What does Acts 7:7 Mean?

Verse Meaning

God promised to punish the nations that oppressed Israel ( Genesis 12:3) and to bring her back into the land ("this place") eventually ( Genesis 15:13). God had told Moses that he would bring the Israelites out of Egypt and that they would worship Him at Mt. Sinai ( Exodus 3:12). Stephen"s point was that God had promised to punish those who oppressed His people. The Jews had been oppressing the Christians by prohibiting their preaching and even flogging them ( Acts 4:18; Acts 5:40). Gamaliel had warned that if the Christians were correct the Jewish leaders would be fighting against God by opposing them ( Acts 5:39). God"s promise to judge His people"s oppressors went back into the Abrahamic Covenant, which the Jews treasured and Stephen reminded them of here. [source][source]

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Context Summary

There are several touches in this eloquent apology which deserve notice. Acts 7:2 : "The God of glory." This chapter begins and ends with glory. See Acts 7:55. Note that God appeared to Abraham in Ur, before he had come to Haran at the divine bidding. It is interesting to have this discrimination between the different appearances of God to the patriarch. Acts 7:3 : We often have to leave our land before God shows us another. Acts 7:6 : God's promises lighted up the weary bondage of Egypt. Acts 7:10 : It is God that delivers us out of our afflictions and gives us favor with people.

The drift of the whole speech, which must be borne in mind as we read it, is that again and again the Chosen People had rejected their God-sent deliverers and prophets, and had taken their own evil courses. The rejection of the Savior was only a parallel to that of Joseph by his brethren, and that of Moses by the nation. Israel had always been stiffnecked and froward, and ought not history to warn Stephen's hearers against taking a similar attitude towards Jesus of Nazareth? Might not Jesus prove to be as great a blessing in that generation as Joseph or Moses had been in his? The parallel will be complete when Jesus returns in power and glory. [source]

Chapter Summary: Acts 7

¹  Stephen, permitted to answer to the accusation of blasphemy,
²  shows that Abraham worshipped God rightly, and how God chose the fathers,
²⁰  before Moses was born, and before the tabernacle and temple were built;
³⁷  that Moses himself witnessed of Christ;
⁴⁴  and that all outward ceremonies were ordained to last but for a time;
⁵¹  reprehending their rebellion, and murdering of Christ, whom the prophets foretold
⁵⁴  Whereupon they stone Stephen to death,
⁵⁹  who commends his soul to Jesus, and humbly prays for them