Acts 7

The High Priest has listened to the accusations and gives Stephen the opportunity to account for himself. Stephen’s speech is not a defense, but an accusation. He tells the Jews their own history, which they know well. However, knowing history and applying the lessons from it are two different things. Stephen makes it clear that they are entirely condemned by their own history. They do exactly like their fathers.

Stephen does not try to defend himself here. Here he is the judge who pronounces the verdict. He is the memory of the people through which they are placed in God’s presence. In connection with the goodness of God toward Israel, Joseph and Moses are placed in the foreground. Israel has rejected them both. They handed over Joseph to the nations and rejected Moses as a ruler and a judge. This is exactly what they have done with the Lord Jesus, what he then shows to them in the clearest terms.

Stephen gives an overview of two thousand years of history of God’s people, from Abraham till now. From his survey it becomes clear that the history of salvation is a continual changing of events and places. History is not static. Everything has not remained as it was. That is how it will be with the temple, which they believe will always exist.

Through his survey of their history, he wants to make it clear to them that with the coming and rejection of Christ, a new change in their history has taken place. But they have no ears for that change. The end is that they cover their ears and stone Stephen.

With the expression “brethren and fathers”, Stephen speaks to them as one who still belongs to the same people. He begins his speech with “the God of glory” and ends it with seeing “the glory of God” (verse 55). The whole time he gives his speech, his face shines with that same glory (Acts 6:15).

He begins with Abraham, the ancestor on whom they boast so much that they are his offspring. Their pride is completely misplaced, for they must remember that Abraham was originally an idolater in Mesopotamia (Jos 24:2). It was in that country, and not in the land they now live in, that the God of glory appeared to him.

There God also spoke to him and commanded him to leave his country and his family and invited him to come to the land that He would point out to him (Gen 12:1). He had to go out of his country, to a new land that God had chosen for him. He had to leave his family to form a new family. He even had to leave his father’s house, of which he was still a part, to become a father to many nations. God’s calling is always personal. God’s way is always with the individual. God has called Abraham when he was but one (Isa 51:2).

At first Abraham obeyed, but his obedience was not total. The reason was that not he, but his father Terah took the initiative to leave (Gen 11:31). Because of this, at first he did not get any further than Haran, where he settled. Only after his father died, he moved on to “this country”.

Here it already becomes clear what Stephen will focus on in his speech. This part of history shows that every change has always evoked resistance. It already started with Abraham. He didn’t go all the way that God had told him to go. He went as far as Haran and stayed there until his father died who shouldn’t have been with him at all. The resistance with Abraham was rooted in his family connections. They outweighed God’s command. Only when God has put an end to that connection by the death of his father, he is free to move on.

But that too seems to be more a matter of God than of Abraham. Stephen says that God had Abraham move to this country in which they now live. So it is pure grace that they live there and everything is God’s work. God had Abraham move into that country, but He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even the smallest piece of which he could say was his property. Instead, he was promised that one day, in the future, he would own it as well as his offspring after him. God gave him that promise even when he did not even have a child.

However, that did not change anything about his faith. It did change his stay in the country. It made the land of promise for him a foreign land and it made him a stranger in that land (Heb 11:9). So he did not claim for himself what God had determined for the future. His descendants possessed it now, but he himself is still waiting for the fulfillment of the promise. Stephen wants to make it clear that they have nothing to claim.

And it was not only Abraham who did not immediately get hold of the promise. Also his offspring would have to wait and even experience the necessary things before they could enter the promised land. God announced to Abraham that his offspring would be enslaved instead of being blessed. They would live in a foreign land and be enslaved and mistreated. This would continue for four hundred years (Gen 15:13-14). At the same time God also speaks words of hope. He promises that He will judge the people who hold them in bondage. Then they will be able to go out to serve God “in this place” (verse 7; Exo 3:12), by which Stephen means the land of Canaan.

Everything Stephen said about Abraham is meant to highlight the low and even humiliating origins of the people because his audience so boasts about their origins (cf. Deu 7:7). Incidentally, he mentions the circumcision of Abraham as a sign of the covenant God made with him and with his offspring (Gen 17:10-14). This too is a matter on which the Israelites are very proud. They, and they alone, are the people of the covenant (Rom 9:4). They boast of that status.

He also mentions that Abraham was circumcised when he became the father of Isaac who he also circumcised on the eighth day. From Isaac Jacob was born and from Jacob the twelve patriarchs, from whom the covenant people would be further built. But how did that covenant people behave at the beginning of their existence?

