These religious rulers had rejected the rightful heir, just as their ancestors had rejected all the deliverers God had raised up in Israel. For example, as we read in Genesis, Joseph was appointed a saviour by God but “the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt (and slavery)”. In the same way the Jews had envied Jesus, rejected him, and delivered him over to the Gentiles for destruction. But God delivered Jesus as he had previously saved Joseph: “But God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions”. Significantly, “at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren” and it will be at the second appearing of the Lord Jesus that his brethren (the Jews) will recognize who he really is.
In the same way as Joseph's rejection in the earlier verses, another generation of Israel initially rejected Moses as their saviour when “he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not”. It was only at his second coming, forty years later, that they accepted him: “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”. Significantly, the Jews said to Jesus: “Who made thee a ruler and judge over us?” and rejected him as their Messiah; but at his second coming they will accept him and be distressed at their previous rejection of him: “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him” Zachariah 12:10.
Past events recorded in the scriptures illustrate the purpose of God in Christ, and Stephen, by citing these records, was able to show that the Jewish rulers, in rejecting and murdering Jesus, had behaved exactly as their fathers had done, and so he concluded: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers’ persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers”.
The council could not bear to hear such truths from Stephen: “They were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth”. When Stephen declared he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God in heaven they “cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him”. Stephen, however, had a glorious hope - the hope of eternal life by resurrection from the dead at the return of Christ. Therefore, before, falling asleep in death he called upon Jesus to receive his spirit (breath), because Jesus, at his return, will have power to bring dead bodies out of the grave and breathe into them the breath of life.
As Stephen was murdered, he prayed for his killer's forgiveness. This is the same attitude Jesus instructs Matthew 5:44Waiting for response for Matthew 5:44 and the same attitude that Jesus had when he was being crucified Luke 23:34Waiting for response for Luke 23:34
Verses 1-8
Waiting for response for Acts 7:1-8Stephen dealt with the false accusations against him by reminding the Jewish religious hierarchy what was written in the word of God. He began in the book of Genesis with the promise to Israel’s father, Abraham, that he would inherit the promised land for ever. This promise has not yet been fulfilled for: “he (God) 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.” This seed is Christ, whom they had crucified, and this vital promise will be fulfilled when he returns.