BIBLE STUDY LESSON 10

SERIES U --- THE EARLY CHURCH

STEPHEN’S DEATH

WORDS OF COURAGE FROM A MAN OF COURAGE

From Acts 7:35-60

Stephen was defending himself before the Jewish council. Some men had lied about him, and now he was answering their false charges: [The same Moses who was rejected by the people of Israel was sent back to lead them. When he had tried to help them before, they asked ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?’ Now he was to return as both ruler and deliverer, with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush. This same Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, performing miracles and wonderful signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea, as well as in the desert, for the next forty years. This was the same Moses who predicted to the people of Israel, ‘Adonai will bring forth a prophet from among you, just as He sent me.’ He was also the same Moses who met with our ancestors in the desert by Mount Sinai and, from an angel who spoke to Him on Mount Sinai, received YHVH’s living Word which we still have today. But our forefathers rejected Moses, pushing him aside with the hope of returning to Egypt. ‘Make us some gods to lead our way,’ they said, ‘We don’t know what has become of this Moses who brought us out of Egypt.’ They made an idol, shaped like a calf, and sacrificed to it. They even held a feast in honour of the thing that they had made. Then YHVH turned away from them and gave them up to worship the stars in the sky, as it is written in The Book of Amos: ‘Were you giving Me your sacrifices during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel? No, you carried the tent of Moloch and worshiped the star of your god Remphan, and you made idols to worship. But I will have you carried away to Babylon.’ Our ancestors had YHVH’s tabernacle with them in the wilderness. It was made according to the plans that YHVH gave to Moses. Later, our people took this same tabernacle with them when they went with Joshua to conquer the land, and it remained with them until the time of King David. David received YHVH’s favour and blessing to build a temple, which his son Solomon built. Of course, YHVH doesn’t live in temples made by the hands of men. ‘Heaven is My home. The earth is My footstool,’ YHVH said. ‘What kind of home do you think you could build that would be suitable for Me to live in? Didn’t I make all these things Myself?’ You stubborn, hard-hearted people! You are always fighting Ruach HaKodesh, allowing your hearts and ears to become heathen, just as your ancestors did. Name one prophet whom your ancestors did not persecute! They murdered the prophets who predicted the coming of the Moshiach, the Righteous One, and now you have murdered Him. Even though you received YHVH’s Law from the angels, you will not obey it.] The members of the council grew more and more furious as they listened to Stephen and began to grind their teeth at him. But Stephen was filled with Ruach HaKodesh, and looking up into heaven, saw the glory of YHVH, and Yeshua standing at YHVH’s right hand. [Look!] said Stephen. [I see heaven opened and Yeshua our Moshiach standing there at the right hand of YHVH.] With a great cry of anger, the council members rushed at him, holding their ears so they could not hear what he said. They dragged him out of the city and began to throw large stones at him. The men who had lied about Stephen laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. They continued to stone Stephen, even as he cried out for YHVH to forgive them. [Adonai Yeshua, receive my spirit!] he prayed. Then he knelt down and prayed again in a loud voice. [Adonai!] he cried out. [Please don’t hold this sin against them.] When Stephen said this, he fell down and died.

COMMENTARY

STONING

Cain may have reached for the nearest stone when he murdered Abel, his brother. The angry Israelites threatened to use stones against Moses because he led them to a place without water. Joshua and Caleb were threatened with stoning when they contradicted the reports of the other spies. King David’s own men talked of stoning him when they discovered that their families had been taken prisoner by the Amalekites while they were at war with the Philistines. When YHVH gave His Law to Moses, stoning to death became the legal punishment for the most serious crimes. Cursing the Name of YHVH or defying Adonai’s Shabbat were both offenses calling for death by stoning. Parents who sacrificed their children to idols, and children who continually rebelled against their parents, were condemned to stoning. Anyone who worshiped false gods or practiced sorcery received the same sentence. The offender was taken to a place outside the Israelite camp, where he was stripped of his cloak and stoned by all the people. By New Testament times, the Jewish court had developed additional laws to control the stoning of criminals. The Sanhedrin ruled that no one could be put to death unless two witnesses testified against him. If he were convicted of the crime, these witnesses were required to throw the first stones. If the criminal lived through that, the rest of the people took over until the execution was done. Everyone took part in the stoning because when one person sinned against YHVH, Adonai considered the whole nation guilty until they had put the sinner to death. Also, no single person would feel that he had killed another. Since stoning was the harshest and most painful form of punishment, the rabbis tried to soften the suffering of the offender. They ruled that the condemned man was to be thrown off a scaffold before the first stone was cast. The fall either killed him instantly or knocked him unconscious, and so spared him the full agony of his punishment. After death, the body of the condemned man was hung up in public view as a disgrace for his sin and as a lesson to others. But even that humiliation was softened by the law, which required that his body be buried on the same day as the execution. The criminal was temporarily laid in a special cemetery set aside for those who were condemned by a court order. Only when the flesh had decayed and just the bones remained would the criminal be moved to his family’s tomb. This was done because the body of an executed man was not allowed to lie in the same tomb with a righteous man. But even after burial, the disgrace of the condemned man continued. When his family came to claim his bones, they were not permitted to show any public signs of grief. Those who grieved over a criminal who was stoned shared in the guilt of the condemned. The death of one who sinned against YHVH could not be mourned.