The Rejected Deliverer Text: Acts 7:17-29
Introduction: The Pattern of Rejection
One of the recurring themes in Scripture, one of the deep grooves that God has carved into the grain of history, is this: God's people have a terrible habit of rejecting God's chosen deliverers. They did it with Joseph, selling him into slavery. They did it with Moses, as we see in our text today. They did it with the prophets, stoning them and sawing them in two. And, climactically, they did it with the Lord Jesus Christ, crying out for His crucifixion.
Stephen, in this masterful sermon before the Sanhedrin, is not just giving a history lesson. He is holding up a mirror. He is showing these religious leaders, who prided themselves on being sons of Abraham and disciples of Moses, that they are in fact the spitting image of their rebellious forefathers. They are the ones who always resist the Holy Spirit. They are the ones who kill the prophets. They are the ones who receive the law and do not keep it. And in their rejection of Jesus, they were simply running true to form. They were doing what their fathers had always done.
This is a hard word, and it is intended to be. Stephen is not trying to win friends and influence people. He is preaching the unvarnished truth of God, and that truth has a sharp edge. The pattern is this: God, in His sovereign timing, prepares and sends a savior. That savior comes to his own people, but his own people do not receive him. They misunderstand his mission, they question his authority, and they ultimately cast him out. This is precisely what happened to Moses, and Stephen recounts this history to show that it is exactly what has just happened with Jesus of Nazareth.
This history is not just about the Jews, however. It is about us. It is about the universal human tendency to prefer our own self-made saviors, our own comfortable arrangements, and our own definitions of authority over the one sent by God. We want a ruler and judge of our own making, not one appointed by Heaven. And so, we must listen to Stephen's sermon with the uncomfortable awareness that the indictment he levels against the Sanhedrin is an indictment that stands against all of fallen humanity.
The Text
"But as the time of the promise was drawing near which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, until ANOTHER KING AROSE OVER EGYPT WHO DID NOT KNOW ABOUT JOSEPH. It was he who deceitfully took advantage of our family and mistreated our fathers to set their infants outside so that they would not survive. It was at this time that Moses was born, and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home. And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in words and deeds. But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took justice for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them salvation through him, but they did not understand. On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you treating one another unjustly?’ But the one who was treating his neighbor unjustly pushed him away, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND JUDGE OVER US? DO YOU INTEND TO KILL ME AS YOU KILLED THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY?’ At this remark, MOSES FLED AND BECAME A SOJOURNER IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN, where he was the father of two sons."
(Acts 7:17-29 LSB)
Providence in the Dark (vv. 17-22)
Stephen begins by setting the stage. The time of God's promise to Abraham is drawing near. And what happens when God's promises are about to ripen? The pressure increases. The darkness gets darker right before the dawn.
"But as the time of the promise was drawing near...the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, until ANOTHER KING AROSE OVER EGYPT WHO DID NOT KNOW ABOUT JOSEPH. It was he who deceitfully took advantage of our family and mistreated our fathers to set their infants outside so that they would not survive." (Acts 7:17-19)
Notice the interplay of God's faithfulness and man's wickedness. God is faithfully multiplying His people, just as He promised Abraham. But from a human perspective, things are going from bad to worse. A new Pharaoh comes to power who has no historical memory, no gratitude for what Joseph did for Egypt. He sees the Hebrews not as a blessing but as a threat. And so he acts with cunning cruelty, seeking to destroy the people of God through a state-sponsored program of infanticide.
This is how the world operates. The world's solution to what it perceives as a problem is very often murder. But God's providence is always working, even and especially in the midst of such profound evil. It is precisely at this moment of maximum darkness, "at this time," that God's deliverer is born.
"It was at this time that Moses was born, and he was lovely in the sight of God... And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in words and deeds." (Acts 7:20-22)
God's answer to the murderous decree of a tyrant is a baby in a basket. This is a foretaste of the gospel. God's answer to the tyranny of Caesar Augustus and Herod is a baby in a manger. God's power is made perfect in weakness. He hides His deliverer in the very house of the enemy. Moses, the one who will bring down the house of Pharaoh, is raised by Pharaoh's own daughter. He is given the finest education the world has to offer. He is trained in the wisdom of the Egyptians and becomes "powerful in words and deeds."
God is sovereignly equipping His man for the task ahead. He is using the resources of the enemy to train up the one who will destroy them. This is the beautiful irony of divine providence. God makes the wrath of man to praise Him. He takes the enemy's best shot and uses it as a stepping stone for His own purposes. All the wisdom of Egypt, all the power and rhetoric Moses learned in the court of Pharaoh, would one day be turned against Egypt for the deliverance of God's people.
The Misunderstood Deliverer (vv. 23-28)
After forty years of this elite Egyptian training, God begins to stir in Moses' heart. The call of God begins to dawn on him.
