PT-3 "God" (Acts 7:1-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/14/2017 8:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  PT-3 “God”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Acts 7:1-16

            Message of the verses:  8 “And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.”  As mentioned at the end of our last SD Stephen now moves into the history of the lives of the patriarchal period.  He begins by talking about circumcision, God’s covenant with Abraham.  Once Abraham became the father of Isaac he circumcised him on the eight day in obedience to that covenant, and the same when Isaac became the father of Jacob, and then Jacob circumcised his twelve sons, the patriarchs.

            We mentioned that Stephen would bring a blistering condemnation in verses 51-53, so he is laying the groundwork for that condemnation here.  “9a “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt.”  Joseph’s brothers were rejecting the very one whom God had set apart for special blessings.  They had heard the dreams that God had given to him to show that God was going to do something special in his life, and yet instead of waiting for those blessings they became jealous and would have killed him if not for Ruben, his oldest brother.  This was a graphic illustration of the nation’s spiritual blindness that manifested in the case of Jesus.  The Jewish leaders were jealous of Jesus, therefore they hated Him and were the ones who would bring about the false trials that led to His death, however just as it was in God’s plan to have Joseph go to Egypt it was in God’s hand to have Jesus die on the cross for our sins. “9b Yet God was with him, 10 and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household.”  Verses 9b-10 speak of what happened to Joseph and verify what we talked about before mentioning these verses.

            John MacArthur writes “Although he waits until the conclusion of his sermon to openly declare that Jesus is the Messiah (v. 52), even in his historical summation Stephen gives glimpses of Christ.  Joseph’s life in many ways in analogous to Christ.  Both were from the nation of Israel.  Jesus, like Joseph, was delivered up out of envy (v. 9; cf. Mark 15:10).  Jesus was condemned to death by the testimony of false witnesses; Joseph was imprisoned because of the false accusations of Potiphar’s wife.  Just as God freed Jesus from the prison of death and exalted Him, so also did He free Joseph from prison and exalted him to high office.  As Joseph was able to deliver his sinful brothers from physical death, so Jesus delivers His brothers from spiritual death.”

            Next we look at verse eleven:  “11 “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food.”  As we compare this verse with what happened to Israel after they had Jesus put to death we can see that a spiritual famine came upon them that will last until “when all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26).  In the great prophecy of Daniel chapter nine which talks about Israel going back into their land after being taken to Babylon, the death of the Messiah, the tribulation period, and other future things are packed into verses 24-27 we see too this spiritual famine of Israel spoken of.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to go back to a statement that was in my Spiritual Diary that I posted on my blog this morning from July 8, 2004:  “Hatred blinds a person, while love opens a person’s eyes to see what God wants them to see.”  Joseph’s brothers hated him, and the Jewish leaders hated Jesus, and it is not good to follow their paths.  Perhaps it could be said that God did open the eyes of Joseph’s brothers later on.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will use my Spiritual Diaries to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Memory verse:  Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Soberly, righteously, godly” (Titus 2:12).

Today’s Bible question:  “How did Jesus die?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/14/2017 9:21 AM