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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
A C T S.
CHAP. VII.
When our Lord Jesus called his apostles out to be employed in services
and sufferings for him, he told them that yet the last should be first,
and the first last, which was remarkably fulfilled in St. Stephen and
St. Paul, who were both of them late converts, in comparison of the
apostles, and yet got the start of them both in services and
sufferings; for God, in conferring honours and favours, often crosses
hands. In this chapter we have the martyrdom of Stephen, the first
martyr of the Christian church, who led the van in the noble army. And
therefore his sufferings and death are more largely related than those
of any other, for direction and encouragement to all those who are
called out to resist unto blood, as he did. Here is,
I. His defence of himself before the council, in answer to the matters
and things he stood charged with, the scope of which is to show that it
was no blasphemy against God, nor any injury at all to the glory of his
name, to say that the temple should be destroyed and the customs of the
ceremonial law changed. And,
1. He shows this by going over the history of the Old Testament, and
observing that God never intended to confine his favours to that place,
or that ceremonial law; and that they had no reason to expect he
should, for the people of the Jews had always been a provoking people,
and had forfeited the privileges of their peculiarity: nay, that that
holy place and that law were but figures of good things to come, and it
was no disparagement at all to them to say that they must give place to
better things,
And then,
2. He applies this to those that prosecuted him, and sat in judgment
upon him, sharply reproving them for their wickedness, by which they
had brought upon themselves the ruin of their place and nation, and
then could not bear to hear of it,
II. The putting of him to death by stoning him, and his patient,
cheerful, pious submission to it,
| Stephen’s Address. |
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1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of
glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in
Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy
kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldæans, and dwelt in
Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed
him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as
to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him
for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had
no child.
6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a
strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and
entreat them evil four hundred years.
7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge,
said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in
this place.
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so
Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and
Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt:
but God was with him,
10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him
favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he
made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and
Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no
sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent
out our fathers first.
13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his
brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and
all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our
fathers,
16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre
that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the
father of Sychem.
Stephen is now at the bar before the great council of the nation,
indicted for blasphemy: what the witnesses swore against him we had an
account of in the foregoing chapter, that he spoke blasphemous words
against Moses and God; for he spoke against this holy place and the
law. Now here,
I. The high priest calls upon him to answer for himself,
v. 1.
He was president, and, as such, the mouth of the court, and therefore
he saith, “You, the prisoner at the bar, you hear what is sworn against
you; what do you say to it? Are these things so? Have you ever
spoken any words to this purport? If you have, will you recant them, or
will you stand to them? Guilty or not guilty?” This carried a
show of fairness, and yet seems to have been spoken with an air of
haughtiness; and thus far he seems to have prejudged the cause, that,
if it were so, that he had spoken such and such words, he shall
certainly be adjudged a blasphemer, whatever he may offer in
justification or explanation of them.
II. He begins his defence, and it is long; but it should seem by his
breaking off abruptly, just when he came to the main point
(v. 50),
that it would have been much longer if his enemies would have given him
leave to say all he had to say. In general we may observe,
1. That in this discourse he appears to be a man ready and mighty in
the scriptures, and thereby thoroughly furnished for every good word
and work. He can relate scripture stories, and such as were very
pertinent to his purpose, off-hand without looking in his Bible. He was
filled with the Holy Ghost, not so much to reveal to him new
things, or open to him the secret counsels and decrees of God
concerning the Jewish nation, with them to convict these gainsayers;
no, but to bring to his remembrance the scriptures of the Old
Testament, and to teach him how to make use of them for their
conviction. Those that are full of the Holy Ghost will be full of the
scripture, as Stephen was.
2. That he quotes the scriptures according to the Septuagint
translation, by which it appears he was one of the Hellenist Jews, who
used that version in their synagogues. His following this, occasions
divers variations from the Hebrew original in this discourse, which the
judges of the court did not correct, because they knew how he was led
into them; nor is it any derogation to the authority of that Spirit by
which he spoke, for the variations are not material. We have a maxim,
Apices juris non sunt jura–Mere points of law are not law
itself.
These verses
carry on this his compendium of church history to the end of the book
of Genesis. Observe,
(1.) His preface: Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. He gives
them, though not flattering titles, yet civil and respectful ones,
signifying his expectation of fair treatment with them; from men he
hopes to be treated with humanity, and he hopes that brethren and
fathers will use him in a fatherly brotherly way. They are ready to
look upon him as an apostate from the Jewish church, and an enemy to
them. But, to make way for their conviction to the contrary, he
addresses himself to them as men, brethren, and fathers,
resolving to look on himself as one of them, though they would not so
look on him. He craves their attention: Hearken; though he was
about to tell them what they already knew, yet he begs them to hearken
to it, because, though they knew it all, yet they would not without a
very close application of mind know how to apply it to the case before
them.
(2.) His entrance upon the discourse, which (whatever it may seem to
those that read it carelessly) is far from being a long ramble only to
amuse the hearers, and give them a diversion by telling them an old
story. No; it is all pertinent and ad rem–to the purpose, to
show them that God had no this heart so much upon that holy place and
the law as they had; but, as he had a church in the world many ages
before that holy place was founded and the ceremonial law given, so he
would have when they should both have had their period.
[1.] He begins with the call of Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, by
which he was set apart for God to be the trustee of the promise, and
the father of the Old-Testament church. This we had an account of
&c.), and it is referred to,
His native country was an idolatrous country, it was Mesopotamia,
(v. 2),
the land of the Chaldeans
(v. 4);
thence God brought him at two removes, not too far at once, dealing
tenderly with him; he first brought him out of the land of the
Chaldeans to Charran, or Haran, a place midway between that and Canaan
(Gen. xi. 31),
and thence five years after, when his father was dead, he removed
him into the land of Canaan, wherein you now dwell. It
should seem, the first time that God spoke to Abraham, he appeared in
some visible display of the divine presence, as the God of glory
(v. 2),
to settle a correspondence with him: and then afterwards he kept up
that correspondence, and spoke to him from time to time as there was
occasion, without repeating his visible appearances as the God of
glory.
First, From this call of Abraham we may observe,
1. That in all our ways we must acknowledge God, and attend the
directions of his providence, as of the pillar of cloud and fire. It is
not said, Abraham removed, but, God removed him into this land
wherein you now dwell, and he did but follow his Leader.
2. Those whom God takes into covenant with himself he distinguishes
from the children of this world; they are effectually called out of the
state, out of the land, of their nativity; they must sit loose to the
world, and live above it and every thing in it, even that in it which
is most dear to them, and must trust God to make it up to them in
another and better country, that is, the heavenly, which he will show
them. God’s chosen must follow him with an implicit faith and
obedience.
Secondly, But let us see what this is to Stephen’s case.
1. They had charged him as a blasphemer of God, and an apostate from
the church; therefore he shows that he is a son of Abraham, and values
himself upon his being able to say, Our father Abraham, and that
he is a faithful worshipper of the God of Abraham, whom therefore he
here calls the God of glory. He also shows that he owns divine
revelation, and that particularly by which the Jewish church was
founded and incorporated.
2. They were proud of their being circumcised; and therefore he shows
that Abraham was taken under God’s guidance, and into communion with
him, before he was circumcised, for that was not till
v. 8.
With this argument Paul proves that Abraham was justified by faith,
because he was justified when he was in uncircumcision: and so here.
3. They had a mighty jealousy for this holy place, which may be meant
of the whole land of Canaan; for it was called the holy land,
Immanuel’s land; and the destruction of the holy house inferred
that of the holy land. “Now,” says Stephen, “you need not be so proud
of it; for,”
(1.) “You came originally out of Ur of the Chaldees, where
your fathers served other gods
and you were not the first planters of this country. Look therefore
unto the rock whence you were hewn, and the holy of the pit out of
which you were digged;” that is, as it follows there, “look unto
Abraham your father, for I called him alone
think of the meanness of your beginnings, and how you are entirely
indebted to divine grace, and then you will see boasting to be for ever
excluded. It was God that raised up the righteous man from the
east, and called him to his foot.
Isa. xli. 2.
But, if his seed degenerate, let them know that God can destroy this
holy place, and raise up to himself another people, for he is not a
debtor to them.”
(2.) “God appeared in his glory to Abraham a great way off in
Mesopotamia, before he came near Canaan, nay, before he dwelt in
Charran; so that you must not think God’s visits are confined to
this land; no; he that brought the seed of the church from a
country so far east can, if he pleases, carry the fruit of it to
another country as far west.”
(3.) “God made no haste to bring him into this land, but let him linger
some years by the way, which shows that God has not his heart so much
upon this land as you have yours, neither is his honour, nor the
happiness of his people, bound up in it. It is therefore neither
blasphemy nor treason to say, It shall be destroyed,”
[2.] The unsettled state of Abraham and his seed for many ages after he
was called out of Ur of the Chaldees. God did indeed promise that he
would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after
him,
v. 5.
But, First, As yet he had no child, nor any by Sarah for many
years after. Secondly, He himself was but a stranger and a
sojourner in that land, and God gave him no inheritance in it, no,
not so much as to set his foot on; but there he was as in a strange
country, where he was always upon the remove, and could call nothing
his own. Thirdly, His posterity did not come to the possession
of it for a long time: After four hundred years they shall come
and serve me in this place, and not till then,
v. 7.
