STEPHANS HISTORY LESSON ACTS 7:1-16

Act 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

THE SEVEN TRANSITIONS OF ACTS 1 From the Four Gospels to the book of Romans 2 From the OT structure to the NT Structure 3 From God working primarily with the Jew to God working primarily with the Gentile 4 From Gods base of operations in Jerusalem to His base of operations in Antioch 5 From God working through Israel (primarily Jewish) to His working through the Church (primarily Gentile) 6 From the Ministry of Peter to the Ministry of Paul 7 From the Kingdom of Heaven message to the Kingdom of God message

Stephen preaches an incredible sermon with three significant points: • First, that God promised (Israel) a land. (7:2-7) • Second, that God promised a Prophet like Moses. (7:20,37) • Third, but your leaders (Israel) always kill God’s prophets and fail to respond properly to God’s message! (7:51-53)

1 Stephen answered with a lengthy history lesson on the early beginnings of the nation of Israel to show how they had rejected God’s plan for them through Moses’ day, the one whom they revered over Jesus.

2 There would be one person among the group who would be cut to the quick by Stephen’s preaching, and as a result, would later write almost one third of the New Testament, and in the process, change the world – the young man Saul.

Gen 11:31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

3 Stephen starts his history lesson referring to the Abrahamic Covenant and the Land Covenant that is found in Genesis 12 Gen 12:1-3 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Gen 12:7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. Gen 15:7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

Gen 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

4 Eleven years after God gave Abraham the promise of having a son, he and Sarah were still barren and tried to take matters into their own hands through Sarah’s concubine (Hagar) from whom Abraham fathered Ishmael (Genesis 16).

5 Then 13 years later when Abraham was 99 and Sarah still barren, God gave him this “covenant of circumcision” (see Genesis 17:11).

6 The “everlasting covenant” of Genesis 17:7, 13, 19 would not come through Ishmael, but only through Abraham and Sarah’s own son, Isaac, whom the Lord miraculously brought into their lives a year later when Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90 (Genesis 21)!

Gen 17:11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. Gen 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

Mat 27:18 For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. 7 Stephen now calls out the forefathers for their “envy” that had caused the greatest type of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament to be “sold out” when they “sold Joseph” as a slave to a caravan of traders going into Egypt. Mat 27:18 For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

8 Though the patriarchs “thought evil against” Joseph, Acts 7:9 that “God was with him,” because Genesis 50:20 goes on to say that God “meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

9 Much debate has been made over Acts 7:14 because it states that Seventy Five people went into Israel whereas Genesis 46:27, Exodus 1:1-5 and Deuteronomy 10:22 show that the number of people who went into Egypt with Jacob was 70.

Gen 46:26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six; Exo 1:5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

The lower count did not include Dinah (Jacob’s daughter), nor his wives (Leah, Rebekah, Bilhah, Zilpah).

10 It was here in Egypt that Israel would dwell in peace until the time of Josephs death.