by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Stephen was misrepresented and falsely charged by his Jewish brethren (Acts 6:11-15). When the court allowed him to speak, he gave a concise summary of Israel’s history (Acts 7). They had a bad history. The brothers of Joseph hated him and sold him to Egypt, but Joseph was God’s planned savior. Thus, Joseph was a rejected brother like Jesus. In Israel’s history, they rejected Moses, saying, “Who made you a ruler over us?<\/em>” Like Moses, Jesus was a rejected ruler and leader to save them from bondage and get them to the promised land. Stephen asked, “Which of the prophets have you not <\/b>persecuted?<\/em>” Their history had not been a good one when it came to treating God’s messengers appropriately. However, when Stephen called them “stiff-necked,” it should have reminded them that this was exactly what God had called them before. Those are loving words, seasoned with salt, and yet hard, pointed words, designed to cut the heart.<\/p>\n “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!’<\/em>” (Exodus 32:9-10 NKJV).<\/p>\n God said it and then told Moses to say it. The truth needed saying, and only love can tell the truth when it is a hard-to-swallow kind of truth.<\/p>\n “For the Lord had said to Moses, ‘Say to the children of Israel, “You are a stiff-necked people”‘<\/em>” (Exodus 33:5 NKJV).<\/p>\n “Then he said, ‘If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance’<\/em>” (Exodus 34:9 NKJV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Moses even admitted that “we” are stiff-necked! His love for Israel was evident here.<\/p>\n “Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 9:6 NKJV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Their getting the land of Canaan was not based upon their righteousness. That stiff-neck would not turn to God’s way because they were stuck on their own way.<\/p>\n “Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord<\/em>” (II Chronicles 30:8 NKJV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Stephen was saying the same thing that had been told regarding them by God, Moses, and the prophets. So, why did they stone him? They were too stubborn to face the truth, and there are two ways to deal with the truth:<\/p>\n They stayed with their pattern, #2. It took a great deal of love for Stephen to say what he said, and then he prayed that God would not hold this charge against them. That is love! Love sometimes has to use the harder choice of words against the harder kinds of hearts. That indeed is love!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Stephen was misrepresented and falsely charged by his Jewish brethren (Acts 6:11-15). When the court allowed him to speak, he gave a concise summary of Israel’s history (Acts 7). They had a bad history. The brothers of Joseph hated him and sold him to Egypt, but Joseph was God’s planned savior.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[65,864],"class_list":["post-87362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-love","tag-stephen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51859,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-stephen-charged-with-blasphemy-if-jesus-did-say-that-the-temple-would-be-destroyed\/","url_meta":{"origin":87362,"position":0},"title":"Why is Stephen charged with blasphemy if Jesus did say that the temple would be destroyed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Acts 6:14, Stephen is charged with saying that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place. How is this a false statement if Jesus was speaking of the destruction of the temple in Matthew 24? Thank you. Answer: The charge against Stephen was, \"We have heard him speak\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31310,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-rest-of-stephens-sermon\/","url_meta":{"origin":87362,"position":1},"title":"The Rest of Stephen’s Sermon","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford Acts 7:2-53 contains the longest sermon in the New Testament by anybody but Jesus. The speaker is Stephen, on trial for his life before the Sanhedrin, and he is accused of a number of crimes. According to Acts 6:11-13, he is accused of blaspheming God and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IMG044-195x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52318,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/right-message-wrong-audience\/","url_meta":{"origin":87362,"position":2},"title":"Right Message, Wrong Audience","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford At first glance, the narrative of Exodus 2:11-14 appears to be one of impulsiveness and immaturity. Moses, a 40-year-old resident of Pharaoh's household, decided to visit his Hebrew kinfolk. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, strikes the tormentor dead, and hides the body. The next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35768,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-there-a-conflict-between-acts-715-16-and-genesis-5013\/","url_meta":{"origin":87362,"position":3},"title":"Why is there a conflict between Acts 7:15-16 and Genesis 50:13?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have some questions about the New Testament, which I hope you can clear for me. I became very interested in the New Testament, and I saw some verses in the Bible which seem to contradict the Old Testament. For example Acts 7:15-16 says, \"Then Jacob went down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7638,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/at-what-gate-was-stephen-stoned\/","url_meta":{"origin":87362,"position":4},"title":"At what gate was Stephen stoned?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: At what gate was Stephen stoned? Answer: \"Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26104,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-stephen-be-making-moses-out-to-be-bigger-than-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":87362,"position":5},"title":"Could Stephen be making Moses out to be bigger than life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know from Acts 7 it is said that Moses knew he was a Hebrew prior to the burning bush event.\u00a0 What is your take on the possibilities that this was based on the Jewish tradition?\u00a0 Acts was written by Paul who was brought up a Pharisee and in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=87362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n