44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, 45 which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, 46 who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built Him a house. 48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 49 ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, Or what is the place of My rest? 50 Has My hand not made all these things?’ 51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
Commentary
Here in his finial rebuke of them Stephen now recalls how they and their fathers also had the Tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as God appointed for them to be built according to the pattern God had shown Moses (vs 44). And so, for forty years it stood in their very midst with God dwelling in and above their persons with His Presence there, which when that generation died Israel’s forefathers brought it with Joshua into the land of Canaan whom God drove out those inhabitants before them so that He might establish Himself and them there (vs. 45). Thus, the Tabernacle bore witness to them right up until the days of David whose heart was set upon building Him a permanent house (vs. 46), but God waited until He established David’s son Solomon to bring forth His house (i.e., Temple, vs. 47), the reason given in (1 Chron. 17:1-27; 1 Chron. 22:5-19, vs. 6-10). Thus, from their days in the wilderness, right up until these days in which Stephen was now preaching, God has always given them a very tangible place where He might be sought and found. Unfortunately, as with the law of Moses, so too the temple eventually became for them something to be served in of itself. However, neither the law, nor the temple, was ever to replace God Himself in their hearts and minds and lives as Stephen makes clear in verse 48-50 when he says of it, 48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 49 ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, Or what is the place of My rest? 50 Has My hand not made all these things?’ Thus, the Temple and its service which was then dominating the hearts and minds and lives of the people and priestly classes in Israel was never meant to do so, but was only to be a means to finding the Lord God Himself who not only revealed Himself to Israel in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ; who also came to His Temple twice and was only rejected by those ruling there; but was now manifesting His Resurrected Person and Eternal Glory to them and to all through His Holy Spirit who was now doing the miraculous works and deeds that were then being done through the hands of His apostles there! Therefore, Stephen no longer able to contain his frustration at their ongoing rebellion and unbelief against the Lord now cries out to them, 51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
Stephen’s finial word to them then is not only a scathing rebuke of their and their fathers always resisting the Holy Spirit, but in fact is a clear indictment of their fathers not only persecuting the prophets, and killing those who foretold them of the coming of the Just One the Lord Jesus Christ, but of they themselves now following in their father’s footsteps and betraying and Crucifying Him to death when God sent His Son to them! Even though they and their fathers received the law from God by the direction of angels, they and their fathers by doing such things reveal that they have never kept it as they so arrogantly like to think themselves as having done. What more than could be said for they were the ones now on trial not Stephen.
Scripture Quotations
New King James (1982):Thomas Nelson.
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