Nay, Fourthly, They must undergo a great deal of hardship and
difficulty before they shall be put into the possession of that land:
they shall be brought into bondage, and ill treated in a strange land:
and this, not as the punishment of any particular sin, as their
wandering in the wilderness was, for we never find any such account
given of their bondage in Egypt; but so God had appointed, and it must
be. And at the end of four hundred years, reckoning from the
birth of Isaac, that nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I
judge, saith God. Now this teaches us,
1. That known unto God are all his works beforehand. When
Abraham had neither inheritance nor heir, yet he was told he should
have both, the one a land of promise, and the other a child of promise;
and therefore both had, and received, by faith.
2. That God’s promises, though they are slow, are sure in the operation
of them; they will be fulfilled in the season of them, though perhaps
not so soon as we expect.
3. That though the people of God may be in distress and trouble for a
time, yet God will at length both rescue them and reckon with those
that do oppress them; for, verily there is a God that judgeth in the
earth.
But let us see how this serves Stephen’s purpose.
1. The Jewish nation, for the honour of which they were so jealous, was
very inconsiderable in its beginnings; as their common father Abraham
was fetched out of obscurity in Ur of the Chaldees, so their tribes,
and the heads of them, were fetched out of servitude in Egypt, when
they were the fewest of all people,
Deut. vii. 7.
And what need is there of so much ado, as if their ruin, when they
bring it upon themselves by sin, must be the ruin of the world, and of
all God’s interests in it? No; he that brought them out of Egypt can
bring them into it again, as he threatened
and yet be no loser, while he can out of stones raise up children unto
Abraham.
2. The slow steps by which the promise made to Abraham advanced towards
the performance, and the many seeming contradictions here taken notice
of, plainly show that it had a spiritual meaning, and that the land
principally intended to be conveyed and secured by it was the better
country, that is, the heavenly; as the apostle shows from this very
argument that the patriarchs sojourned in the land of promise, as in
a strange country, thence inferring that they looked for a city
that had foundations,
Heb. xi. 9, 10.
It was therefore no blasphemy to say, Jesus shall destroy this
place, when at the same time we say, “He shall lead us to the
heavenly Canaan, and put us in possession of that, of which the earthly
Canaan was but a type and figure.”
[3.] The building up of the family of Abraham, with the entail of
divine grace upon it, and the disposals of divine Providence concerning
it, which take up the rest of the book of Genesis.
First, God engaged to be a God to Abraham and his seed; and, in
token of this, appointed that he and his male seed should be
circumcised,
He gave him the covenant of circumcision, that is, the covenant
of which circumcision was the seal; and accordingly, when Abraham had a
son born, he circumcised him the eighth day
(v. 8),
by which he was both bound by the divine law and interested in the
divine promise; for circumcision had reference to both, being a seal of
the covenant both on God’s part–I will be to thee a God
all-sufficient, and on man’s part–Walk before me, and be thou
perfect. And then when effectual care was thus taken for the
securing of Abraham’s seed, to be a seed to serve the Lord, they
began to multiply: Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob the twelve
patriarchs, or roots of the respective tribes.
Secondly, Joseph, the darling and blessing of his father’s
house, was abused by his brethren; they envied him because of
his dreams, and sold him into Egypt. Thus early did the children
of Israel begin to grudge those among them that were eminent and
outshone others, of which their enmity to Christ, who, like Joseph, was
a Nazarite among his brethren, was a great instance.
Thirdly, God owned Joseph in his troubles, and was with him
by the influence of his Spirit, both on his mind, giving him comfort,
and on the minds of those he was concerned with, giving him favour in
their eyes. And thus at length he delivered him out of his
afflictions, and Pharaoh made him the second man in the kingdom,
And thus he not only arrived at great preferment among the Egyptians,
but became the shepherd and stone of Israel,
Gen. xlix. 24.
Fourthly, Jacob was compelled to go down into Egypt, by a famine
which forced him out of Canaan, a dearth (which was a great
affliction), to that degree that our fathers found no
sustenance in Canaan,
That fruitful land was turned into barrenness. But, hearing that
there was corn in Egypt (treasured up by the wisdom of his own
son), he sent out our fathers first to fetch corn,
And the second time that they went, Joseph, who at first made
himself strange to them, made himself known to them, and it was
notified to Pharaoh that they were Joseph’s kindred and had a
dependence upon him
(v. 13),
whereupon, with Pharaoh’s leave, Joseph sent for his father Jacob to
him into Egypt, with all his kindred and family, to the
number of seventy-five souls, to be subsisted there,
In Genesis they are said to be seventy souls,
Gen. xlvi. 27.
But the Septuagint there makes them seventy-five, and Stephen or Luke
follows that version, as
where Cainan is inserted, which is not in the Hebrew text, but in the
Septuagint. Some, by excluding Joseph and his sons, who were in Egypt
before (which reduces the number to sixty-four), and adding the sons of
the eleven patriarch, make the number seventy-five.
Fifthly, Jacob and his sons died in Egypt
(v. 15),
but were carried over to be buried in Canaan,
A very considerable difficulty occurs here: it is said, They were
carried over into Sychem, whereas Jacob was buried not in Sychem,
but near Hebron, in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Isaac were
buried,
Joseph’s bones indeed were buried in Sychem
and it seems by this (though it is not mentioned in the story) that the
bones of all the other patriarchs were carried with his, each of them
giving the same commandment concerning them that he had done; and of
them this must be understood, not of Jacob himself. But then the
sepulchre in Sychem was bought by Jacob
and by this it is described,
How then is it here said to be bought by Abraham? Dr. Whitby’s
solution of this is very sufficient. He supplies it thus: Jacob went
down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers; and (our fathers)
were carried over into Sychem; and he, that is, Jacob, was
laid in the sepulchre that Abraham brought for a sum of money,
Gen. xxiii. 16.
(Or, they were laid there, that is, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.) And
they, namely, the other patriarchs, were buried in the sepulchre
bought of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem.
Let us now see what this is to Stephen’s purpose.
1. He still reminds them of the mean beginning of the Jewish nation, as
a check to their priding themselves in the glories of that nation; and
that it was by a miracle of mercy that they were raised up out of
nothing to what they were, from so small a number to be so great a
nation; but, if they answer not the intention of their being so raised,
they can expect no other than to be destroyed. The prophets frequently
put them in mind of the bringing of them out of Egypt, as a aggravation
of their contempt of the law of God, and here it is urged upon them as
an aggravation of their contempt of the gospel of Christ.
2. He reminds them likewise of the wickedness of those that were the
patriarchs of their tribes, in envying their brother Joseph, and
selling him into Egypt; and the same spirit was still working in them
towards Christ and his ministers.
3. Their holy land, which they doted so much upon, their fathers were
long kept out of the possession of, and met with dearth and great
affliction in it; and therefore let them not think it strange if, after
it has been so long polluted with sin, it be at length destroyed.
4. The faith of the patriarchs in desiring to be buried in the land of
Canaan plainly showed that they had an eye to the heavenly country, to
which it was the design of this Jesus to lead them.
| Stephen’s Address. |
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17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had
sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
19 The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated
our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the
end they might not live.
20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and
nourished up in his father’s house three months:
21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up,
and nourished him for her own son.
22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,
and was mighty in words and in deeds.
23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart
to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him,
and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that
God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove,
and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are
brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying,
Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the
land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
Stephen here goes on to relate,
I. The wonderful increase of the people of Israel in Egypt; it was by a
wonder of providence that in a little time they advanced from a family
into a nation.
1. It was when the time of the promise drew nigh–the time when
they were to be formed into a people. During the first two hundred and
fifteen years after the promise made to Abraham, the children of the
covenant were increased but to seventy; but in the latter two hundred
and fifteen years they increased to six hundred thousand fighting men.
The motion of providence is sometimes quickest when it comes nearest
the centre. Let us not be discouraged at the slowness of the
proceedings towards the accomplishment of God’s promises; God knows how
to redeem the time that seems to have been lost, and, when the year
of the redeemed is at hand, can do a double work in a single day.
2. It was in Egypt, where they were oppressed, and ruled with
rigour; when their lives were made so bitter to them that, one would
think, they should have wished to be written childless, yet they
married, in faith that God in due time would visit them; and God
blessed them, who thus honoured him, saying, Be fruitful, and
multiply. Suffering times have often been growing times with the
church.
II. The extreme hardships which they underwent there,
When the Egyptians observed them to increase in number they increased
their burdens, in which Stephen observes three things:–
1. Their base ingratitude: They were oppressed by another king that
knew not Joseph, that is, did not consider the good service that
Joseph had done to that nation; for, if he had, he would not have made
so ill a requital to his relations and family. Those that injure good
people are very ungrateful, for they are the blessings of the age and
place they live in.
2. Their hellish craft and policy: They dealt subtly with our
kindred. Come on, said they, let us deal wisely, thinking
thereby to secure themselves, but it proved dealing foolishly, for they
did but treasure up wrath by it. Those are in a great mistake who think
they deal wisely for themselves when they deal deceitfully or
unmercifully with their brethren.
