The Rejected Deliverer and the Idolatrous Heart Text: Acts 7:35-43
Introduction: The Accused Becomes the Prosecutor
We are in the middle of Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, and it is one of the great reversals in Scripture. Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, is not on trial at all. The Sanhedrin is on trial, and Stephen is the prosecuting attorney. He is not pleading for his life; he is indicting a nation. He is holding up the mirror of their own history, and the reflection they see is one of persistent, stiff-necked rebellion against the God they claim to serve. Their charge against him was blasphemy against Moses and the Temple. Stephen's counter-charge is that they are the true blasphemers, for they have followed in the footsteps of their fathers, who consistently rejected the deliverers God sent them, starting with Moses himself.
Stephen is a master historian, but this is no dry academic lecture. This is a sermon, forged in the fire of conflict, and it is a masterpiece of polemical theology. He is demonstrating a pattern. The pattern is this: God sends a savior, and the covenant people reject him. God speaks, and the covenant people plug their ears. God provides, and the covenant people long for the slavery they left behind. Their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth was not some unfortunate mistake, not a surprising anomaly. It was the capstone, the grand finale, of a long and sordid family tradition. What Stephen is doing here is laying out the evidence, exhibit by exhibit, to prove that his accusers are the true heirs of a rebellious house.
In this section of his argument, Stephen focuses on the central figure of their faith, Moses, and shows how their fathers treated him. And in doing so, he shows them exactly how they have treated the one greater than Moses. This is the heart of the matter. Sin is not creative; it is repetitive. The idolatry of the wilderness is the same idolatry found in first-century Jerusalem, and it is the same idolatry found in our own hearts today.
The Text
"This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BROTHERS.’ This is the one who, in the congregation in the wilderness, was with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers; the one who received living oracles to pass on to you. Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, SAYING TO AARON, ‘MAKE FOR US GODS WHO WILL GO BEFORE US; FOR THIS MOSES WHO LED US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAS BECOME OF HIM.’ At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘DID YOU PRESENT ME WITH SLAIN BEASTS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF THE GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL REMOVE YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’"
(Acts 7:35-43 LSB)
The Rejected Ruler (vv. 35-37)
Stephen begins by driving the nail of Israel's hypocrisy home. He identifies the very man they revere with the very man their fathers rejected.
"This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BROTHERS.’" (Acts 7:35-37 LSB)
The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife. The Sanhedrin accuses Stephen of disrespecting Moses, but Stephen reminds them that their fathers' first interaction with Moses was to disrespect him. "Who made you a ruler and a judge?" they sneered. This is the constant cry of the rebel heart against God's delegated authority. And yet, Stephen says, this very one whom they disowned was the one whom God sent. God's choice and man's choice are set in stark opposition.
God did not just send him with a title; He sent him with power. He was both a "ruler and a deliverer." God authenticated His chosen man with "wonders and signs" for forty years. The evidence was overwhelming. The plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock, all of it was God's resounding affirmation of His servant. But a rebellious heart can explain away any amount of evidence. Miracles do not create faith; they only confirm the faith that is already there or harden the heart that is not.
Then Stephen twists the knife. This same Moses, authenticated by God but rejected by the people, was the one who prophesied the coming of Christ. "GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME." Stephen is building an inescapable case. To honor Moses truly is to listen to his words. And his words point directly to Jesus. Therefore, to reject Jesus is to fundamentally disown Moses. The Sanhedrin thought they were defending Moses, but in reality, they were standing with their rebellious forefathers against him.
The Rejected Word (vv. 38-41)
The rebellion was not just against the man, but against the message he carried. It was a rejection of the very Word of God.
"This is the one who, in the congregation in the wilderness, was with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers; the one who received living oracles to pass on to you. Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, SAYING TO AARON, ‘MAKE FOR US GODS WHO WILL GO BEFORE US; FOR THIS MOSES WHO LED US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAS BECOME OF HIM.’ At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands." (Acts 7:38-41 LSB)
Moses was the mediator. He stood between the terrifying holiness of God on Sinai, represented by the angel of the Lord, and the "congregation" in the wilderness. The word for congregation here is ekklesia, the same word for the church. He received "living oracles," a powerful description of God's law. The law is not a dead list of rules; it is the life-giving Word of the living God. It is the blueprint for covenant life, for human flourishing.
