Why Israel Rejected Moses — And Then Rejected Christ

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, once again, we're going to go right back to where we left off in Acts chapter 7. We had to wind up our last program rather quickly. Time always gets away from us. But anyway, we always like to welcome our television audience. We always cherish the opportunity of coming into your living room or your den or whatever. And we trust that you just become part of the class. And we do enjoy hearing that from so many folk that when they watch the program, they just feel like they're right here in the studio. And of course, that's what we want to project. We claim to be very low-key. We do not try to twist arms or get you out of one group and into another. We're just here to help people understand and to know what they read. And all I've said over the years is I try to show people what it says, but also what it does not say. Because so many people have got so many things construed in their mind. Well, that's what the Bible says. Well, show me. Well, then they can't. Because the Bible doesn't say a lot of those things. So anyway, we trust that as we teach, we can help you to understand and to enjoy this Book. Because after all, we're not going to stand before the Lord one day and plead what we did what the denomination says. We may try to do that, but it's not going to work. We're going to be judged on the basis of this Book and nothing else. And so here's where I think it behooves us to know what the Book says. All right. Now then, I guess I failed to mention the last program. I better do it this one. Remember that all the past programs are available on videotape. We've put 12 programs on one 6-hour tape. And we put them at a very nominal cost. If you're interested, you call and write. And now 14 of those tapes are available now in print. And again, we're doing that just for whatever they cost us. And so for our television audience, if you're interested in all of these in printed form, you write to us. And my little wife just works every forenoon packaging books and tapes and getting them in the mail. So we know the Lord is blessing it. We're getting a lot of good comments. Oh, another thing I wanted to mention. I can't possibly answer every letter. I hope our television audience knows that. We try to answer every question. I'll do that personally. So if you have questions, you write to me. And I'll try to get back with a Scriptural answer. All right. For those of you now in the studio, let's go right back to Acts chapter 7 where we left off. And I misquoted, as I was reading, the last word. But I trust that people will just know that's because I'm human. Acts 7, verse 18, Now again, I'm going to hammer home what I've been trying to show for the last 6 -7 chapters. This is all Jewish. There's not a line in here that deals with the Gentiles, except of course Egypt. And you certainly don't want to line yourself with them. But here Stephen is addressing the nation of Israel. All right, verse 20. Now it was in this time when the pharaohs, who no longer remembered Joseph, it was in this time that Moses was born, was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months. Now I always like to point out in Acts chapter 7 that we pick up details that are left out in the Genesis account. There are a lot of them in just this one chapter. All right, so Moses now then, exceeding fair. Now that doesn't mean he was a pretty baby, although he may have been. But that wasn't the connotation. He was exceeding fair in that he was a special child in God's line of service. And the parents of Moses, of course, understood that by faith. That here was someone that God was going to use. So they took special steps, of course, to save the little child's life. Verse 21. So when he was cast out, that is onto the river, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. Now here's a verse that gives us some things that the Old Testament does not. That Moses was learned, or educated, in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Now of course that stands to reason, being raised in the palace of the king. But the Scripture gives us that knowledge that Moses was the top man in Egypt, under the king, under the Pharaoh. And he was highly educated, and he had a lot of power. Reading on, he was mighty in word and in deeds. And then we have the breakdown in Moses' life that we don't get in the Old Testament. And that is that it was in segments of 40. He was 40 years in Pharaoh's palace. He was 40 years on the back side of the desert, herding sheep. And then he comes back and he spends 40 years leading the children of Israel. We only get that in Acts chapter 7. Alright, verse 23, reading on. So when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. Now here again, this is the first time that Moses will approach the children of Israel as their deliverer. Now of course, God was not in it specifically here. God did not instruct him. But Moses, using his own position and his power and all that he had going for him, by faith, of course, understood that Israel had to be taken out of Egypt. And so now the next verse says, verse 25, that he supposed his brethren would have what? Understood. Now a lot of folk miss this. When Moses