Acts 7:1–16

Be still: Dear Lord, thank you for your desire to meet with me wherever I am, whatever my circumstances. Please bless this time spent reading Scripture and teach me how to apply it to my life. Amen. 

Read: Acts 7:1–16

‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ (v3)

Encounter:  We saw in the last chapter that as Stephen's accusers surrounded him, his power in the Spirit grew greater, with his face lighting up ‘like the face of an angel’ (Acts 6:15). 

Stephen has been accused of blaspheming against Moses and God. In a moment of great danger, he summarises the stories of Genesis showing how Jesus Christ’s life and death continue their trajectory. He starts with Abraham, and by the end of our passage has described the life of Joseph. 

These are stories filled with both hardship and God’s rescue. From the moment God calls Abraham to ‘leave your country and your people,’ Abraham faces trouble and sorrow. He goes to the land God directs him to, only to find ‘no inheritance there.’ God tells him that his descendants will be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years! Joseph is then sold into slavery by his own family. 

But God’s promises of redemption and rescue are threaded through Stephen’s speech. God promises to redeem Abraham’s people, and ‘God was with [Joseph] and rescued him from all his troubles.’ Then, God not only grants Joseph favour in Egypt, he also enables Joseph to provide for the same family members who sold him into slavery. When God rescues, he does it so powerfully that he gives us the strength to extend that same help and forgiveness to people around us, even those who have hurt us. 

At the end of his speech, Stephen will be stoned to death. But his faith is founded on his knowledge that Jesus has made the ultimate rescue, defeating the finality of death to grant eternal life and joy with him.

Apply: Stephen’s example challenges us. Do you think of yourself as rescued by God through Jesus’ defeat of death? How does the knowledge of God’s forgiveness change how we treat those who have hurt us? 

Devote: Lord, from Creation, you have provided for your people, even amidst great suffering. Thank you for the ultimate rescue Jesus offers from sin and death. Make the knowledge of your sacrifice a constant source of joy to me.