3. Their barbarous and inhuman cruelty. That they might effectually
extirpate them, they cast out their young children, to the end they
might not live. The killing of their infant seed seemed a very
likely way to crush an infant nation. Now Stephen seems to observe this
to them, not only that they might further see how mean their beginnings
were, fitly represented (perhaps with an eye to the exposing of the
young children in Egypt) by the forlorn state of a helpless, out-cast
infant
(Ezek. xvi. 4),
and how much they were indebted to God for his care of them, which they
had forfeited, and made themselves unworthy of: but also that they
might consider that what they were now doing against the Christian
church in its infancy was as impious and unjust, and would be in the
issue as fruitless and ineffectual, as that was which the Egyptians did
against the Jewish church in its infancy. “You think you deal subtly in
your ill treatment of us, and, in persecuting young converts, you do as
they did in casting out the young children; but you will find it is to
no purpose, in spite of your malice Christ’s disciples will increase
and multiply.“
III. The raising up of Moses to be their deliverer. Stephen was
charged with having spoken blasphemous words against Moses, in answer
to which charge he here speaks very honourably of him.
1. Moses was born when the persecution of Israel was at the hottest,
especially in that most cruel instance of it, the murdering of the
new-born children: At that time, Moses was born
(v. 20),
and was himself in danger, as soon as he came into the world (as our
Saviour also was at Bethlehem) of falling a sacrifice to that bloody
edict. God is preparing for his people’s deliverance, when their way is
darkest, and their distress deepest.
2. He was exceedingly fair; his face began to shine as soon as
he was born, as a happy presage of the honour God designed to put upon
him; he was asteios to Theo—fair towards God; he
was sanctified from the womb, and this made him beautiful in God’s
eyes; for it is the beauty of holiness that is in God’s sight of great
price.
3. He was wonderfully preserved in his infancy, first, by the care of
his tender parents, who nourished him three months in their own
house, as long as they durst; and then by a favourable providence
that threw him into the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter, who took him up,
and nourished him as her own son
(v. 21);
for those whom God designs to make special use of he will take special
care of. And did he thus protect the child Moses? Much more will he
secure the interests of his holy child Jesus (as he is called
from the enemies that are gathered together against him.
4. He became a great scholar
(v. 22):
He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, who were then
famed for all manner of polite literature, particularly philosophy,
astronomy, and (which perhaps helped to lead them to idolatry)
hieroglyphics. Moses, having his education at court, had opportunity
of improving himself by the best books, tutors, and conversation, in
all the arts and sciences, and had a genius for them. Only we have
reason to think that he had not so far forgotten the God of his fathers
as to acquaint himself with the unlawful studies and practices of the
magicians of Egypt, any further than was necessary to the confuting of
them.
5. He became a prime minister of state in Egypt. This seems to be meant
by his being mighty in words and deeds. Though he had not a
ready way of expressing himself, but stammered, yet he spoke admirably
good sense, and every thing he said commanded assent, and carried its
own evidence and force of reason along with it; and, in business, none
went on with such courage, and conduct, and success. Thus was he
prepared, by human helps, for those services, which, after all, he
could not be thoroughly furnished for without divine illumination. Now,
by all this, Stephen will make it appear that, notwithstanding the
malicious insinuations of his persecutors, he had as high and
honourable thoughts of Moses as they had.
IV. The attempts which Moses made to deliver Israel, which they
spurned, and would not close in with. This Stephen insists much upon,
and it serves for a key to this story
as does also that other construction which is put upon it by the
apostle,
There it is represented as an act of holy self-denial, here as a
designed prelude to, or entrance upon, the public service he was to be
called out to
(v. 23):
When he was full forty years old, in the prime of his time for
preferment in the court of Egypt, it came into his heart (for
God put it there) to visit his brethren the children of Israel,
and to see which way he might do them any service; and he showed
himself as a public person, with a public character.
1. As Israel’s saviour. This he gave a specimen of in avenging an
oppressed Israelite, and killing the Egyptian that abused him
(v. 24).
Seeing one of his brethren suffer wrong, he was moved with
compassion towards the sufferer, and a just indignation at the
wrong-doer, as men in public stations should be, and he avenged him
that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian, which, if he had been
only a private person, he could not lawfully have done; but he knew
that his commission from heaven would bear him out, and he supposed
that his brethren (who could not but have some knowledge of the
promise made to Abraham, that the nation that should oppress them
God would judge) would have understood that God by his hand would
deliver them; for he could not have had either presence of mind or
strength of body to do what he did, if he had not been clothed with
such a divine power as evinced a divine authority. If they had but
understood the signs of the times, they might have taken this for the
dawning of the day of their deliverance; but they understood
not, they did not take this, as it was designed, for the setting up
of a standard, and sounding of a trumpet, to proclaim Moses their
deliverer.
2. As Israel’s judge. This he gave a specimen of, the very
next day, in offering to accommodate matters between two
contending Hebrews, wherein he plainly assumed a public character
(v. 26):
He showed himself to them as they strove, and, putting on an air
of majesty and authority, he would have set them at one again,
and as their prince have determined the controversy between them,
saying, Sirs, you are brethren, by birth and profession of
religion; why do you wrong one to another? For he observed that
(as in most strifes) there was a fault on both sides; and therefore, in
order to peace and friendship, there must be a mutual remission and
condescension. When Moses was to be Israel’s deliverer out of Egypt, he
slew the Egyptians, and so delivered Israel out of their hands; but,
when he was to be Israel’s judge and lawgiver, he ruled them with the
golden sceptre, not the iron rod; he did not kill and slay them when
they strove, but gave them excellent laws and statutes, and decided
upon their complaints and appeals made to him,
But the contending Israelite that was most in the wrong
thrust him away
(v. 27),
would not bear the reproof, though a just and gentle one, but was ready
to fly in his face, with, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over
us? Proud and litigious spirits are impatient of check and control.
Rather would these Israelites have their bodies ruled with rigour by
their task-masters than be delivered, and have their minds ruled with
reason, by their deliverer. The wrong-doer was so enraged at the
reproof given him that he upbraided Moses with the service he had done
to their nation in killing the Egyptian, which, if they had pleased,
would have been the earnest of further and greater service: Wilt
thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
v. 28,
charging that upon him as his crime, and threatening to accuse him for
it, which was the hanging out of the flag of defiance to the Egyptians,
and the banner of love and deliverance to Israel. Hereupon Moses
fled into the land of Midian, and made no further attempt to
deliver Israel till forty years after; he settled as a stranger in
Midian, married, and had two sons, by Jethro’s daughter,
Now let us see how this serves Stephen’s purpose.
1. They charged him with blaspheming Moses, in answer to which he
retorts upon them the indignities which their fathers did to Moses,
which they ought to be ashamed of, and humbled for, instead of picking
quarrels thus, under pretence of zeal for the honour of Moses, with one
that had as great a veneration for him as any of them had.
2. They persecuted him for disputing in defence of Christ and his
gospel, in opposition to which they set up Moses and his law: “But,”
saith he, “you had best take heed,”
(1.) “Lest you hereby do as your fathers did, refuse and reject one
whom God has raised up to be to you a prince and a Saviour; you
may understand, if you will not wilfully shut your eyes against the
light, that God will, by this Jesus, deliver you out of a worse slavery
than that in Egypt; take heed then of thrusting him away, but receive
him as a ruler and a judge over you.”
(2.) “Lest you hereby fare as your fathers fared, who for this were
very justly left to die in their slavery, for the deliverance came not
till forty years after. This will be the issue of it, you put away the
gospel from you, and it will be sent to the Gentiles; you will
not have Christ, and you shall not have him, so shall your doom be.”
| Stephen’s Address. |
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30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in
the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of
fire in a bush.
31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he
drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham,
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled,
and durst not behold.
33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet:
for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which
is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to
deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler
and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a
deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the
bush.
36 He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and
signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the
wilderness forty years.
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel,
A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with
the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our
fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from
them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as
for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we
wot not what is become of him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice
unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Stephen here proceeds in his story of Moses; and let any one judge
whether these are the words of one that was a blasphemer of Moses or
no; nothing could be spoken more honourably of him. Here is,
I. The vision which he saw of the glory of God at the bush
(v. 30):
When forty years had expired (during all which time Moses was
buried alive in Midian, and was now grown old, and one would think past
service), that it might appear that all his performances were products
of a divine power and promise (as it appeared that Isaac was a child of
promise by his being born of parents stricken in years), now, at eighty
years old, he enters upon that post of honour to which he was born, in
recompence for his self-denial at forty years old. Observe,
1. Where God appeared to him: In the wilderness of Mount Sinai,
v. 30.
And, when he appeared to him there, that was holy ground
(v. 33),
which Stephen takes notice of, as a check to those who prided
themselves in the temple, that holy place, as if there were no
communion to be had with God but there; whereas God met Moses, and
manifested himself to him, in a remote obscure place in the wilderness
of Sinai. They deceive themselves if they think God is confined to
places; he can bring his people into a wilderness, and there speak
comfortably to them.
2. How he appeared to him: In a flame of fire (for our God is a
consuming fire), and yet the bush, in which this fire was,
though combustible matter, was not consumed, which, as it
represented the state of Israel in Egypt (where, though they were in
the fire of affliction, yet they were not consumed), so perhaps it may
be looked upon as a type of Christ’s incarnation, and the union between
the divine and human nature: God, manifested in the flesh, was as the
flame of fire manifested in the bush.
3. How Moses was affected with this:
(1.) He wondered at the sight,
v. 31.