went out as the second man in Egypt, with all of the power and the wisdom that he had going for him, he honestly thought he was going to lead the children of Israel out of their slavery. And that's what this verse means. He supposed that they would have understood how that God, by His hand, that is by using Moses, would deliver them out of Egypt. But, what does the rest of the verse say? They understood not. Now you see what a parallel you have with Christ came to the nation the first time. He came, presented Himself as their Messiah, as their King, but they never comprehended who He was. Oh, few did, but precious few. So here is the analogy now. Now remember, Stephen, his whole purpose of this sermon is to yet bring the nation of Israel to the knowledge that the one they had killed was the King. This is the whole premise of these early chapters of Acts. Yes, you killed Him, but God raised Him from the dead, and He can still be our King if you'll just believe it, if you'll just repent of that awful deed. And Peter, you see in chapter 2 and 3, lays it out in plain language. You killed Him. You murdered Him. And Stephen is going to come back and make the same accusation. And so he's laying the groundwork for his conclusion. Why do you always have to have the second time? Joseph showed it. Now Moses is showing it. Christ has already accomplished it. And you're again going to have to wait until He comes the second time. Alright, reading on. So He hoped that they would understand, but they didn't. Verse 26, "...and the next day He showed Himself unto them as they strove," or as they fought, "...and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are our brethren, why do you wrong one another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Now this rings a bell." Isn't this exactly what they said to Christ? Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? The same thing. The same setting. And Stephen is driving it home to them now. Over the years I've put it this way. I think Stephen is just sort of putting the dagger into the heart of the nation. But he's twisting it. I mean, he's twisting it. He is just making them squirm. Alright. Verse 29, "...then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons." And then here we have another time element. Verse 30, "...and when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in the flame of fire." And again, you all know the story of Moses and the bush and how God sent him back to Egypt and his confrontations with Pharaoh and all that. Well, Stephen rehearses it all. Now I'm going to bring you all the way to the end of Stephen's sermon where you come down to verse 47, I guess is a good place to jump in. But Solomon, see how he's coming up through history? He's come through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David. Now he comes to Solomon and he says, "...but Solomon built him," that is the Lord, "...a house." And you all know, of course, that Solomon built the first temple. Verse 48, "...howbeit, even though Solomon built the temple here on earth, howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will you build me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?" Now remember, Stephen is driving home the fact that this Messiah that they crucified was the promised Son of God, the King of Israel, the Son of David, and all of these things that were so rampant in the Old Testament promises. Alright, reading on. Verse 51, "...you stiff-necked," stubborn, see? "...uncircumcised," oh not in the flesh, they certainly kept that. But what were they lacking? The heart circumcision, which is that part of salvation in any dispensation. That when a person came to believe, then God exercises or executes a spiritual circumcision. And Israel knew nothing of that. Oh, they knew the physical. They kept that to the glass, jot and tittle. But they knew nothing of a spiritual circumcision. Alright, reading on. "...you do always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so you do. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" What's it a reference to? Oh, the Old Testament economy. The prophets would come, and even as Jesus put it in the parable, you remember the vineyard and the husbandmen. And then the husband went to a far country in the parable. And then as the fruit began to be ready for harvest, what did he do? He sent servants back to his vineyard. And what did they do with the servants? They killed them. And yet others, and they killed them. And then in the parable, finally, he sent the son. And what did they do with the son? They killed him. Alright, now Stephen is showing them the same thing. The prophets came to their forefathers, they killed them. Jeremiah, I was reading again just last night. Jeremiah was found down in one of the dankest, deepest, and wettest dungeons in Jerusalem. Why? Because he was prophesying things that Israel didn't like to hear. Same thing may happen yet in America. When people don't like what they hear, they get rather nasty. Alright, reading on. Verse 52, "...and they have slain them which shewed before, the coming of the just one." Now watch this language. "...of whom you..." He's talking to the religious leaders, especially in Israel. "...of whom you have been now the