"But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took justice for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian." (Acts 7:23-24)
Moses identifies with his own people. He sees their suffering, and he acts. He acts as a judge, executing justice on behalf of the oppressed. This was not a hot-headed act of murder. It was a calculated act of deliverance. Stephen tells us what was in Moses' mind. He had a supposition.
"And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them salvation through him, but they did not understand." (Acts 7:25)
Here is the tragic disconnect. Moses understood his calling, at least in part. He knew that God was going to use him to bring salvation. He "supposed" that his brothers, the very people he was sent to save, would see it too. But they did not. They were blind to God's work. Their slavery was not just external; it had gotten into their souls. They could not recognize their deliverer when he was standing right in front of them.
The next day, the rejection becomes explicit. Moses finds two Hebrews fighting and tries to make peace.
"‘Men, you are brothers, why are you treating one another unjustly?’ But the one who was treating his neighbor unjustly pushed him away, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND JUDGE OVER US? DO YOU INTEND TO KILL ME AS YOU KILLED THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY?’" (Acts 7:26-28)
This question is the heart of the matter. "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?" The answer, of course, was God. God had appointed Moses. But they didn't see it. They challenge his authority. They throw his act of deliverance back in his face as a threat. The very people he came to save, reject him. They would rather fight amongst themselves in slavery than submit to the authority of the one sent by God to free them.
And Stephen's audience, the Sanhedrin, could not have missed the parallel. This is the very same question they had implicitly asked of Jesus. "By what authority are you doing these things?" (Matthew 21:23). They saw Jesus' mighty works, His casting out of demons, His healing the sick, His raising the dead, and instead of recognizing God's appointed Ruler and Judge, they accused Him of working by the power of Beelzebul. They rejected their Messiah just as their fathers had rejected Moses.
The Flight and the Forty-Year Wait (v. 29)
The result of this rejection is that the deliverer is cast out. The plan is delayed, from a human perspective.
"At this remark, MOSES FLED AND BECAME A SOJOURNER IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN, where he was the father of two sons." (Acts 7:29)
Moses' first attempt at deliverance ends in what looks like total failure. He is a fugitive, an exile in a foreign land. He settles down, gets married, has children, and becomes a shepherd on the backside of the desert for forty years. His Egyptian education is over, and now his wilderness education begins. God is not done with him, but there is a long period of waiting, a long period of humbling. He had to be stripped of all the self-reliance he learned in Egypt before God could use him.
This is another crucial part of the pattern. God's timing is not our timing. There are often long, silent years in the middle of God's plan where it seems like nothing is happening. Moses had to wait forty years in Midian. Israel had to wait four hundred years in Egypt. The world had to wait thousands of years for the Messiah to come. And we now wait for His return. But these periods of waiting are not periods of inactivity for God. He is always working, always preparing, always bringing His promises to pass at exactly the right time.
The rejection of Moses by his brothers delayed their deliverance by forty years. How much more catastrophic was the rejection of Jesus by His brothers? It resulted in the destruction of their city and their temple, and their scattering among the nations. The consequences of rejecting God's appointed savior are always severe.
The Christ Who Was Supposed
The story of Moses is a profound type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses was the rejected deliverer; Christ was the ultimate rejected deliverer. "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11).
Like Moses, Jesus was born under the murderous decree of a tyrant, Herod. Like Moses, He was preserved by the sovereign hand of God. Like Moses, He came to His brothers to bring them salvation. He saw them afflicted by a slavery far worse than Egyptian bondage, the slavery of sin and death. He came to execute justice and to set the oppressed free.
And like Moses, He "supposed" His brothers would understand. He performed signs and wonders far greater than striking down a single Egyptian. He healed their diseases, cast out their demons, and preached the good news of the kingdom. He did everything necessary to demonstrate who He was. But they did not understand. They were spiritually blind.
And so they asked Him the same question: "Who made you a ruler and a judge?" They challenged His authority. They took His claims to be the Son of God as blasphemy. And ultimately, they cast Him out. They cast Him out of the city and crucified Him. The deliverer was rejected and killed.
But here the typology gloriously breaks down. Moses fled into exile after his rejection. But when Jesus was rejected and killed, His death was not a failure or a delay. It was the very means of our salvation. His being "struck down" was the very act that brought justice for the oppressed. His being cast out was what brought us near to God. His rejection by Israel opened the door for the salvation of the Gentiles.
And unlike Moses, who had to wait forty years, Jesus was vindicated after three days. God raised Him from the dead, declaring Him to be the true Ruler and Judge over all. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And now, this same Jesus offers salvation to all who will receive Him. The question for us today is the same one that faced the Hebrews in Egypt and the Jews in Jerusalem. Will we recognize God's appointed deliverer? Or will we push him away, asking, "Who made you a ruler and judge over us?" Your answer to that question determines everything.