It was a phenomenon with the solution of which all his Egyptian
learning could not furnish him. He had the curiosity at first to pry
into it: I will turn aside now, and see this great sight; but
the nearer he drew the more he was struck with amazement; and,
(2.) He trembled, and durst not behold, durst not look
stedfastly upon it; for he was soon aware that it was not a fiery
meteor, but the angel of the Lord; and no other than the
Angel of the covenant, the Son of God himself. This set him a
trembling. Stephen was accused for blaspheming Moses and God
(ch. vi. 11),
as if Moses had been a little god; but by this it appears that he was a
man, subject to like passions as we are, and particularly that
of fear, upon any appearance of the divine majesty and glory.
II. The declaration which he heard of the covenant of God
(v. 32):
The voice of the Lord came to him; for faith comes by hearing;
and this was it: I am the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and therefore,
1. “I am the same that I was.” The covenant God made with Abraham some
ages ago was, I will be to thee a God, a God all-sufficient.
“Now,” saith God, “that covenant is still in full force; it is not
cancelled nor forgotten, but I am, as I was, the God of Abraham, and
now I will make it to appear so;” for all the favours, all the honours
God put upon Israel, were founded upon this covenant with Abraham, and
flowed from it.
2. “I will be the same that I am.” For if the death of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, cannot break the covenant-relation between God and them (as
by this it appears it cannot), then nothing else can: and then he will
be a God,
(1.) To their souls, which are now separated from their bodies. Our
Saviour by this proves the future state,
Abraham is dead, and yet God is still his God, therefore Abraham is
still alive. God never did that for him in this world which would
answer the true intent and full extent of that promise, that he would
be the God of Abraham; and therefore it must be done for him in the
other world. Now this is that life and immortality which are brought to
light by the gospel, for the full conviction of the Sadducees, who
denied it. Those therefore who stood up in defence of the gospel, and
endeavoured to propagate it, were so far from blaspheming Moses that
they did the greatest honour imaginable to Moses, and that glorious
discovery which God made of himself to him at the bush.
(2.) To their seed. God, in declaring himself thus the God of their
fathers, intimated his kindness to their seed, that they should be
beloved for the fathers’ sakes,
Rom. xi. 28; Deut. vii. 8.
Now the preachers of the gospel preached up this covenant, the
promise made of God unto the fathers; unto which promise those of
the twelve tribes that did continue serving God hoped to
come,
ch. xxvi. 6, 7.
And shall they, under colour of supporting the holy place and the law,
oppose the covenant which was made with Abraham and his seed, his
spiritual seed, before the law was given, and long before the holy
place was built? Since God’s glory must be for ever advanced, and our
glorying for ever silenced, God will have our salvation to be by
promise, and not by the law; the Jews therefore who persecuted the
Christians, under pretence that they blasphemed the law, did themselves
blaspheme the promise, and forsook all their own mercies that were
contained in it.
III. The commission which God gave him to deliver Israel out of Egypt.
The Jews set up Moses in competition with Christ, and accused Stephen
as a blasphemer because he did not do so too. But Stephen here shows
that Moses was an eminent type of Christ, as he was Israel’s deliverer.
When God had declared himself the God of Abraham he proceeded,
1. To order Moses into a reverent posture: “Put off thy shoes from
thy feet. Enter not upon sacred things with low, and cold, and
common thoughts. Keep thy foot,
Eccl. v. 1.
Be not hasty and rash in thy approaches to God; tread softly.”
2. To order Moses into a very eminent service. When he is ready to
receive commands, he shall have commission. He is commissioned to
demand leave from Pharaoh for Israel to go out of his land, and to
enforce that demand,
Observe,
(1.) The notice God took both of their sufferings and of their sense of
their sufferings: I have seen, I have seen their affliction, and
have heard their groaning. God has a compassionate regard to the
troubles of his church, and the groans of his persecuted people; and
their deliverance takes rise from his pity.
(2.) The determination he fixed to redeem them by the hand of Moses:
I am come down to deliver them. It should seem, though God is
present in all places, yet he uses that expression here of coming down
to deliver them because that deliverance was typical of what Christ
did, when, for us men, and for our salvation, he came down from
heaven; he that ascended first descended. Moses is the man that
must be employed: Come, and I will send thee into Egypt: and, if
God send him, he will own him and give him success.
IV. His acting in pursuance of this commission, wherein he was a figure
of the Messiah. And Stephen takes notice here again of the slights they
had put upon him, the affronts they had given him, and their refusal to
have him to reign over them, as tending very much to magnify his agency
in their deliverance.
1. God put honour upon him whom they put contempt upon
(v. 35):
This Moses whom they refused (whose kind offers and good offices
they rejected with scorn, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge?
Thou takest too much upon thee, thou son of Levi,
Num. xvi. 3),
this same Moses did God send to be a ruler, and a deliverer, by the
hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. It may be
understood either that God sent to him by the hand of the angel going
along with him he became a complete deliverer. Now, by this example,
Stephen would intimate to the council that this Jesus whom they now
refused, as their fathers did Moses, saying, Who made thee a
prophet and a king? Who gave thee this authority? even this same
has God advanced to be a prince and a Saviour, a ruler and a
deliverer; as the apostles had told them awhile ago
that the stone which the builders refused was become the head-stone
in the corner,
ch. iv. 11.
2. God showed favour to them by him, and he was very forward to serve
them, though they had thrust him away. God might justly have refused
them his service, and he might justly have declined it; but it is all
forgotten: they are not so much as upbraided with it,
He brought them out, notwithstanding, after he had shown
wonders and signs in the land of Egypt (which were afterwards
continued for the completing of their deliverance, according as the
case called for them) in the Red Sea and in the wilderness forty
years. So far is he from blaspheming Moses that he admires him as a
glorious instrument in the hand of God for the forming of the
Old-Testament church. But it does not at all derogate from his just
honour to say that he was but an instrument, and that he is outshone by
this Jesus, whom he encourages these Jews yet to close with, and to
come into his interest, not fearing but that then they should be
received into his favour, and receive benefit by him, as the people of
Israel were delivered by Moses, though they had once refused him.
V. His prophecy of Christ and his grace,
He not only was a type of Christ (many were so that perhaps had not an
actual foresight of his day), but Moses spoke of him
(v. 37):
This is that Moses who said unto the children of Israel, A prophet
shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren. This is
spoken of as one of the greatest honours God put upon him (nay, as that
which exceeded all the rest), that by him he gave notice to the
children of Israel of the great prophet that should come into the
world, raised their expectation of him, and required them to receive
him. When his bringing them out of Egypt is spoken of it is with an
emphasis of honour, This is that Moses,
Exod. vi. 26.
And so it is here, This is that Moses. Now this is very full to
Stephen’s purpose; in asserting that Jesus should change the customs of
the ceremonial law, he was so far from blaspheming Moses that really he
did him the greatest honour imaginable, by showing how the prophecy of
Moses was accomplished, which was so clear, that, as Christ told them
himself, If they had believed Moses, they would have believed
him,
John v. 46.
1. Moses, in God’s name, told them that, in the fulness of time, they
should have a prophet raised up among them, one of their own nation,
that should be like unto him
a ruler and a deliverer, a judge and a lawgiver, like him,–who should
therefore have authority to change the customs that he had delivered,
and to bring in a better hope, as the Mediator of a better
testament.
2. He charged them to hear that prophet, to receive his dictates, to
admit the change he would make in their customs, and to submit to him
in every thing; “and this will be the greatest honour you can do to
Moses and to his law, who said, Hear you him; and came to be a
witness to the repetition of this charge by a voice from heaven,
at the transfiguration of Christ, and by his silence gave consent to
it,”
VI. The eminent services which Moses continued to do to the people of
Israel, after he had been instrumental to bring them out of Egypt,
And herein also he was a type of Christ, who yet so far exceeds him
that it is no blasphemy to say, “He has authority to change the customs
that Moses delivered.” It was the honour of Moses,
1. That he was in the church in the wilderness; he presided in
all the affairs of it for forty years, was king in Jeshurun,
The camp of Israel is here called the church in the wilderness;
for it was a sacred society, incorporated by a divine charter under a
divine government, and blessed with divine revelation. The church in
the wilderness was a church, though it was not yet perfectly formed, as
it was to be when they came to Canaan, but every man did that which
was right in his own eyes,
Deut. xii. 8, 9.
It was the honour of Moses that he was in that church, and many a time
it had been destroyed if Moses had not been in it to intercede for it.
But Christ is the president and guide of a more excellent and glorious
church than that in the wilderness was, and is more in it, as the life
and soul of it, than Moses could be in that.
2. That he was with the angel that spoke to him in the mount Sinai,
and with our fathers–was with him in the holy mount twice forty
days, with the angel of the covenant, Michael, our prince. Moses was
immediately conversant with God, but never lay in his bosom as Christ
did from eternity. Or these words may be taken thus: Moses was in
the church in the wilderness, but it was with the angel that
spoke to him in mount Sinai, that is, at the burning bush; for that
was said to be at mount Sinai
(v. 30);
that angel went before him, and was guide to him, else he could not
have been a guide to Israel; of this God speaks
I send an angel before thee, and
And see
He was in the church with the angel, without whom he could have done no
service to the church; but Christ is himself that angel which was with
the church in the wilderness, and therefore has an authority above
Moses.
3. That he received the lively oracles to give unto them; not
only the ten commandments, but the other instructions which the Lord
spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak them to the children of Israel.
