34. “I have seen, I have seen the affliction of My people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.”
Our wonderful God is a seeing, hearing and delivering Saviour God. Though at times, while we are passing through adversity, it may seem that He is not taking notice of our trials, still faith trusts Him. Not one thing through which His child passes is unimportant to the Father. And at the perfect time, and in the perfect way, He will come in to deliver.
35. “This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.”
The heart of the Israelite slaves was so faithless that they dared to question and reject the very one God raised up to deliver them. This same danger exists today among God’s people. Self-will may reject a servant—God’s messenger or deliverer—when sent in a time of individual or collective trial or difficulty.
36. “He brought them out, after that He had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.”
Their sad unbelief did not turn God from His purpose of blessing. Egypt, the Red Sea and the forty years of wilderness journey proved two things: (1) God’s purposes of grace were unchanged, and (2) the Israelites’ hard heart of self-will and unbelief was also unchanged. Now, in Stephen’s day, the final appeal was being made to this stubborn people—the often unthankful recipients of divine long-suffering grace and kindness.
37-38. “This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear. This is He, that was in the church [assembly] in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.”
How solemn! “This is that Moses” —a special, chosen vessel of God. He was sent not only to be a deliverer, but he had communed with God, and he spoke the Word of God to them. To reject a servant is to reject God and His Word and to miss the blessing that He would send through that channel.
39. “To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt.”
The sad work of rejection of God’s authority over them began in their hearts. It was there where they first rejected Moses that they in spirit turned back to the world. How important for believers to guard their heart’s affections!
40-41. “Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.”
Though they received the “living oracles” (the Word of God), it did not profit them, because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it (Heb. 4:22For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. (Hebrews 4:2)). Man is religious by nature, but without faith, human reason and his lusting heart will take him from truth and light and into idolatry and the world.
We rightly recoil at the awfulness of worshipping an image (the golden calf; Ex. 32:44And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (Exodus 32:4)) in the place of God. But even believers can be caught up in that spirit of idolatry—the allowance of an object that replaces the blessed Lord in the affections of the heart. And these idols—such as wealth, fame, careers or hobbies—are just as repulsive to God as the calf that Aaron fashioned from the golden earrings.
42-43. “Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.”
What solemn consequences they reaped! Though chosen of God—His precious, peculiar people—He allowed them to follow the desires of their heart, desires which resulted in seventy sad years of captivity in Babylon. They lost the enjoyment of that good land, flowing with milk and honey, to which Jehovah in long-suffering grace had brought them.
What sorrow and loss Christians experience today—those who have been caught up in the idolatry of humanism, which encourages self-pleasing. Let none be deceived. There will be in each life a time of reaping the fruits of such a course of self-will.
44. “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.”
More solemn yet! During the very time when they were taken up with idolatrous worship, in their midst was the divine witness of the true God. How dark and horrible the blindness that could not see the glory of Jehovah displayed in the tabernacle.
45-47. “Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus [Joshua] into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; who found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him an house.”
Generation after generation in Israel’s history, though often involved with idolatry, experienced the gracious presence of Jehovah. The tabernacle, with them in the wilderness and the promised land, finally gave way to the glorious temple Solomon built in Jerusalem. But the wonder and privilege of having the presence of Jehovah among them only made them more solemnly responsible for their idolatry and dark unbelief.
Ed.