The Testimony of the Tabernacle

Stuck

You really believe what you are talking about. Paul states in 1 Cor 15:19

1 Corinthians 15:19 (NIV)

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

For the sake of holding onto something, we will dig our heals in and not move even when it is obvious God is the one leading our movement.

Acts 7:37–43 (NIV)

“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’ He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

“But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’ That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

“ ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings

forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?

You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek

and the star of your god Rephan,

the idols you made to worship.

Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.

Stephen points out the cyclical pattern of rejection that has continually plagued Israel’s faith. They traded the Lord for an image of God fashioned by their own hands.

Tabernacle

Acts 7:44–50 (NIV)

“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

“ ‘Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house will you build for me?

says the Lord.

Or where will my resting place be?

Has not my hand made all these things?’

Stephen quotes Isaiah 66 as he shows that even when humanly intercessors were removed, the hearts of the Israelites still clung to what they could control.

David longed to build the temple, but was not allowed. Jesus offered to make the people God’s temple and they rejected Him.

Judgment

Acts 7:51–60 (NIV)

“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Stephen’s accusation against the religious leaders describes us today as well. We resist the Holy Spirit. We choose not to engage in the movements of the Lord in favor of our comfort and the god we have constructed with our own hands. We choose our comfortable patterns of sin and we wonder why the hand of God seems so far from us. We choose to sustain self.