(1.) The words of God are oracles, certain and infallible, and
of unquestionable authority and obligation; they are to be consulted as
oracles, and by them all controversies must be determined.
(2.) They are lively oracles, for they are the oracles of the
living God, not of the dumb and dead idols of the heathens: the word
that God speaks is spirit and life; not that the law of Moses could
give life, but it showed the way to life: If thou wilt enter into
life, keep the commandments.
(3.) Moses received them from God, and delivered nothing as an oracle
to the people but what he had first received from God.
(4.) The lively oracles which he received from God he faithfully gave
to the people, to be observed and preserved. It was the principal
privilege of the Jews that to them were committed the oracles of
God; and it was by the hand of Moses that they were committed. As
Moses gave them not that bread, so neither did he give them that law
from heaven
(John vi. 32),
but God gave it to them; and he that gave them those customs by his
servant Moses might, no doubt, when he pleased, change the customs by
his Son Jesus, who received more lively oracles to give unto us than
Moses did.
VII. The contempt that was, after this, and notwithstanding this, put
upon him by the people. Those that charged Stephen with speaking
against Moses would do well to answer what their own ancestors had
done, and they tread in their ancestors’ steps.
1. They would not obey him, but thrust him from them,
v. 39.
They murmured at him, mutinied against him, refused to obey his orders,
and sometimes were ready to stone him. Moses did indeed give them an
excellent law, but by this it appeared that it could not make the
comers there unto perfect
(Heb. x. 1),
for in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt, and
preferred their garlic and onions there before the manna they had under
the guidance of Moses, or the milk and honey they hoped for in Canaan.
Observe, Their secret disaffection to Moses, with their inclination to
Egyptianism, if I may so call it. This was, in effect, turning back to
Egypt; it was doing it in heart. Many that pretend to be going forward
towards Canaan, by keeping up a show and profession of religion, are,
at the same time, in their hearts turning back to Egypt, like Lot’s
wife to Sodom, and will be dealt with as deserters, for it is the heart
that God looks at. Now, if the customs that Moses delivered to them
could not prevail to change them, wonder not that Christ comes to
change the customs, and to introduce a more spiritual way of worship.
2. They made a golden calf instead of him, which besides the
affront that was thereby offered to God, was a great indignity to
Moses: for it was upon this consideration that they made the calf,
because “as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt,
we know not what is become of him; therefore make us gods of gold;”
as if a calf were sufficient to supply the want of Moses, and as
capable of going before them into the promised land. So they made a
calf in those days when the law was given them, and offered
sacrifices unto the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own
hands. So proud were they of their new god that when they had
sat down to eat and drink, they rose up to play! By all this it
appears that there was a great deal which the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh; it was therefore necessary that
this law should be perfected by a better hand, and he was no blasphemer
against Moses who said that Christ had done it.
| Stephen’s Address. |
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42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of
heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house
of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by
the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of
your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I
will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness,
as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it
according to the fashion that he had seen.
45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus
into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before
the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a
tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built him a house.
48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with
hands; as saith the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what
house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of
my rest?
50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
Two things we have in these verses:–
I. Stephen upbraids them with the idolatry of their fathers, which God
gave them up to, as a punishment for their early forsaking him in
worshipping the golden calf; and this was the saddest punishment of all
for that sin, as it was of the idolatry of the Gentile world that
God gave them up to a reprobate mind. When Israel was joined to
idols, joined to the golden calf, and not long after to Baal-peor,
God said, Let them alone; let them go on
(v. 42):
Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven.
He particularly cautioned them not to do it, at their peril, and gave
them reasons why they should not; but, when they were bent upon it,
he gave them up to their own hearts; lust, withdrew his
restraining grace, and then they walked in their own counsels, and were
so scandalously mad upon their idols as never any people were. Compare
Deut. iv. 19 with Jer. viii. 2.
For this he quotes a passage out of
For it would be less invidious to tell them their own [character and
doom] from an Old-Testament prophet, who upbraids them,
1. For not sacrificing to their own God in the wilderness
(v. 42):
Have you offered to me slain beasts, and sacrifices, by the space of
forty years in the wilderness? No; during all that time sacrifices
to God were intermitted; they did not so much as keep the passover
after the second year. It was God’s condescension to them that he did
not insist upon it during their unsettled state; but then let them
consider how ill they requited him in offering sacrifices to idols,
when God dispensed with their offering them to him. This is also a
check to their zeal for the customs that Moses delivered to them, and
their fear of having them changed by this Jesus, that
immediately after they were delivered these customs were for forty
years together disused as needless things.
2. For sacrificing to other gods after they came to Canaan
(v. 43):
You took up the tabernacle of Moloch. Moloch was the idol of the
children of Ammon, to which they barbarously offered their own children
in sacrifice, which they could not do without great terror and grief to
themselves and their families; yet this unnatural idolatry they arrived
at, when God gave them up to worship the host of heaven. See
It was surely the strongest delusion that ever people were given up to,
and the greatest instance of the power of Satan in the children of
disobedience, and therefore it is here spoken of emphatically: Yea,
you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, you submitted even to that,
and to the worship of the star of your god Remphan. Some think
Remphan signifies the moon, as Moloch does the sun;
others take it for Saturn, for that planet is called
Remphan in the Syriac and Persian languages. The Septuagint puts
it for Chiun, as being a name more commonly known. They had
images representing the star, like the silver shrines for Diana, here
called the figures which they made to worship. Dr. Lightfoot
thinks they had figures representing the whole starry firmament, with
all the constellations, and the planets, and these are called
Remphan–“the high representation,” like the celestial globe: a
poor thing to make an idol of, and yet better than a golden calf! Now
for this it is threatened, I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
In Amos it is beyond Damascus, meaning to Babylon, the land
of the north. But Stephen changes it, with an eye to the captivity
of the ten tribes, who were carried away beyond Babylon, by the
river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
2 Kings xvii. 6.
Let it not therefore seem strange to them to hear of the destruction of
this place, for they had heard of it many a time from the prophets of
the Old Testament, who were not therefore accused as blasphemers by any
but the wicked rulers. It was observed, in the debate on Jeremiah’s
case, that Micah was not called to an account though he prophesied,
saying, Zion shall be ploughed as a field,
Jer. xxvi. 18, 19.
II. He gives an answer particularly to the charge exhibited against him
relating to the temple, that he spoke blasphemous words against that
holy place,
v. 44-50.
He was accused for saying that Jesus would destroy this holy place:
“And what if I did say so?” (saith Stephen) “the glory of the holy God
is not bound up in the glory of this holy place, but that may be
preserved untouched, though this be laid in the dust;” for,
1. “It was not till our fathers came into the wilderness, in their way
to Canaan, that they had any fixed place of worship; and yet the
patriarchs, many ages before, worshipped God acceptably at the altars
they had adjoining to their own tents in the open air–sub dio;
and he that was worshipped without a holy place in the first, and best,
and purest ages of the Old-Testament church, may and will be so when
this holy place is destroyed, without any diminution to his glory.”
2. The holy place was at first but a tabernacle, mean and movable,
showing itself to be short-lived, and not designed to continue always.
Why might not this holy place, though built of stones, be decently
brought to its end, and give place to its betters, as well as that
though framed of curtains? As it was no dishonour, but an honour to
God, that the tabernacle gave way to the temple, so it is now that the
material temple gives way to the spiritual one, and so it will be when,
at last, the spiritual temple shall give way to the eternal one.
3. That tabernacle was a tabernacle of witness, or of
testimony, a figure of good things to come, of the true tabernacle
which the Lord pitched, and not men,
Heb. viii. 2.
This was the glory both of the tabernacle and temple, that they were
erected for a testimony of that temple of God which in the latter days
should be opened in heaven
(Rev. xi. 19),
and of Christ’s tabernacling on earth (as the word is,
and of the temple of his body.
4. That tabernacle was framed just as God appointed, and according
to the fashion which Moses saw in the mount, which plainly
intimates that it had reference to good things to come. Its rise being
heavenly, its meaning and tendency were so; and therefore it was no
diminution at all to its glory to say that this temple made with hands
should be destroyed, in order to the building of another made
without hands, which was Christ’s crime
(Mark xiv. 58),
and Stephen’s.
5. That tabernacle was pitched first in the wilderness; it was not a
native of this land of yours (to which you think it must for ever be
confined), but was brought in in the next age, by our fathers, who came
after those who first erected it, into the possession of the Gentiles,
into the land of Canaan, which had long been in the possession of the
devoted nations whom God drove out before the face of our
fathers. And why may not God set up his spiritual temple, as he had
done the material tabernacle, in those countries that were now the
possession of the Gentiles? That tabernacle was brought in by those who
came with Jesus, that is, Joshua. And I think, for
distinction sake, and to prevent mistakes, it ought to be so read, both
Yet in naming Joshua here, which in Greek is Jesus, there
may be a tacit intimation that as the Old-Testament Joshua brought in
that typical tabernacle, so the New-Testament Joshua should bring in
the true tabernacle into the possession of the Gentiles.
6. That tabernacle continued for many ages, even to the days of
David, above four hundred years, before there was any thought of
building a temple,
David, having found favour before God, did indeed desire this
further favour, to have leave to build God a house, to be a constant
settled tabernacle, or dwelling-place, for the Shechinah, or the tokens
of the presence of the God of Jacob,
Those who have found favour with God should show themselves forward to
advance the interests of his kingdom among men.