But what was the response? "Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient." They "rejected him." The rebellion was not just external; it was a matter of the heart. "In their hearts turned back to Egypt." This is a profound spiritual diagnosis. They were physically out of Egypt, but Egypt was not out of them. They preferred the predictable misery of slavery to the demanding freedom of following God in the wilderness. They wanted the leeks and onions of bondage over the bread of heaven.
And what does a heart that longs for Egypt do? It creates its own gods. When the true mediator, Moses, was out of sight on the mountain, their faith faltered. They wanted a tangible, manageable god. "Make for us gods who will go before us." So they made a golden calf. Notice the conclusion: they were "rejoicing in the works of their hands." This is the very definition of idolatry. It is the creature worshipping the creation. It is man celebrating his own ingenuity, his own ability to fashion a god in his own image, a god he can control. All idolatry is ultimately self-worship.
The Judicial Abandonment (vv. 42-43)
What is God's response to such flagrant rebellion? Stephen reveals a terrifying truth about the nature of divine judgment.
"But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘DID YOU PRESENT ME WITH SLAIN BEASTS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF THE GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL REMOVE YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’" (Acts 7:42-43 LSB)
Here we see one of the most fearsome judgments in all of Scripture. "God turned away." And then He "delivered them up." This is not just a passive allowance; it is an active, judicial sentence. It is the same principle the apostle Paul lays out in Romans 1. When men refuse to honor God as God, He gives them over to their lusts, to their degrading passions, to a depraved mind. God's judgment is often to give rebels exactly what they want, in spades. You want to worship idols? Fine. God will remove His restraining grace and let you plunge headlong into the abyss of idolatry. They started with one calf, and God gave them over to worship the entire "host of heaven," the sun, moon, and stars.
Stephen then quotes the prophet Amos to show that this was not a one-time incident. Their entire forty years in the wilderness, which should have been a honeymoon with their divine husband, was shot through with hypocrisy and idolatry. On the surface, they offered sacrifices to Yahweh. But in the privacy of their own tents, they were carrying the shrines of pagan gods, Moloch and Rompha. They were trying to have it both ways, which is to say, they were not serving God at all.
And what is the end result of this persistent, covenant-breaking idolatry? Exile. "I also will remove you beyond Babylon." When you reject God's chosen deliverer and His living oracles, and instead fashion gods with your own hands, the end is always exile. You are cast out of the land, away from the presence of God. This was the verdict on their fathers. And Stephen's unspoken, but deafeningly loud, conclusion is that the same verdict now hangs over the heads of the Sanhedrin.
Conclusion: The Unchanging Pattern
Stephen's sermon is a brilliant and devastating indictment because he shows that his accusers are guilty of the very sins they attributed to their forefathers, and which they pretended to despise. The pattern is unbreakable.
Their fathers rejected Moses, the deliverer from bondage in Egypt. The Sanhedrin rejected Jesus, the deliverer from bondage to sin and death.
Their fathers refused to listen to the living oracles Moses delivered. The Sanhedrin refused to listen to the living Word Himself, who stood in their midst.
Their fathers, when their mediator was out of sight, turned to an idol made with hands. The Sanhedrin, with the true Mediator right in front of them, preferred the works of their hands, their traditions, their Temple, their religious machinery, over the living God.
Their fathers were judicially given over by God to deeper idolatry, which resulted in exile. The Sanhedrin, by rejecting the Son, were about to be judicially given over to a spiritual blindness that would culminate in the utter destruction of their city and temple, a far worse exile.
The warning for us is stark and clear. Do not repeat the pattern. Do not be those who have a form of godliness but deny its power. Do not be those who honor Christ with their lips while their hearts long for the Egypt of this world. When God sends His Prophet, His Deliverer, His Son, the only sane response is to fall on your face and worship Him. To reject Him, to ask "Who made you a ruler and a judge?" is to stand with the rebels in the wilderness. It is to build a calf with your own hands. And it is to invite the terrible judgment of a God who will, in the end, turn away and deliver you up.