Stephen traced God's dealings with Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the wilderness generation, and the temple. He charged his hearers with resisting the Holy Spirit and betraying and murdering the Righteous One (Acts 7:1-53).
📖 Acts 7:1–3
1Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?” 2And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’
Connections
Quotation
The wilderness idols and coming exile
Stephen quotes Amos's rebuke of Israel's wilderness worship and its warning that God would send the people into exile.
Amos 5:25–27
Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.
Both passages ask about Israel's sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness and accuse the people of carrying star-related idols. Amos 5:26-27 names Sakkuth and Kaiwan and says beyond Damascus; Acts 7:43 names Molech and Rephan and says beyond Babylon.
Quotation
The prophet like Moses
Peter quotes Moses' promise that God would raise up a prophet like him and that the people must listen to Him; Stephen later repeats the same promise while recounting Moses' ministry.
Deuteronomy 18:15–19
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!” Then the LORD said to me, “They have spoken well. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name.
Deuteronomy 18:15-19 promises a prophet from among Israel's brothers who will speak God's words; Acts 3:22-23 quotes that promise in Peter's sermon about Jesus, and Acts 7:37 repeats it in Stephen's address.
Quotation
Who made you ruler and judge?
Stephen repeats the words of the Israelite who rejected Moses as ruler and judge and threatened to expose his killing of the Egyptian.
Exodus 2:13–15
The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?” But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.” When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.
Exodus 2:13-15 records the man's question, Moses' fear, and his flight from Pharaoh; Acts 7:26-29 quotes the rejection and recounts Moses' flight to Midian.
Quotation
God speaks to Moses at the burning bush
Stephen recounts the burning bush and repeats God's words about holy ground, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Israel's oppression, and Moses' commission.
Exodus 3:5–10
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings. I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Exodus 3:5-10 records God telling Moses to remove his sandals, identifying Himself as the God of the patriarchs, declaring that He has seen Israel's suffering, and sending Moses; Acts 7:30-34 repeats those words in Stephen's address.
Quotation
Make us gods to go before us
Stephen repeats Israel's demand that Aaron make gods to go before them and recounts the calf, its sacrifice, and the people's rejoicing in what their hands had made.
Exodus 32:1–4
Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!” So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
Exodus 32:1-4 records the demand, the collected gold, and the fashioned calf; Acts 7:39-41 quotes the demand and describes the calf, sacrifice, and celebration.
Quotation
Abraham is called from his country
Stephen begins Israel's history by repeating God's command that Abraham leave his country and kindred for the land God would show him.
Genesis 12:1
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.
Genesis 12:1 records the LORD's command to leave country, kindred, and household for the land He would show Abram; Acts 7:2-4 quotes the country-and-kindred command and recounts Abraham's departure.
Quotation
The promised sojourn and deliverance
Stephen repeats God's words to Abraham that his descendants would live as strangers, suffer enslavement for four hundred years, and afterward be delivered when God judged the enslaving nation.
Genesis 15:13–14
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.
Genesis 15:13-14 foretells a four-hundred-year sojourn, enslavement, God's judgment on the nation, and the descendants' departure; Acts 7:5-7 recounts the same promise in Stephen's address.
Quotation
Heaven is My throne
After speaking of Solomon's temple, Stephen quotes Isaiah to say that the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands.
Isaiah 66:1–2
This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be? Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.
Isaiah 66:1-2 calls heaven God's throne and earth His footstool and asks what house could be built for Him; Acts 7:48-50 introduces Isaiah's words and quotes those questions.