7. God had his heart so little upon a temple, or such a holy place as
they were so jealous for, that, when David desired to build one, he was
forbidden to do it; God was in no haste for one, as he told David
and therefore it was not he, but his son Solomon, some years after,
that built him a house. David had all that sweet communion with God in
public worship which we read of in his Psalms before there was any
temple built.
8. God often declared that temples made with hands were not his
delight, nor could add any thing to the perfection of his rest and joy.
Solomon, when he dedicated the temple, acknowledged that God
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; he has not need of
them, is not benefited by them, cannot be confined to them. The whole
world is his temple, in which he is every where present, and fills it
with his glory; and what occasion has he for a temple then to manifest
himself in? Indeed the pretended deities of the heathen needed temples
made with hands, for they were gods made with hands
(v. 41),
and had no other place to manifest themselves in than in their own
temples; but the one only true and living God needs no temple, for
the heaven is his throne, in which he rests, and the earth is
his footstool, over which he rules
(v. 49, 50),
and therefore, What house will you build me, comparable to this
which I have already? Or, what is the place of my rest? What
need have I of a house, either to repose myself in or to show myself?
Hath not my hand made all these things? And these show his
eternal power and Godhead
(Rom. i. 20);
they so show themselves to all mankind that those who worship other
gods are without excuse. And as the world is thus God’s temple, wherein
he is manifested, so it is God’s temple in which he will be worshipped.
As the earth is full of his glory, and is therefore his temple
(Isa. vi. 3),
so the earth is, or shall be, full of his praise
(Hab. iii. 3),
and all the ends of the earth shall fear him
(Ps. lxvii. 7),
and upon this account it is his temple. It was therefore no reflection
at all upon this holy place, however they might take it, to say that
Jesus should destroy this temple, and set up another, into which
all nations should be admitted,
And it would not seem strange to those who considered that scripture
which Stephen here quotes
which, as it expressed God’s comparative contempt of the external part
of his service, so it plainly foretold the rejection of the unbelieving
Jews, and the welcome of the Gentiles that were of a contrite spirit
into the church.
| Stephen’s Address. |
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51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do
always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and
they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the
Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and
have not kept it.
Stephen was going on in his discourse (as it should seem by the thread
of it) to show that, as the temple, so the temple-service must come to
an end, and it would be the glory of both to give way to that worship
of the Father in spirit and in truth which was to be established in the
kingdom of the Messiah, stripped of the pompous ceremonies of the old
law, and so he was going to apply all this which he had said more
closely to his present purpose; but he perceived they could not bear
it. They could patiently hear the history of the Old Testament told (it
was a piece of learning which they themselves dealt much in); but if
Stephen go about to tell them that their power and tyranny must come
down, and that the church must be governed by a spirit of holiness and
love, and heavenly-mindedness, they will not so much as give him the
hearing. It is probable that he perceived this, and that they were
going to silence him; and therefore he breaks off abruptly in the midst
of his discourse, and by that spirit of wisdom, courage, and power,
wherewith he was filled, he sharply rebuked his persecutors, and
exposed their true character; for, if they will not admit the testimony
of the gospel to them, it shall become a testimony against them.
I. They, like their fathers, were stubborn and wilful, and would not be
wrought upon by the various methods God took to reclaim and reform
them; they were like their fathers, inflexible both to the word of God
and to his providences.
1. They were stiff-necked
(v. 51),
and would not submit their necks to the sweet and easy yoke of God’s
government, nor draw in it, but were like a bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke; or they would not bow their heads, no, not to God
himself, would not do obeisance to him, would not humble themselves
before him. The stiff neck is the same with the hard heart, obstinate
and contumacious, and that will not yield–the general character of the
Jewish nation,
xxxiii. 3, 5; xxxiv. 9; Deut. ix. 6, 13; xxxi. 27; Ezek. ii. 4.
2. They were uncircumcised in heart and ears their hearts and
ears were not devoted and given up to God, as the body of the people
were in profession by the sign of circumcision: “In name and show you
are circumcised Jews, but in heart and ears you are still uncircumcised
heathens, and pay no more deference to the authority of your God than
they do,
You are under the power of unmortified lusts and corruptions, which
stop your ears to the voice of God, and harden your hearts to that
which is both most commanding and most affecting.” They had not that
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins
of the flesh,
Col. ii. 11.
II. They, like their fathers, were not only not influenced by the
methods God took to reform them, but they were enraged and incensed
against them: You do always resist the Holy Ghost.
1. They resisted the Holy Ghost speaking to them by the prophets, whom
they opposed and contradicted, hated and ridiculed; this seems
especially meant here, by the following explication, Which of the
prophets have not your fathers persecuted? In persecuting and
silencing those that spoke by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost they
resisted the Holy Ghost. Their fathers resisted the Holy Ghost in the
prophets that God raised up to them, and so did they in Christ’s
apostles and ministers, who spoke by the same Spirit, and had greater
measures of his gifts than the prophets of the Old Testament had, and
yet were more resisted.
2. They resisted the Holy Ghost striving with them by their own
consciences, and would not comply with the convictions and dictates of
them. God’s Spirit strove with them as with the old world, but in vain;
they resisted him, took part with their corruptions against their
convictions, and rebelled against the light. There is that in our
sinful hearts that always resists the Holy Ghost, a flesh that lusts
against the Spirit, and wars against his motions; but in the hearts of
God’s elect, when the fulness of time comes, this resistance is
overcomer and overpowered, and after a struggle the throne of Christ is
set up in the soul, and every thought that had exalted itself against
it is brought into captivity to it,
That grace therefore which effects this change might more fitly be
called victorious grace than irresistible.
III. They, like their fathers, persecuted and slew those whom God sent
unto them to call them to duty, and make them offers of mercy.
1. Their fathers had been the cruel and constant persecutors of the
Old-Testament prophets
(v. 51):
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? More or
less, one time or other, they had a blow at them all. With regard even
to those that lived in the best reigns, when the princes did not
persecute them, there was a malignant party in the nation that mocked
at them and abused them, and most of them were at last, either by
colour of law or popular fury, put to death; and that which aggravated
the sin of persecuting the prophets was, that the business of the
prophets they were so spiteful at was to show before of the coming
of the just One, to give notice of God’s kind intentions towards
that people, to send the Messiah among them in the fulness of time.
Those that were the messengers of such glad tidings should have been
courted and caressed, and have had the preferments of the best of
benefactors; but, instead of this, they had the treatment of the worst
of malefactors.
2. They had been the betrayers and murderers of the just One
himself, as Peter had told them,
They had hired Judas to betray him, and had in a manner forced Pilate
to condemn him; and therefore it is charged upon them that they were
his betrayers and murders. Thus they were the genuine seed of those who
slew the prophets that foretold his coming, which, by slaying him, they
showed they would have done if they had lived then; and thus, as our
Saviour had told them, they brought upon themselves the guilt of the
blood of all the prophets. To which of the prophets would those have
shown any respect who had no regard to the Son of God himself?
IV. They, like their fathers, put contempt upon divine revelation, and
would not be guided and governed by it; and this was the aggravation of
their sin, that God had given, as to their fathers his law, so to them
his gospel, in vain.
1. Their fathers received the law, and did not observe it,
God wrote to them the great things of his law, after he had first
spoken them to them; and yet they were counted by them as a strange or
foreign thing, which they were no way concerned in. The law is said to
be received by the disposition of angels, because angels were
employed in the solemnity of giving the law, in the thunderings and
lightnings, and the sound of the trumpet. It is said to be ordained
by angels
(Gal. iii. 19),
God is said to come with ten thousand of his saints to give the
law
and it was a word spoken by angels,
Heb. ii. 2.
This put an honour both upon the law and the Lawgiver, and should
increase our veneration for both. But those that thus received the law
yet kept it not, but by making the golden calf broke it immediately in
a capital instance.
2. They received the gospel now, by the disposition, not of angels, but
of the Holy Ghost,–not with the sound of a trumpet, but, which was
more strange, in the gift of tongues, and yet they did not embrace it.
They would not yield to the plainest demonstrations, any more than
their fathers before them did, for they were resolved not to comply
with God either in his law or in his gospel.
We have reason to think Stephen had a great deal more to say, and would
have said it if they would have suffered him; but they were wicked and
unreasonable men with whom he had to do, that could no more hear reason
than they could speak it.
| Stephen’s Martyrdom; Stephen’s Dying Prayer. |
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|
54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart,
and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly
into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God,
56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of
man standing on the right hand of God.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their
ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the
witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose
name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying,
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay
not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell
asleep.
We have here the death of the first martyr of the Christian church, and
there is in this story a lively instance of the outrage and fury of the
persecutors (such as we may expect to meet with if we are called out to
suffer for Christ), and of the courage and comfort of the persecuted,
that are thus called out. Here is hell in its fire and darkness, and
heaven in its light and brightness; and these serve as foils to set off
each other. It is not here said that the votes of the council were
taken upon his case, and that by the majority he was found guilty, and
then condemned and ordered to be stoned to death, according to the law,
as a blasphemer; but, it is likely, so it was, and that it was not by
the violence of the people, without order of the council, that he was
put to death; for here is the usual ceremony of regular executions–he
was cast out of the city, and the hands of the witnesses were first
upon him.
