“And they stoned Stephen …”
(Acts 7:59, NKJV)
With the stoning of Stephen a few very important events took place within close proximity of one another. Acts 7:55-58 details it as follows – “But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”
First – We know that Jesus sits at the right hand of God (Eph 1:20). Here it is explicitly stated twice – with the first Christian martyr’s death Jesus stands at the right hand of God! (This is the fulfillment of all the prophetic word which God had addressed to Israel throughout the Old Covenant – from Gen 21:18 where Abraham was told that he should stand up with Isaac, the son of the covenant, through to Isa 60:1 , “Arise, shine! …” to Rev 14:1 where the Lamb stands on Mount Zion). One could in actual fact see it as Jesus’ acknowledgement of a new epoch coming to pass – “he is raised up from his holy habitation” (Zec 2:13, KJV). He stands ready to receive and crown (his name means crown in Greek): Stephen.
Secondly – It is very important that the Jews had plugged their ears. In Ezek 12:2 the reason for this can be found – “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.” In Zech 7:11 the direct prophetic counterpoint of this event is offered – “But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear.” Based on Rom 11:8 people sometimes think that the Jews had not had a choice in whether the spirit of stupor was poured out on them. This is not true, or else there could not have been any Messianic Jews! Jesus himself had explained in Matt 13:14-15 – “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’” Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible makes this observation about the verse – “As they had willfully closed their eyes against the light, so God has, in judgment, given them up to the spirit of slumber.”
Thirdly – According to the law someone who was to be stoned had to be taken outside the city (Lev 24:14; Num 15:35) – this had also happened here. Then the witnesses on account of whose testimony the guilty party had been found guilty had to cast the first stones (Deut 17:7). To do this more comfortably they would take off their clothes (this was not common practice, although the guilty party, according to Clarke, would be without any clothes), probably the upper-most garment. These garments were left at the feet of Saul – the learned Pharisee who hated and persecuted Christians (Acts 8:3; 9:1). The significance of this detail, and its implications, are discussed in the next teaching.
- Sela: Re-read Day 306’s teaching in the light of today’s word.
- Read: Num 27; Hos 6; Ezek 19
- Memorize: Hos 6:1-2
- For a deeper understanding: Read chapter 1 of C.H. Dodd’s The meaning of Paul for today.