The patriarchs soon showed their true nature. Driven by jealousy, they rejected Joseph. Their jealousy came from the revelation that Joseph had received in dreams and that he had told them. Those dreams were about his future glorification, in which they would bow down before him (Gen 37:5-11). But they would never do that! Therefore, they made sure that nothing of his dreams could come to pass and sold him to Egypt. The parallels between Joseph and the Lord Jesus are obvious.

Everything Stephen brings up about Joseph in his history had to remind his hearers of what they did to Christ. Did they perhaps remember their thirty pieces of silver (Mt 26:15-16)? However much the brothers despised Joseph and rejected him, God was with him. After he was rejected, God delivered him from all his afflictions and made sure he came into favor with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph revealed God’s wisdom by making proposals to Pharaoh that would save the country. As a result, Joseph was made the most powerful man in Egypt by Pharaoh and was even assigned the rule of the house of Pharaoh (Gen 41:40-44; Psa 105:21).

The brothers had no knowledge of God’s dealings with Joseph. But God made sure that they came face to face with Joseph as the mighty ruler of Egypt. For this He used a famine that He caused over all Egypt and Canaan (Gen 41:54; 42:5). Stephen calls it a “great affliction”, which is reminiscent of the period of time of which the Lord Jesus speaks and for which He uses the name “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21; cf. Jer 30:7). The Lord thus points forward to the time when the people will be severely chastened and from which a remnant will be saved after this remnant has acknowledged Him as Messiah. God’s goal with the famine was the same. He wanted to bring the brothers to Joseph and to the acknowledgment that he is their savior. For this a long way had to be gone.

Stephen speaks about “our fathers” who could not find food. He still connects with his audience. He takes them further into the history of the brothers and tells them how they are led to Joseph. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent “our fathers [there] the first time” (Gen 42:1-2). Stephen ignores what happened that first time, but proceeds immediately with the second time they go. At this second time, Joseph makes himself known to his brothers (Gen 45:3-4).

Here in Stephen’s speech we find a glimpse of hope for Israel. The Lord Jesus will also come a second time to His people and then make Himself known to them. Then they will see Him Whom they have pierced (Zec 12:10) and He will bless the repentant remnant. Joseph did the same with his brothers after he revealed himself to them. Then, as it were, He will also make known to God His descent as a true Man through which He was able to connect people with Himself and say: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me” (Heb 2:13).

After making himself known, Joseph sends his brothers away to pick up his father Jacob and all his relatives. They are allowed to live with him in Egypt. In this way God has turned for good everything the brothers had meant evil (Gen 50:20).

But that situation came to an end. Jacob and “our fathers” died. Their bodies were brought back to the land of Canaan and buried in the tomb that Abraham had bought. They had not yet received the promised land, but they were buried in the tomb where Abraham was also buried in view of the fulfillment of the promise (Gen 49:29-30; 50:13; Jos 24:32).

Stephen comes to the third and longest part of his speech. Moses as picture of the Lord Jesus is central in this. Stephen was accused of speaking slanderous words against Moses (Acts 6:11). From what he says of Moses it is clear how false this accusation is.

In mentioning the history of God’s people, Stephen is now going to speak about the fulfillment of God’s promises. Based on that history, he presents to his audience that a new change was occurring. The situation in which the people found themselves in Egypt did not remain the same. The time of the promise was approaching, that is, the time to fulfill the promise that God would bring them to Canaan. For this He had to lead His people out of Egypt. The circumstances He used for this are again humbling for his audience.

In the early days of their stay in Egypt it seemed that the people were greatly blessed. The people grew and multiplied in Egypt (Exo 1:7). None of this posed a problem, as long as the country was ruled by kings who had known Joseph. They remembered that they owed the existence of their country to him. As a token of appreciation, the people were allowed to stay in Egypt. Then there was a king who had not known Joseph (Exo 1:8). This king had no connection whatsoever with Joseph and there was no gratitude whatsoever toward him.

This king saw in the ever-growing people a threat to his own position. To prevent expansion of “our race”, he resorted to cunning (Exo 1:16) and began to mistreat “our fathers” and to afflict them (Exo 1:10-11). When this did not help to inhibit the growth of the people, he ordered that every son who is born should not stay with their parents, but that they would expose their infants, i.e. that they would be thrown into the Nile (Exo 1:22).