Let us observe here the wonderful discomposure of the spirits of his
enemies and persecutors, and the wonderful composure of his spirit.
I. See the strength of corruption in the persecutors of Stephen–malice
in perfection, hell itself broken loose, men become incarnate devils,
and the serpent’s seed spitting their venom.
1. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart
(v. 54),
dieprionto, the same word that is used
and translated they were sawn asunder. They were put to as much
torture in their minds as ever the martyrs were put to in their bodies.
They were filled with indignation at the unanswerable arguments that
Stephen urged for their conviction, and that they could find nothing to
say against them. They were not pricked to the heart with sorrow, as
those were
but cut to the heart with rage and fury, as they themselves were,
Stephen rebuked them sharply, as Paul expresses it
(Tit. i. 13),
apotomos—cuttingly, for they were cut to the heart
by the reproof. Note, Rejecters of the gospel and opposers of it are
really tormentors to themselves. Enmity to God is a heart-cutting
thing; faith and love are heart-healing. When they heard how he that
looked like an angel before he began his discourse talked like
an angel, like a messenger from heaven, before he concluded it, they
were like a wild bull in a net, full of the fury of the Lord,
(Isa. li. 20),
despairing to run down a cause so bravely pleaded, and yet resolved not
to yield to it.
2. They gnashed upon him with their teeth. This denotes,
(1.) Great malice and rage against him. Job complained of his enemy
that he gnashed upon him with his teeth,
Job xvi. 9.
The language of this was, Oh that we had of his flesh to eat!
Job xxxi. 31.
They grinned at him, as dogs at those they are enraged at; and
therefore Paul, cautioning against those of the circumcision, says,
Beware of dogs,
Phil. iii. 2.
Enmity at the saints turns men into brute beasts.
(2.) Great vexation within themselves; they fretted to see in him such
manifest tokens of a divine power and presence, and it vexed them to
the heart. The wicked shall see it and be grieved, he shall gnash
with his teeth and melt away,
Ps. cxii. 10.
Gnashing with the teeth is often used to express the horror and
torments of the damned. Those that have the malice of hell cannot but
have with it some of the pains of hell.
3. They cried out with a loud voice
(v. 57),
to irritate and excite one another, and to drown the noise of the
clamours of their own and one another’s consciences; when he said, I
see heaven opened, they cried with a loud voice, that he might not
be heard to speak. Note, It is very common for a righteous cause,
particularly the righteous cause of Christ’s religion, to be attempted
to be run down by noise and clamour; what is wanting in reason is made
up in tumult, and the cry of him that ruleth among fools, while the
words of the wise are heard in quiet. They cried with a loud voice,
as soldiers when they are going to engage in battle, mustering up all
their spirit and vigour for this desperate encounter.
4. They stopped their ears, that they might not hear their own
noisiness; or perhaps under pretence that they could not bear to hear
his blasphemies. As Caiaphas rent his clothes when Christ said,
Hereafter you shall see the Son of man coming in glory
so here these stopped their ears when Stephen said, I now see
the Son of man standing in glory, both pretending that what was
spoken was not to be heard with patience. Their stopping their ears
was,
(1.) A manifest specimen of their wilful obstinacy; they were resolved
they would not hear what had a tendency to convince them, which was
what the prophets often complained of: they were like the deaf
adder, that will not hear the voice of the charmer,
Ps. lviii. 4, 5.
(2.) It was a fatal omen of that judicial hardness to which God would
give them up. They stopped their ears, and then God, in a way of
righteous judgment, stopped them. This was the work that was now in
doing with the unbelieving Jews: Make the heart of this people fat,
and their ears heavy; thus was Stephen’s character of them
answered, You uncircumcised in heart and ears.
5. They ran upon him with one accord–the people and the elders
of the people, judges, prosecutors, witnesses, and spectators, they all
flew upon him, as beasts upon their prey. See how violent they were,
and in what haste–they ran upon him, though there was no danger of his
outrunning them; and see how unanimous they were in this evil
thing–they ran upon him with one accord, one and all, hoping
thereby to terrify him, and put him into confusion, envying him his
composure and comfort in soul, with which he wonderfully enjoyed
himself in the midst of this hurry; they did all they could to ruffle
him.
6. They cast him out of the city, and stoned him, as if he were
not worthy to live in Jerusalem; nay, not worthy to live in this world,
pretending herein to execute the law of Moses
He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall surely be put to
death, all the congregation shall certainly stone him. And thus
they had put Christ to death, when this same court had found him guilty
of blasphemy, but that, for his greater ignominy, they were desirous he
should be crucified, and God overruled it for the fulfilling of the
scripture. The fury with which they managed the execution is intimated
in this: they cast him out of the city, as if they could not bear the
sight of him; they treated him as an anathema, as the offscouring of
all things. The witnesses against him were the leaders in the
execution, according to the law
The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him, to put him to
death, and particularly in the case of blasphemy,
Thus they were to confirm their testimony. Now, the stoning of a man
being a laborious piece of work, the witnesses took off their upper
garments, that they might not hang in their way, and they laid them
down at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul, now a pleased
spectator of this tragedy. It is the first time we find mention of his
name; we shall know it and love it better when we find it changed to
Paul, and him changed from a persecutor into a preacher. This
little instance of his agency in Stephen’s death he afterwards
reflected upon with regret
(ch. xxii. 20):
I kept the raiment of those that slew him.
II. See the strength of grace in Stephen, and the wonderful instances
of God’s favour to him, and working in him. As his persecutors were
full of Satan, so was he full of the Holy Ghost, fuller than
ordinary, anointed with fresh oil for the comb at, that, as the day, so
might the strength be. Upon this account those are blessed who are
persecuted for righteousness’ sake, that the Spirit of God and
of glory rests upon them,
1 Pet. iv. 14.
When he was chosen to public service, he was described to be a man
full of the Holy Ghost
(ch. vi. 5),
and now he is called out to martyrdom he has still the same character.
Note, Those that are full of the Holy Ghost are fit for any thing,
either to act for Christ or to suffer for him. And those whom God calls
out to difficult services for his name he will qualify for those
services, and carry comfortably through them, by filling them with the
Holy Ghost, that, as their afflictions for Christ abound, their
consolation in him may yet more abound, and then none of these
things move them. Now here we have a remarkable communion between
this blessed martyr and the blessed Jesus in this critical moment. When
the followers of Christ are for his sake killed all the day long,
and accounted as sheep for the slaughter, does this separate them
from the love of Christ? Does he love them the less? Do they love him
the less? No, by no means; and so it appears by this narrative, in
which we may observe.
1. Christ’s gracious manifestation of himself to Stephen, both for his
comfort and for his honour, in the midst of his sufferings. When they
were cut to the heart, and gnashed upon him with their teeth, ready to
eat him up, then he had a view of the glory of Christ sufficient to
fill him with joy unspeakable, which was intended not only for his
encouragement, but for the support and comfort of all God’s suffering
servants in all ages.
(1.) He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into
heaven,
v. 55.
[1.] Thus he looked above the power and fury of his persecutors, and
did as it were despise them, and laugh them to scorn, as the daughter
of Zion,
They had their eyes fixed upon him, full of malice and cruelty; but he
looked up to heaven, and never minded them, was so taken up with the
eternal life now in prospect that he seemed to have no manner of
concern for the natural life now at state. Instead of looking about
him, to see either which way he was in danger or which way he might
make his escape, he looks up to heaven; thence only comes his help, and
thitherward his way is still open; though they compass him about on
every side, they cannot interrupt his intercourse with heaven. Note, A
believing regard to God and the upper world will be of great use to us,
to set us above the fear of man; for as far as we are under the
influence of that fear we forget the Lord our Maker,
Isa. li. 13.
[2.] Thus he directed his sufferings to the glory of God, to the honour
of Christ, and did as it were appeal to heaven concerning them (Lord,
for thy sake I suffer this) and express his earnest expectation that
Christ should be magnified in his body. Now that he was ready to be
offered he looks up stedfastly to heaven, as one willing to offer
himself.
[3.] Thus he lifted up his soul with his eyes to God in the heavens, in
pious ejaculations, calling upon God for wisdom and grace to carry him
through this trial in a right manner. God has promised that he will be
with his servants whom he calls out to suffer for him; but he will for
this be sought unto. He is nigh unto them, but it is in that for
which they call upon him. Is any afflicted? Let him pray.
[4.] Thus he breathed after the heavenly country, to which he saw the
fury of his persecutors would presently send him. It is good for dying
saints to look up stedfastly to heaven: “Yonder is the place whither
death will carry my better part, and then, O death! where is thy
sting?”
[5.] Thus he made it to appear that he was full of the Holy Ghost; for,
wherever the Spirit of grace dwells, and works, and reigns, he directs
the eye of the soul upward. Those that are full of the Holy Ghost will
look up stedfastly to heaven, for there their heart is.
[6.] Thus he put himself into a posture to receive the following
manifestation of the divine glory and grace. If we expect to hear from
heaven, we must look up stedfastly to heaven.
(2.) He saw the glory of God
(v. 55);
for he saw, in order to this, the heavens opened,
v. 56.
