Text: Acts 7:1-19<\/p>\n
I. The history of the Jewish Nation<\/p>\n
A. It started when God appeared to a man in Mesopotamia when he still lived in Ur.<\/p>\n 1. God told Abraham to leave his family behind to see a land God would give\nto him.\n 2. From Ur, he traveled to Haran where he temporarily settled until his father\ndied.\n a. This sometimes gives people difficulty because we know from the\nGenesis account that Terah did not die until 60 years after\nAbraham left home (Genesis 11:26, 32)\n b. The best explanation is that a person can die physically and\nspiritually.\n c. Joshua mentioned that Terah served other gods on the other side of\nthe river (Joshua 24:2), thereby dying spiritually.\n d. Perhaps this was the time Abraham left his father to follow God’s\ndirection.\n
3. Though Abraham followed God, he did not personally receive the land.<\/p>\n
a. It was promised to his offspring, even though he had no children.<\/p>\n b. In fact, it was foretold that his offspring would spend 400 years in\nslavery and oppression.\n c. After this time, God would bring judgement on the enslaving\nnation and then they would come to the promised land.\n
4. As a sign of this promise, circumcision was given. <\/p>\n a. It was a witness to the covenant, to be performed on the eight day\nof a boy’s life.\n b. Similar to the rainbow serving as a witness to God’s covenant to\nNoah.\n
B. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons<\/p>\n 1. It was these sons who sold their brother into slavery because they were\njealous of Joseph\n 2. Yet God remained with Joseph and rescued him by giving Pharaoh a\ndream.\n a. Because he showed wisdom in interpreting the dream, Pharaoh\nmade him Governor of Egypt.\n
3. The famine came as predicted in the dream.<\/p>\n
a. It forced Jacob to go to Egypt to purchase grain.<\/p>\n b. On the second visit, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. Pharaoh\nlearns that Joseph has a family.\n
c. The family is invited to live in Egypt. <\/p>\n
4. 75 people move into Egypt.<\/p>\n a. This appears to conflict with Genesis 46:27, but it is merely a\ndifference in who was counted.\n b. Stephen says 75 people entered Egypt, but they were not\nnecessarily descendants of Jacob\n c. The Genesis record numbers the specific individuals and only\ncounts those who descended from Israel, it does not include the\nwives, Jacob, or his wives.\n 5. Jacob died in Egypt, but he was buried in Shechem in the same tomb that\nAbraham bought for his wife Sarah.\n
C. Meanwhile, the Israelites grew in number<\/p>\n
1. Another Pharaoh arose who did not recognized Joseph.<\/p>\n 2. The people of Israel were enslaved and children were killed by exposure in\nan attempt to decrease their population.\n
3. It was during this time that Moses was born<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tActs of the Apostles\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stephen’s Defense – Early History of Israel Text: Acts 7:1-19 I. The history of the Jewish Nation A. It started when God appeared to a man in Mesopotamia when he still lived in Ur. 1. God told Abraham to leave his family behind to see a land God would give to him. 2. From Ur, he traveled to Haran…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":10021,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10136","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10139,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/stephens-defense-the-rejection-of-moses\/","url_meta":{"origin":10136,"position":0},"title":"Stephen\u2019s Defense – The Rejection of Moses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen\u2019s Defense - The Rejection of Moses Text: Acts 7:20-41 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stephen moves to the era of Moses in his recounting of Israel\u2019s history \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Moses is a particularly important figure in the Jewish mind as he was the founder of their religion II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even in Moses\u2019 birth, God found him to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67850,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/stephens-defense-the-worship-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":10136,"position":1},"title":"Stephen’s Defense – The Worship of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen's Defense - The Worship of God Notes Lost Prior Lesson Acts of the Apostles Next Lesson","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10021,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/","url_meta":{"origin":10136,"position":2},"title":"Acts of the Apostles","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Acts of the Apostles by Jeffrey W. Hamilton October 2001 Outline Study of the book of Acts. This series is currently incomplete. Lesson 1 Introduction and the Ascension of Jesus\u00a0(Acts 1:1-11) Replacing Judas\u00a0(Acts 1:12-26) Lesson 2 Baptism by the Holy Spirit\u00a0(Acts 2:1-13) Peter's First Sermon\u00a0(Acts 2:14-36) The Establishment of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67647,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/overview-of-bible-history\/out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new\/","url_meta":{"origin":10136,"position":3},"title":"Out with the Old and In with the New","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Out with the Old and In with the New Recite the Old Testament time periods in order for your teacher [ ]. The Years of Silence After Israel returned to Judah, God announced through the prophets that He had nothing more to say (Amos 8:11-12). There were four hundred years\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67639,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/overview-of-bible-history\/forming-the-nation-of-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":10136,"position":4},"title":"Forming the Nation of Israel","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Forming the Nation of Israel Before we continue to add periods of history, let's see how well you can remember the six periods we have studied so far: \u00a0 1) ___________________________________________________________________________ \u00a0 \u00a0 2) ___________________________________________________________________________ \u00a0 \u00a0 3) ___________________________________________________________________________ \u00a0 \u00a0 4) ___________________________________________________________________________ \u00a0 \u00a0 5) ___________________________________________________________________________ \u00a0 \u00a0 6)\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/the-death-of-stephen-and-the-persecution-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":10136,"position":5},"title":"The Death of Stephen and the Persecution of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Death of Stephen and the Persecution of the Church Text: Acts 7:51-8:4 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stephen, the defendant, charges his judges of resisting the will of God \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They acted no differently than their ancestors \u2013 proof would be their killing of Jesus \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Few prophets of God ever escaped being killed by them\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10136\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}