While the people sighed under the cruel domination, God went to work to fulfill His promise by letting Moses be born. Stephen says of him that he was “lovely “, that is, lovely “in the sight of God” (Exo 2:2; Heb 11:23). His parents did not take him immediately to the Nile, as Pharaoh had commanded, but nurtured him “in his father’s home” for three months. After that he had to share the fate of every little boy. He was taken to the Nile and put there as a foundling. There he was found by the daughter of Pharaoh who nurtured him as her own son. Later, Moses refused to be called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter (Heb 11:24).

The nurturing by his God-fearing parents did not miss its goal. God used the criminal order of Pharaoh to bring Moses to his court. By doing so through the daughter of Pharaoh, God mocked with all the power of Pharaoh. That is God’s wisdom. God’s plan with His people was not only fulfilled despite Pharaoh, but even with the cooperation of Pharaoh, of course without him wanting or even realizing it.

At court Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians. Moses became learned or wise, but he was powerful in his words and deeds. Learning he acquired through education, power he received from God as a special gift. Both qualities he revealed in Egypt. To God he spoke about the opposite (Exo 4:10) and felt his incompetence.

The first period of Moses’ life at the court of Pharaoh lasted for forty years. But all the splendor of the court of Pharaoh could not prevent that his heart was with his brothers in oppression. One day he visited them. His love for his people burned in all its fierceness. He did not come to tell them what they had done wrong, but to see their “hard labors” (Exo 2:11). The Lord Jesus did not come to judge either, but to save (Jn 3:17).

When Moses saw one of his brethren being treated unjustly, he defended him. He took him in protection, also taking vengeance for him who was mistreated by striking down the Egyptian. He was then still at the court of Pharaoh. By standing up so clearly for the people, he thought that his brethren would see in him their deliverer through whose hand God would give them salvation. But that thought did not occur to them. On the contrary. The next day, when he appeared to his brothers again, it appeared that they were not at all interested in his intervention.

Again Moses observed that injustice was being done. However, this time it was not an Egyptian who wronged an Israelite, but two Israelites who wronged each other. When he tried to reconcile them for peace with the question why they wronged each other, he who wronged his neighbor turned against him. Moses was blamed for the fact that he should not claim to be “a ruler and judge”.

Here we see that from his first action in favor of his people, his authority was rejected, as was the case with Joseph. Moses was dealt with in the same way as Joseph was dealt with before, when he investigated the welfare of his brothers: he was rejected by his own (Gen 37:14,18). Like Joseph, Moses is in this respect a type of Christ Who was not accepted by His own either (Jn 1:11). Christ was hated, rejected, denied and even killed by His people. So it was prophetically the reproach of Christ that Moses took upon himself when he looked after his brethren and wanted to share their fate (Heb 11:26).

The rejection of Moses was clearly expressed in the words of the Israelite who wronged his neighbor: “Who made you a ruler and judge over us?” (verse 27; Exo 2:14). The man added that he saw in him not a deliverer, but a threat to his life. This shows how much the people would rather remain in slavery than acknowledge a deliverer. The people did not want to accept a ruler and judge. The accusation that Moses put himself up to this is quoted twice by Stephen (verses 27,35), through which he accentuates its seriousness. When it had become so clear that his people did not want him, Moses fled.

What Stephen, following the history in Exodus, presents as a flee is presented in Hebrews 11 as an act of faith (Heb 11:27). Thus, on the one hand, the Lord Jesus was rejected by His people, while on the other He went away, back to heaven, waiting for the time when His people will accept Him as their Savior.

During the time that Moses was in Midian, he had a heathen wife as his bride and got two sons (Exo 2:21-22; 18:3-4). This can be compared to the Lord Jesus Who receives the church as a bride in this time. The names Moses gave his sons show that he had not forgotten his people in the foreign land either, just as the Lord Jesus, now that He is in heaven, does not forget His earthly people.

Moses was forty when he fled. In the wilderness forty years “had passed”. Forty is the number of trial. In the power of his life God formed him in the wilderness. Who would choose such an education, in the loneliness of the wilderness, when all the challenges of life lie before you? But God taught him lessons there that he could not have learned in any other way.

Moses is called by the Lord when he is eighty years old. That is at the end of his natural life, as he himself says in Psalm 90 (Psa 90:10). Before the Lord can use someone, a person has to learn to renounce his natural capacities. Moses learned that. Yet it is not enough not to rely on one’s own abilities. Now he must learn to trust in God’s power.

