit’s influence was the “sin crouching at the door” about which God warned Cain. Abel then becomes a type of Christ, a righteous one who was murdered by his own brother out of jealousy.
This same spirit influenced so many to kill the prophets who had the most revelation on the coming of the Messiah, like Isaiah who was cruelly sawed in half inside of a log.
Stephen is saying, if you do this to me, as you have done to my Lord, you are of the same substance as the people who killed the prophets who spoke of Jesus the Messiah many years before His incarnation.
Now you are His betrayers and murderers
Judas was not the only one to betray Jesus. It was a collaborative effort. And it’s also fair to say that each of us, in our own ways, have denied Jesus repeatedly, deserted Him and even betrayed Him in many ways.
But, when God turns the light on through His Word, we see His goodness, and that is when our sinfulness is revealed to us. We must realize that we are all culpable in some way for the betrayal, murder plot, and crucifixion of Jesus. The good news is that there is forgiveness for anyone who turns to Christ in genuine faith and the guilty stains are washed away forever.
You who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.
This reminds me of the sobering words of Jesus in Matthew 7:
…22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ 24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
As Jesus also said:
1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: 2 “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”
Stephen said angels were involved in the giving of the Law which makes the interaction even more needful of respect. This was a superficial reverence for the Law and for all the trappings of religion but an inward contempt for what the Law and the angels prophesied about Jesus Christ.
All of these rebukes can be instructive to us and are a good test of our relationship with the Lord. God help us to be like Stephen and not like his accusers and murderers. And with that, let’s pray.
PRN: Father, we need your help. We desperately want to live our lives as authentic followers of Yours and we do not want to be hypocrites. So please fill us with Your Spirit once again. Grant us Your boldness, Your wisdom and Your grace. In the name of Jesus, amen.
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