God’s Judgment of Israel’s Idolatry

Introduction:

Stephen has taught that the scriptures show Israel rejected Moses not once but twice.

The second rejection might be viewed as the most rebellious of the two.

It required rejecting the exodus from Egypt itself.

It required rejecting that Jehovah is the true God of creation.

Stephen has also introduced the presence of God in two key places:

Ur: where he spoke of Abraham

Midian: where he spoke to Moses and referred to the ground as holy.

When they made the golden calf, Israel celebrated in the works of their own hands.

This reinforces the point Stephen raises when he places God outside of the land of Israel in the previous two examples.

God let Israel live in the way they wished to live.

Celebrating the Wrong Thing

Stephen recounts that Israel celebrated the works of their own hands when they made the calves.

Exodus 20:1-4

Dt. 27:15

Is. 44:9-17

The calves became a historical problem for Israel:

1 Kings 12:28: note also the currency of the act of Egyptian deliverance.

The people knew the theological implications of that event, but they reject it in principle.

God’s Judgment on the People

In light of the people’s rejection of God, and in light of their desire to celebrate the work of their own hands, God placed Israel under His judgment.

God turned, meaning, apparently, He turned from Israel. He “gave them over” is language of the LXX and Paul for divine judgment.

Judges 2:11-14

Romans 1:18-28.

Note that three times, Paul says of God that He gave them over.

Stephen uses Amos 5:25-27 to illustrate the conditions God judged Israel to live under.

The quotation seems to serve the role of illustrating how God gave them over to worship the host of heaven.

They did not just sacrifice and offer to Jehovah in the wilderness for 40 years.

The implication of that seems to be that a pattern existed as early as leaving Egypt that Israel worshipped other gods.

This behavior continued with the adoption of the worship of Saturn through the gods of the Assyrians.

Stephen establishes a contrast, or the texts naturally do, between the models used to worship those gods and the tent of the witness that Jehovah alone brought Israel out of Egypt.

Note the terminology in Acts 7:43-44.

The presence of the tabernacle links together Stephen’s earlier account with what comes after it.

Something that manifested itself in the form of blatant idolatry, defying the evidence of the tabernacle, continued after the death of David.

Solomon constructed a house for Israel to use in the worship of Jehovah.

God, however, does not live in handmade places.

Stephen returns to this idea first associated with the golden calf.

The Temple should be viewed as a continuation of the same for of rebellion against God as the making of the golden calves.