Moses is now ready for God to appear to him. He does that as an Angel in a flame of a burning thorn bush. Moses’ attention is drawn to the fact that the thorn bush burns but does not burn up (Exo 3:3). The thorn bush represents man by nature, sinful man. We also see the whole people of Israel in it, which is in Egypt in the furnace of fire. We also see that God is in the fire. That is why the thorn bush is not consumed.

God uses the fire of trial to purify His people, and us. What is not in agreement with Him is removed by the fire. As a result, we are answering more and more to His purpose with us which is that we are becoming like the Lord Jesus. He is with us in the trial (Dan 3:23-25; Isa 63:9).

God sees that Moses is approaching the bush to see that wondrous phenomenon. He makes Himself known to Moses as the God of the covenant with the patriarchs, with Abraham (Gen 15:13-14), Isaac (Gen 26:3) and Jacob (Gen 46:1-3). That is the ground on which He is going to act. He appreciates that Moses shows interest in His revelation, but at the same time He maintains His holiness.

Moses is deeply impressed by God’s appearance and His words. He begins to shake with fear and does not dare to investigate further. He knows himself in the presence of the holy God. Where God is, there is holiness. God makes it clear to him that he stands on holy ground. That is why he has to take off his shoes (cf. Jos 5:15). The awareness of standing on holy ground was completely missing from the Council that Stephen stood before, while they claimed to live in the holy land.

After Moses has taken the right place before God, God tells him what He has seen and what He has purposed. God tells him that He has seen what is being done to His people and that He has heard their groans. He is familiar with their sorrows. That brings Him to act. He has descended to rescue them and bring them to a land that He has chosen for them. And Moses is the man He wants to use to carry out that purpose.

The Lord Jesus has descended to earth to redeem people who sigh under the yoke of sin. As with Israel, He did not speak from heaven, but came from heaven to earth. It is wonderful to read that God calls this wretched slave people in Egypt “My people”! It is like the father falling around the neck of his prodigal son while this son is still wearing his dirty clothes (Lk 15:20).

When Stephen has impressively presented the appearance of God to Moses and His command to him to go to Egypt to deliver His people, he repeats the rejection of Moses as a ruler and a judge (verse 35; verse 27). By speaking in plural, “they”, he thereby turns the sin of one man into a collective sin, that is, the sin of the whole people.

To further underline its seriousness, Stephen speaks of disowning Moses. And that while God had appeared to Moses and Moses had been sent by Him to them to be both a ruler and a deliverer. This is an impressive illustration of the rejection of Christ, the Prince of life, by the Jewish people (cf. Acts 3:14-15; 4:10-12).

After Stephen has emphatically presented the special nurturing, education and calling of Moses to his audience, he continues just as emphatically with the delivering service of Moses. Again and again he points out what Moses has done or said. This, and no one else, led them out of Egypt. And how: performing wonders and signs. Did not the Lord Jesus reveal Himself in the midst of His people in the same way? Did not the apostles also operate in this way among the people and did not Stephen operate in this way?

And Moses not only delivered them out of Egypt, but also led them through the Red Sea into the wilderness, where he also showed them the way for forty years. It is this Moses who was among the sons of Israel – those who form the Council boasted of being that too, didn’t they? – who said that God would raise up for them a Prophet like him. To the Council it is clear that by this the Messiah is meant, Who, just like Moses, would act as Deliverer and Judge.

Stephen gives even more homage to Moses. He points at Moses and says that he is the one, and no other, who has received the law in the wilderness through the mediation of angels. The law contains the words of God and are therefore living words. They were given by God to Moses on the mountain of God. Moses was the mediator, because he was with the angel in the wilderness and on the mountain and he was with “our fathers”.

He passes on the living oracles or words to “you”, that is Israel then and now. But what did “our fathers” do with all that God gave to them through Moses and with what He said to them through Moses? They deliberately disobeyed him. They refused to obey him. They repelled him. They did not want him to talk about obedience to God.

In their hearts they returned to Egypt. There they could at least do what they wanted. That they lived in slavery and oppression, they didn’t think about that anymore. After all, everything was better than that oppressive obedience to God. And where was Moses anyway? He had been gone for so long that he would never come back.