betrayers," and what's that last word? Murderers. Now that's not very kind, is it? But that's what Israel was guilty of. They had killed their Messiah. Verse 53, "...speaking to the nation again, you have received the law by the disposition of angels." But what did they do with it? They didn't keep it. And then verse 54, and oh, you see, I told you now, He's just building His case against the nation, and God is convicting their hearts. "...and when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on Him with their teeth." Remember I said in our last taping, people never get more vicious than when they do it in the name of religion. Now here are religious Jews, civilized people, but because of their religion, they suddenly lose all their civility. And they literally, and I'm a literalist, they gnashed on Him with their teeth. They became so berserk because of their convictions. "...and they gnashed on Him with their teeth," now verse 55, "...but He," Stephen, "...being full of the Holy Spirit," Now, I didn't realize this until not too long ago. Here is another place we have all three persons of the Godhead in one verse. Here they are. "...the Holy Spirit, evidenced in Stephen, and as he looked up steadfastly into heaven, and he saw the glory of God," we'd have to put that as, in this case, the Father, "...and then Jesus the Son," but now the next word, and I remember several months or maybe a few years ago, I threw it out, and I never really did answer it on television. I had to answer a lot of letters regarding it. But ordinarily we think that when Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father, what did He do? He sat down. And Scripture says it. Hebrews 1 says, "...and having purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Psalms 110 verse 1 says, "...and Jesus came and sat at my Father's right hand." See? Sit. But here He's what? Standing. Now most people either don't see it, or they just think, well it must be a mistranslation. No it isn't. "...Stephen saw Him standing rather than sitting." But read on, and then I'll come back and comment on it. And He said, "...and behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God." And then, see, at that statement, "...they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and they ran upon Him with one accord, and of course began to stone Him." Now, what I like to do is make you think, why was Jesus standing at this point, rather than sitting as all the rest of the Scripture indicates. Well, you want to remember, go back to chapter 3 here in Acts. Chapter 3, verses 19 and 20. Because we don't want to lose sight of everything that's being presented to the nation now, after His resurrection and ascension. And that is that He is alive, God has raised Him from the dead, He's, yes, called Him back to heaven, but He is ready to yet return right quick, and set up the Kingdom. Of course, the tribulation would have to run its course, that had to be. But you see what Peter says in chapter 3, verse 19, "...repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing," now that's the fulfilling of the covenant promises, the fulfilling of the Kingdom promises, "...when the refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord," now that's not a period, it's only a semicolon, so the thought goes on to verse 20, "...and He," God, "...would send Jesus Christ," which before was preached unto you, for what purpose? To fulfill those promises. He would send Him, that would be the Second Coming. And so, Israel was aware of what Peter and the rest had been preaching, that yes, you killed Him, but God raised Him from the dead, and He can still be our King, because He's alive. And don't think that Israel has forgotten all that. All right, now then, as you look at this again in chapter 7, and so He says, "...I see Him," in verse 56, "...standing on the right hand of God," and then in verse 55 He said the same thing, "...I see Him standing on the right hand of God." Go back with me in a minute to Psalm 67. Now, I don't know if this is the exact answer for this, but it's the one that I am comfortable with, because something was attached to that fact of Stephen seeing Him standing, that aroused their anger. And I think, at least this is the way I look at it, that this is what caused it. Psalms 67 and 68. Now, you want to remember, He's talking to the religious leaders, and they knew their Old Testament, especially the Psalms. They sang them in their worship and everything else. They knew the Psalms like you and I know our name. All right, chapter 67, verse 1. "...God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, Selah, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge or rule the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth." What is all this looking forward to? The Kingdom. When He would come and set up His Kingdom. "...Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our God, shall bless us, God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him." Oh, there's the setting now of the promises of the Kingdom. When He would yet be their King. But now come into the next chapter, chapter 68. Verse 1. "...Let God..." And remember God the Son is God, just as much as God the Father and God the Spirit. "...so let God..." What's the next word? "...arise, let His enemies be..." What? "...scattered. Let them also that hate Him flee before Him." And you don't think this struck those Jews? This is what Stephen was talking about. That He had now arisen from His seated position, and He was ready to come. Now look at the next verse. "...as smoke is driven away, so drive them away..." That is His enemies. "...as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God." Was Israel ready for that? Oh, and they knew they weren't. And so rather than bring down conviction and a godly fear, it aroused their anger. Now come back to Acts chapter 7. And so they weren't ready for Christ to return. They didn't want Him to come. They were too happy with their own religion. And so, as we've already read, "...they cried with a loud voice, 57, and stopped their ears, and ran upon Him with one accord, 58, and they cast Him out of the city, and stoned Him." Now I would like to make a point. Under the Roman government, there was no way a Jew would have gotten away with stoning a Gentile. They would have never gotten away with that. But see, this was a Jewish situation, and the Romans let the Jews pretty much handle their own religious system. And so the Jews were permitted to kill their own in the name of their own religion, and Rome didn't do a thing. Keep that always in mind, that Rome never lifted a finger against the Jews carrying out their own means of punishment. "...So they drew Him out of the city, and they stoned Him. And witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." Now, remember as we're coming through the Book of Acts, it's been Jewish, Jewish, Jewish. Peter, Peter, Peter, now Stephen, but it's all Jewish. But here at the stoning of Stephen, Israel has come to the crescendo point of her rejection. Not her acceptance, but she's coming to a crescendo point of, we'll not have this man to rule over us. And so as they reach their pinnacle of rejection, who does God introduce to the scene? The man who is now going to go to the Gentiles without benefit of Israel. And so we're introduced at this very point then to the man who is going to make all the difference to the rest of the world. I think I mentioned on one of the programs a long, long time ago, one of the news magazines two, three years ago, I don't remember which one, whether it was Newsweek or World News and Report, but one of them anyway, their cover story that week were pictures of men who had made an impact upon history. Great men, politicians and so forth. And one of the greatest men, according to the article, and I loved it for that reason, was the Apostle Paul. And they gave him credit for being the one that introduced Christianity. Now normally everybody says, Jesus Christ introduced Christianity. Jesus is the foundation. He is the basis of it. But it was the Apostle Paul that took it out to the Gentile world. And so next to Christ Himself, I've always said that I feel that Paul and Moses are the two greatest men that ever lived and had the greatest impact on all of human history. So anyway, here we're introduced now as Israel is rejecting everything concerning the Christ. And we are introduced to Saul of Tarsus. Now as he's introduced, he's not in a very good light, is he? He is standing there holding the garments of those that are throwing the stones. Verse 59. They stoned Stephen, and Stephen of course calling upon God saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Verse 60. Stephen kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Basically the same thing as what Christ said and others. And when he had said this, he fell asleep, he died. Alright, now chapter 8, verse 1. Just in the minute we have left. And Saul of Tarsus, who we'll later know as the Apostle Paul, and Saul was consenting unto his death. Look, let's go back to Galatians. I think we've got a minute. He was more than consenting. He was driving it. He was the main force. Galatians chapter 1, verse 13. Because I want you to see Saul of Tarsus for what he really is by the time we get to chapter 9. Galatians 1 dropped all the way down to verse 13. Where he writes, You have heard of my conversation, or my lifestyle, my citizenship in times past in the Jews, what? Religion. And how that beyond measure I persecuted the church or the assembly of God and wasted it. Now that was the Jewish church there at Jerusalem. Now that's from his own pen. By Holy Spirit inspiration. He wasn't just a casual onlooker here at Stephen Stoning. He was the leader of it. He was the leader of the rebellion. And he hated anything concerning Jesus of Nazareth. Why? Because he was a good religious Pharisaical Jew. And he says it himself. As he writes in the book of Romans. That he was a Pharisee of the Pharisee. Of the tribe of Benjamin. Hey, he was religious to the hilt. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. A weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries. A Bible study in your area. Or about this program. Write to Les Feldick Ministries. Route 1. Box 760. Kinta, Oklahoma. 74552. That's Route 1. Box 760. Kinta, Oklahoma. 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported. And your gift is appreciated. Thank you and be sure to tune in next time. For Through the Bible with Les Feldick.