Sermon Tone Analysis

They turned their hearts to Egypt.

They turned their hearts to Egypt…

-53

“ This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’

“This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers.

He received living oracles to give to us.

Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us.

As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets; “‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,

during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

You took up the tent of Moloch

and the star of your god Rephan,

the images that you made to worship;

and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen.

Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers.

So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by 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 what is the place of my rest?

Did not my hand make all these things?’

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.

As your fathers did, so do you.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Let us pray…

During these series about the stoning of Stephen we have seen, Stephen defended himself against scurrilous and false charges.

First concerning his blasphemy against God which he shown them he was not guilty but they were.

Then concerning his rejection and blasphemy against the prophet Moses, which again he proved to them that they were the ones whom really rejected Moses.

Now Stephen defends himself once again against the charge of speaking against the Law and the temple.

They turned their hearts to Egypt… when they rejected the Law.

As you can see, it is an easy transition from Moses to the Law, since the two of them are so closely associated.

The text tells us that Stephen’s opponents had accused him of speaking against and breaking the sacred Law of Moses, but the history of Israel really revealed that they were the ones who had repeatedly broken the Law of Moses.

While Moses was with the congregation of Israel in the wilderness God gave the Law to them.

God gave them His living Word through the very mediation of angels.

, “Why then the law?

It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.”

This passage in Galatians is intended to move us from slavery to sonship; from the slavery of Egypt, the sonship of the Eternal God.

The Law was never intended to be in force forever, and now because the promised Messiah had come, those who believe in Him are sons of God and now under His grace.

Yet, in the passage the question is asked,  “Why then the law?”

The question then arises: If the law has no impact on God’s plan rooted in his promise, why was the law ever given?

The text gives us an answer it was because of the transgressions and sin, this is why the Law was given.

There are at least four reasons that the whole of Scripture gives us cause that we can anchor our thoughts upon here.

(1) “to provide a sacrificial system to deal temporarily with sin,” (2) “to teach people more clearly what God requires and thereby to restrain sin,” (3) “to show that sin violated an explicit written law,” and (4) “to reveal people’s sinfulness and need for a savior”

, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

All four reasons for the Law are theologically true, but the last one is probably uppermost in Paul’s mind in Galatians.

Our text here in Acts tells us that this Law was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

, He said,“ The LORD came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran; he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand.”

This passage talks about God coming from Sinai, where he gave the law, “from the ten thousands of holy ones,” these are angels who were present with God on that occasion ( ).

Moses was God’s “intermediary” in the gifting of the law to Israel (; ).

Though the angels also were involved in the giving of the Law; yet, the nature of their involvement is not made clear in Scripture.

Look at…

, “These are the statutes and rules and laws that the LORD made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.”

The Mosaic Law was part of a temporary covenant never intended to last forever.

Now that Jesus has come as the true offspring of Abraham, the Mosaic Law was no longer in force.

So yes, there was more than one party involved in the presentation of the law to Israel, which involved an intermediary, Moses.

Yet, because God is one, his ultimate revelation comes not through an intermediary but from Him alone (this assumes that whatever comes from Christ comes from the one true God, for Christ is fully God).

Stephen then tells us that Moses and their forefathers both received “living oracles.”

These living oracles spoken of here, are the very Words of God and refer to the Old Testament Scriptures here.

, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

The Word of God is a divine, authoritative revelation.

Stephen affirms his belief in the law and in the Scripture, again making yet another “not guilty” plea.

He declares that God was the author of the law, and that Moses was the mediator and recipient.

Look at verse 39, “Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt.”

Now having defended himself sufficiently again, Stephen now goes on the offensive.

He reminds the Jewish leadership they were the one who were unwilling to be obedient to God, and that they rejected Him in their hearts and turned back to Egypt.

It’s not Stephen that rejected the Law it was the Jewish leadership that rejected the Law.

Though God had delivered them from the great cruelly and oppression of the Pharaoh, they looked back with great longing at their time in Egypt.

, “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

First of all, regardless of the obvious ingratitude shown here by these people who have been deliver by God, Himself!

Which is really hard to ignore and get over.

Yet, what are we to do with this statement, “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing…” That cost you nothing, you were all in bondage before God recused you, and you all paid for that fish through your labor, because you were slaves to Pharaoh.

God delivered you and now you are to become slaves to God and He has provided you this manna.

This example gives us great insight into the mindset of these people; sometimes it is easier to get the people out of Egypt than it is to get Egypt of the people.

For these people had turned the hearts back to Egypt.

Stephen gives us yet another example to show that their hearts were far from God.

While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Law from God, the people turned their hearts to Egyptian idolatry.

Look at vv. 40-41, “They said to Aaron, “Make for us gods who will go before us.

As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.”

But no sooner had the people received the Law than they disobeyed and rejected the Law by asking Aaron to make them an idol (), and thereby broke the first two of the Ten Commandments.

().

When God gave His laws to the Israelites, He began by addressing this religious pluralism.

, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me”

Why did they do such an awful thing before the Lord?

While Moses was up on the mountain receiving God’s laws, the people were getting anxious down at the camp.

Moses spent forty days () up on the mountain with God, and by the end of that time, the people were beginning to think Moses had died or left them.

The people urged Aaron, their temporary leader, to make gods for them to follow.

Since they were accustomed to having visual representations of gods, this was the natural (but sinful request) which resulted in blasphemy and idolatry.

Aaron took their gold earrings, which they had brought from Egypt, and melted them down to make a golden idol.

Calf worship was an integral part of Egyptian religion.

Israel had a tendency towards idolatry, which began at Sinai, this contradicts the proud claims of the Sanhedrin that Israel were a people of the law.