That’s why they told Aaron to make gods they could see and follow. So in those days, the days of Moses’ absence, they made a calf. To that idol they offered sacrifice, rejoicing in the works of their hands. No more thought was given to God’s honor and work. That is why God turned away. He withdrew from them and as judgment He delivered them up to idolatry (cf. Rom 1:23-26,28).

Stephen tells the Council how throughout history the people have done nothing but serve the idols. Abraham served them before God called him (Jos 24:2), the people served them in Egypt (Jos 24:14) and in the wilderness (Amos 5:25-27).

In his quote from the prophet Amos, Stephen also quotes the judgment on the people that the Babylonians would bring by making the people go into exile. So there is a double judgment: the judgment of God by delivering them to idolatry and the judgment of God by making them go into exile, away from the land.

Again and again in Stephen’s speech it sounds that God approaches His people differently every time, because His people always turn away from Him and become unfaithful to Him. Everything He gives, they have always rejected and chosen the idols instead.

Here Stephen comes to a new section in his speech. After his extensive tribute to Moses in the face of their accusation that he would slander Moses, he speaks about the dwelling place of God. After all, they had also accused him of speaking words against the temple by pointing to its destruction (Acts 6:14). Stephen will show that God’s former dwellings were temporary dwellings and not even real ones.

He first mentions the tabernacle which he describes with the extensive name “tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness”. It is the tent from which God testifies, from which He speaks to His people. What kind of tent was that? It was a tent made by Moses at God’s command and according to the pattern which God had shown to him on the mountain (Exo 25:40). Stephen makes it clear that the tabernacle was a temporary dwelling place of God and that it referred to a higher reality, heaven. The tabernacle would not always remain the dwelling place of God.

When “our fathers” entered the land with Joshua, they brought the tabernacle with them (Jos 3:14-17). Stephen mentions the name Joshua. This is the Hebrew name for the Greek ‘Jesus’. He actually says that the people took possession of the land with ‘Jesus’. The land was delivered by God from the original inhabitants (Jos 23:9; 24:18) who were all servants of idols. There the tabernacle was given its place until the days of David.

With David the next change comes. That change has to do with the way God is served, not with the principle that God is served. God always wants people to serve Him, but He sometimes changes the way He wants that to happen. First it was in the tabernacle, under David it became the temple.

God is also free in His choice of the builder of His house. Although David found grace with God and longed to build a dwelling place for God (Psa 132:5), he was not allowed to do so (2Sam 7:2-17). God had reserved the building of the temple for Solomon (1Kgs 6:1,14; 8:19-20). But no matter how beautiful the temple was, it was not the real dwelling place of God.

The audience of Stephen claimed God by pointing to the temple as His dwelling place. To them, the temple was solid proof of the presence of God. Whoever touched the temple touched God. Stephen brings that idea down by pointing out that God does not dwell in houses made by human hands. He reinforces his words by quoting what God Himself said through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah (Isa 66:1-2; cf. 1Kgs 8:27).

Reaching this point in his speech, it seems that Stephen notices that the Council understands that he is talking about them. In his speech he has reversed the arrows that were pointed at him and directed them at them. He has changed every ground for his conviction into a conviction of them. They have become the accused.

Instead of moderating his tone under their threatening gaze, Stephen raises his voice and calls out to them what the status of their situation is. He calls them “stiff-necked” because they don’t want to bow their necks before God (cf. Exo 33:5).

He further calls them “uncircumcised in heart and ears”. They may belong to the people of God through outward circumcision, but in their inner being they are like the uncircumcised Gentiles whose hearts are not turned toward God and who do not listen to God (Jer 9:26b; Rom 2:25). In their aversion to God, they resist the work of the Holy Spirit. They do not do this just once, but always (Isa 63:10; Psa 106:33).

Until now Stephen has always spoken about our fathers, but at this stage of his speech he distances himself from them and speaks about “your fathers”. Their fathers and they did and do the same in their resistance against the Holy Spirit. They do this even more clearly than their fathers, for the Spirit has come and is clearly active in a man like Stephen (Acts 6:5,10).

He asks them a rhetorical question: “Which of the prophets their fathers did not persecute?” They cannot mention an exception, because every prophet sent by God to remind His people of their sins and to call them to repentance was rejected by them (2Chr 36:16; Jer 2:30; Mt 23:31). All those prophets also pointed out the coming of the Righteous One, that is the Lord Jesus. And what have they, the Council, done with Him? They have betrayed and killed Him.