Some think his eyes were strengthened, and the sight of them so raised
above its natural pitch, by a supernatural power, that he saw into the
third heavens, though at so vast a distance, as Moses’s sight was
enlarged to see the whole land of Canaan. Others think it was a
representation of the glory of God set before his eyes, as, before,
Isaiah and Ezekiel; heaven did as it were come down to him, as
The heavens were opened, to give him a view of the happiness he was
going to, that he might, in prospect of it, go cheerfully through
death, so great a death. Would we by faith look up stedfastly, we might
see the heavens opened by the mediation of Christ, the veil being rent,
and a new and living way laid open for us into the holiest. The heaven
is opened for the settling of a correspondence between God and men,
that his favours and blessings may come down to us, and our prayers and
praises may go up to him. We may also see the glory of God, as far as
he has revealed it in his word, and the sight of this will carry us
through all the terrors of sufferings and death.
(3.) He saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God
(v. 55),
the Son of man, so it is
Jesus, being the Son of man, having taken our nature with him to
heaven, and being there clothed with a body, might be seen with bodily
eyes, and so Stephen saw him. When the Old-Testament prophets saw the
glory of God it was attended with angels. The Shechinah or divine
presence in Isaiah’s vision was attended with seraphim, in Ezekiel’s
vision with cherubim, both signifying the angels, the ministers of
God’s providence. But here no mention is made of the angels, though
they surround the throne and the Lamb; instead of them Stephen sees
Jesus at the right hand of God, the great Mediator of God’s grace, from
whom more glory redounds to God than from all the ministration of the
holy angels. The glory of God shines brightest in the face of Jesus
Christ; for there shines the glory of his grace, which is the most
illustrious instance of his glory. God appears more glorious with Jesus
standing at his right hand than with millions of angels about him. Now,
[1.] Here is a proof of the exaltation of Christ to the Father’s right
hand; the apostles saw him ascend, but they did not see him sit down,
A cloud received him out of their sight. We are told that he sat
down on the right hand of God; but was he ever seen there? Yes, Stephen
saw him there, and was abundantly satisfied with the sight. He saw
Jesus at the right hand of God, denoting both his transcendent dignity
and his sovereign dominion, his uncontrollable ability and his
universal agency; whatever God’s right hand gives to us, or receives
from us, or does concerning us, it is by him; for he is his right hand.
[2.] He is usually said to sit there; but Stephen sees him
standing there, as one more than ordinarily concerned at present
for his suffering servant; he stood up as a judge to plead his cause
against his persecutors; he is raised up out of his holy
habitation
(Zech. ii. 13),
comes out of his place to punish,
Isa. xxvi. 21.
He stands ready to receive him and crown him, and in the mean time to
give him a prospect of the joy set before him.
[3.] This was intended for the encouragement of Stephen. He sees Christ
is for him, and then no matter who is against him. When our Lord Jesus
was in his agony an angel appeared to him, strengthening him; but
Stephen had Christ himself appearing to him. Note, Nothing so
comfortable to dying saints, nor so animating to suffering saints, as
to see Jesus at the right hand of God; and, blessed be God, by faith we
may see him there.
(4.) He told those about him what he saw
(v. 56):
Behold, I see the heavens opened. That which was a cordial to
him ought to have been a conviction to them, and a caution to them to
take heed of proceeding against one upon whom heaven thus smiled; and
therefore what he saw he declared, let them make what use they pleased
of it. If some were exasperated by it, others perhaps might be wrought
upon to consider this Jesus whom they persecuted, and to believe in
him.
2. Stephen’s pious addresses to Jesus Christ. The manifestation of
God’s glory to him did not set him above praying, but rather set him
upon it: They stoned Stephen, calling upon God,
v. 59.
Though he called upon God, and by that showed himself to be a true-born
Israelite, yet they proceeded to stone him, not considering how
dangerous it is to fight against those who have an interest in heaven.
Though they stoned him, yet he called upon God; nay, therefore he
called upon him. Note, It is the comfort of those who are unjustly
hated and persecuted by men that they have a God to go to, a God
all-sufficient to call upon. Men stop their ears, as they did here
(v. 57),
but God does not. Stephen was now cast out of the city, but he was not
cast out from his God. He was now taking his leave of the world, and
therefore calls upon God; for we must do this as long as we live.
Note, It is good to die praying; then we need help–strength we never
had, to do a work we never did–and how can we fetch in that help and
strength but by prayer? Two short prayers Stephen offered up to God in
his dying moments, and in them as it were breathed out his soul:–
(1.) Here is a prayer for himself: Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit. Thus Christ had himself resigned his spirit immediately
into the hands of the Father. We are here taught to resign ours into
the hands of Christ as Mediator, by him to be recommended to the
Father. Stephen saw Jesus standing at the Father’s right hand, and he
thus calls to him: “Blessed Jesus, do that for me now which thou
standest there to do for all thine, receive my departing spirit into
thy hand.” Observe,
[1.] The soul is the man, and our great concern, living and dying, must
be about our souls. Stephen’s body was to be miserably broken and
shattered, and overwhelmed with a shower of stones, the earthly house
of this tabernacle violently beaten down and abused; but, however it
goes with that, “Lord,” saith he, “‘let my spirit be safe; let it go
well with my poor soul.” Thus, while we live, our care should be that
though the body be starved or stripped the soul may be fed and clothed,
though the body lie in pain the soul may dwell at ease; and, when we
die, that though the body be thrown by as a despised broken vessel, and
a vessel in which there is no pleasure, yet the soul may be presented a
vessel of honour, that God may be the strength of the heart and its
portion, though the flesh fail.
[2.] Our Lord Jesus is God, to whom we are to seek, and in whom we are
to confide and comfort ourselves living and dying. Stephen here prays
to Christ, and so must we; for it is the will of God that all men
should thus honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. It
is Christ we are to commit ourselves to, who alone is able to keep what
we commit to him against that day; it is necessary that we have an eye
to Christ when we come to die, for there is no venturing into another
world but under his conduct, no living comforts in dying moments but
what are fetched from him.
[3.] Christ’s receiving our spirits at death is the great thing we are
to be careful about, and to comfort ourselves with. We ought to be in
care about this while we live, that Christ may receive our spirits when
we die; for, if he reject and disown them, whither will they betake
themselves? How can they escape being a prey to the roaring lion? To
him therefore we must commit them daily, to be ruled and sanctified,
and made meet for heaven, and then, and not otherwise, he will receive
them. And, if this has been our care while we live, it may be our
comfort when we come to die, that we shall be received into everlasting
habitations.
(2.) Here is a prayer for his persecutors,
[1.] The circumstances of this prayer are observable; for it seems to
have been offered up with something more of solemnity than the former.
First, He knelt down, which was an expression of his
humility in prayer. Secondly, He cried with a loud voice,
which was an expression of his importunity. But why should he thus show
more humility and importunity in this request than in the former? Why,
none could doubt of his being in good earnest in his prayers for
himself, and therefore there he needed not to use such outward
expressions of it; but in his prayer for his enemies, because that is
so much against the grain of corrupt nature, it was requisite he should
give proofs of his being in earnest.
[2.] The prayer itself: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
Herein he followed the example of his dying Master, who prayed thus for
his persecutors, Father, forgive them; and set an example to all
following sufferers in the cause of Christ thus to pray for those that
persecute them. Prayer may preach. This did so to those who stoned
Stephen, and he knelt down that they might take notice he was going to
pray, and cried with a loud voice that they might take notice of what
he said, and might learn, First, That what they did was a sin, a
great sin, which, if divine mercy and grace did not prevent, would be
laid to their charge, to their everlasting confusion. Secondly,
That, notwithstanding their malice and fury against him, he was in
charity with them, and was so far from desiring that God would avenge
his death upon them that it was his hearty prayer to God that it might
not in any degree be laid to their charge. A sad reckoning there would
be for it. If they did not repent, it would certainly be laid to their
charge; but he, for his part, did not desire the woeful day. Let them
take notice of this, and, when their thoughts were cool, surely they
would not easily forgive themselves for putting him to death who could
so easily forgive them. The blood-thirsty hate the upright, but the
just seek his soul,
Prov. xxix. 10.
Thirdly, That, though the sin was very heinous, yet they must
not despair of the pardon of it upon their repentance. If they would
lay it to their hearts, God would not lay it to their charge. “Do you
think,” saith St. Austin, “that Paul heard Stephen pray this prayer? It
is likely he did and ridiculed it then (audivit subsannans, sed
irrisit–he heard with scorn), but afterwards he had the benefit of
it, and fared the better for it.”
3. His expiring with this: When he had said this, he fell
asleep; or, as he was saying this, the blow came that was mortal.
Note, Death is but a sleep to good people; not the sleep of the soul
(Stephen had given that up into Christ’s hand), but the sleep of the
body; it is its rest from all its griefs and toils; it is perfect ease
from toil and pain. Stephen died as much in a hurry as ever any man
did, and yet, when he died, he fell asleep. He applied himself to his
dying work with as much composure of mind as if he had been going to
sleep; it was but closing his eyes, and dying. Observe, He fell asleep
when he was praying for his persecutors; it is expressed as if he
thought he could not die in peace till he had done this. It contributes
very much to our dying comfortably to die in charity with all men; we
are then found of Christ in peace; let not the sun of life go down upon
our wrath. He fell asleep; the vulgar Latin adds, in the Lord,
in the embraces of his love. If he thus sleep, he shall do well; he
shall awake again in the morning of the resurrection.
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