This is the Moses who
said to the Israelites, “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your
brothers.” – Acts 7:37 (ESV)
The person speaking
in this verse is Stephen, who is historically recorded as the first Christian
martyr, though the first martyr, in terms of the laying down of a life for the
sake of the message of the Gospel, was Jesus Himself. Stephen was one of
the first “deacons” or “servants” of the church, and was said to be “a man full
of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5:5b). This Stephen, who was also
said to be “full of grace and power,” and by this grace and power “was doing
great wonders and signs among the people” (5:8), found himself in a dispute
with some people of a particular synagogue that disagreed with the message that
he was preaching. That message, naturally, was the root of the message of
the Gospel, which was that Jesus was the Messiah. The author reports
that, finding themselves unable to “withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with
which he was speaking” (5:10), “they secretly instigated men who said, ‘We have
heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God” (5:11). Due to
that accusation, Stephen was brought before the council.
The verse above is
taken from the speech that Stephen made, in his own defense, before the
council. This man that was accused of uttering blasphemies against Moses
and God, interestingly enough, spent a great deal of time talking about Moses,
culminating in quoting Moses saying “God will raise up for you a prophet like
me from your brothers.” So this begs the question: Did this happen?
Was this an accurate statement on the part of Moses (or, at least, on the part
of the biographer of Moses)? Obviously, this is what Stephen is said to
have believed, which informs us that this was a belief held by the earliest of
believers. Concordantly, it can also be
reasonably believed to be so.
Thus, believers in
Jesus as the Messiah hold that this statement was brought about in the person
of Jesus, and that He is ultimately the referent of Moses’ statement. Thus,
in ascertaining the full scope of Stephen’s mindset (and therefore that of the
earliest believers and the author of the text, who was Luke), it is quite
worthwhile to take a look into what Stephen said as a precursor to the
statement of our Scriptural text.
Stephen says that
when Moses “was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers,
the children of Israel” (7:23). Moses
made this decision from his position as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, having
been raised in the house of the ruler of Egypt.
Essentially, Moses divests himself of his position. Jesus also, at
a certain time (and as was said of Him very early in the history of
Christianity) “made Himself nothing,” took “the form of a servant” and was
“born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). The one known as the Son
of God left His eternal throne to visit the people of God’s covenant, which was
Israel. In addition to that, we know that Jesus began His ministry at a
specific age (around the age of thirty); and in that ministry, as He traveled
throughout the length and breadth of Israel, He most certainly visited His
brothers, the children of Israel.
Stephen continues on
about Moses and says, “And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the
oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian” (7:24). Can
we not see this, in a manner of speaking, in the life of Jesus as well? Though
Jesus did not strike down any individual, just as Moses struck down an
oppressor of His people, seeing his brother being wronged, whenever Jesus
encountered sickness, disease, demon possession, and sometimes even death, He
sprung into compassionate action on behalf of the one being wronged, and struck
down the oppressive affliction.
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