This accusation was also made by Peter (Acts 3:14-15). While Peter took “ignorance” into account as an extenuating circumstance, Stephen holds this company of religious leaders fully responsible for this greatest crime of all time. Whatever new revelation from God came, they rejected it, right up to and including the Son of God.

The last words Stephen can speak relate to the way they received the law and the fact that they did not keep the law. They had accused him of speaking against the law (Acts 6:11,13), but here he gives the law the highest honor and correct application. He acknowledges the exalted origin of the law (Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2) as well as its full authority in its application to the members of the Council.

With his words that they are lawbreakers, the measure is filled up to them. All the accumulated anger comes out. They are in no way able to argue against Stephen. His proof of their guilt is irrefutable. Instead of his words touching them in the heart and asking them what to do (cf. Acts 2:37), his speech to them has become more and more an agony, a torture for their minds. They gnash their teeth against him as an expression of torment characteristic of the hell with which they are connected (Lk 13:28; Psa 35:16).

While during Stephen’s speech the anger increases, which can be seen on their faces, an increasing glory of heaven can be seen on Stephen. They are full of anger; he is full of the Holy Spirit. They see through their anger a man they want to kill. He does not see the angry crowd, but he is completely absorbed by the Holy Spirit in what he sees in heaven: “The glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”

The glory of God had left the temple (Eze 10:18; 11:23) and had returned to heaven. The glory of God had reappeared in Christ, but had been rejected and had returned to heaven. Now Stephen sees that glory, which means that the glory is visible to Christians who possess God’s Spirit.

After his razor-sharp condemnation he now speaks about the heaven he sees opened and in which he sees the Lord Jesus as the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. Like seeing the glory of God, seeing the opened heavens is also characteristic of Christendom. In Judaism the entrance to God is closed, God is hidden behind the veil.

When the Council hears all this, they go wild. They begin to cry out, so that they will hardly have heard what Stephen may have said. And even if another word from this – in their eyes – terrible criminal should break through their cries and reach their ears, they make it impossible to hear it by covering their ears (Psa 58:4-5).

It is completely unacceptable to them, no matter what Stephen says. He testifies not of the glory of God – which would be normal for heaven – but of the Son of Man in glory. It is perfectly clear to them what he is saying with this. He says nothing more and nothing less than that he sees the Messiah Whom they have rejected and that He is the Son of God (Dan 7:13).

Stephen says another thing. He also says that He sees the Son of Man “standing”. This indicates that the rejection of the Lord Jesus is not yet total and that He is, as it were, ready to return in case His people still come to repentance. However, this is not the case. On the contrary. By stoning Stephen, they send the Lord Jesus, as it were, a delegation after Him, saying: ”We do not want this man to reign over us” (cf. Lk 19:11-14).

In Stephen’s death the testimony of the Holy Spirit was also rejected by them. The Lord underwent a sham trial. Stephen was executed and stoned to death without any form of trial. With this he undergoes the fate of a blasphemer (Lev 24:16). The stoning is carried out by the false witnesses (Acts 6:13).

In order not to be hindered by their robes when throwing the stones, they put them at the feet of a young man, Saul. Later on, Saul, then Paul, will cite his involvement and his care for the robes of the stone-throwers as a regrettable affair (Acts 22:20). Here we hear about him for the first time. He wholeheartedly agrees with the stoning of that ‘blasphemer’.

While he is being stoned, Stephen calls on the Lord to receive his spirit. Heaven had to receive not only the Lord Jesus until the period of restoration (Acts 3:20-21), but also the souls of His own, of those who believe in Him. By seeing Christ glorified in heaven, Stephen, as well as every believer, is changed and becomes like Him. This is apparent from his last words.

His last words are no longer addressed to the people – he has nothing more to say to them – but to his Lord. While the stones strike him, he kneels down quietly and then by a loud voice, so that they all hear it, he prays for forgiveness for his murderers (cf. Lk 23:34a).

Seeing the Lord Jesus gives him that rest in these circumstances. We also see that rest in the way Stephen’s death is described: he falls asleep. Falling asleep refers to the body, not to the soul or the spirit. Stephen is taken away from this life in the power of his life that was a testimony.

Jim Elliot, who was killed at the age of twenty-eight by the spears of Auca Indians to whom he wanted to preach the gospel, wrote: ‘I am not looking for a long life, but a full life.’ And: ‘God seeks to populate eternity and I must not limit Him in doing this just with old people.’