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Acts 7:35–37
“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers’” (v. 37).
When Stephen responded to accusations of blasphemy, he devoted much of his speech to the Sanhedrin to Israel’s experience under the leadership of Moses. This should not surprise us, since the charges against Stephen alleged that he, following Jesus’ example, was attempting to change the law of Moses and was therefore not faithful to Moses’ teaching (see Acts 6:8–15). The best way to demonstrate the falsity of the accusations would be to show that in reality the Sanhedrin was disrespectful of Moses and that Moses himself anticipated a change in the covenant that would justify certain changes in the law.
In today’s passage, Stephen says that “this Moses” whom the Israelites rejected at first was the one who led the Hebrews out of Egypt and into freedom (7:35–36). This is the second time in Stephen’s speech that he references the Israelites’ rejection of Moses (see also v. 25). By pointing again to Moses’ rejection, Stephen subtly and accurately draws a parallel with the Sanhedrin, who had rejected Jesus earlier. This connection is made clear when Stephen refers to a prediction that Moses gave of another prophet to come after him (v. 37). As we saw in our study of Acts 3:22, this prediction in Deuteronomy 18:15–22, while referring to the old covenant prophets generally, foresees the Messiah more particularly. Moses understood that he was not the final messenger from God. The members of the Sanhedrin were right to respect Moses to the degree that they truly honored him; they were wrong to think that Moses’ office was permanent and that none of the Mosaic commandments could ever pass away.
Many first-century Jews believed that they were worthy of God’s deliverance from Egypt and that this worthiness continued forever. Many of them thought that Moses was effectively the final word from the Lord. Neither of these things was true. God sent Moses to save His people because they were unworthy, as seen in their rejection of Moses, and He used Moses to explain that One better than Moses was coming. John Calvin comments that Stephen’s words in today’s passage were given so that “the Jews may understand that the fathers were not delivered therefore, because they had deserved that with their godliness, but that this benefit was bestowed upon them, being altogether unworthy; and, secondly, that there is some more perfect thing to be hoped for of these beginnings.”
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
There are two major ways that we can wrongly approach the law of Moses. First, we can discount it almost entirely, thinking that it has nothing to teach us. Second, we can miss that the new covenant brings real, permanent changes and think that God is going to reinstitute aspects of the law that were only temporary. The moral law remains, but things such as the temple and sacrifices have been fulfilled, never to be instituted again (see Heb. 8).
For further study
- Exodus 4
- Deuteronomy 2:1–8
- Luke 4:16–21
- John 4:19
The bible in a year
- Joshua 3–4
- Luke 1:57–80