The Story of God's Promises
Scripture Reading — Acts 7:1-22
“As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.”
Many members of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish ruling council) saw Stephen as an outsider. He was from a Greek background. They charged him with speaking against the temple, Moses, and the law of Moses.
In his defense, Stephen summarized the people’s history. Stephen stated that Abraham, the patriarch of the Jews, was their father in the faith. Stephen used phrases like “our people” to place his faith and his story within the story of all that God had done and promised for the descendants of Abraham.
Stephen showed how God kept his promises to Abraham. A couple with no children was promised descendants. One who did not even own a patch of ground was promised land. Over time, his family grew throughout many generations but were eventually enslaved in Egypt.
Stephen’s retelling of those stories shows that he had respect for all who had gone before him. The history of Abraham’s descendants focuses on what God accomplished; God’s work was the most important part of the story. God worked in the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and all the others to fulfill his promises.
In Stephen’s description of Joseph we find a theme that summarizes the whole story: “God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.”
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we turn to you and ask you to continue keeping your promises. Make us your people by faith in Christ. Amen.
About the author — Jul Medenblik
Rev. Jul Medenblik is a former attorney who was called to pastoral ministry and became the church-planting pastor of a congregation in New Lenox, Illinois. Since 2011 he has served as the seventh president of Calvin Theological Seminary, which, together with Calvin University, is celebrating 150 years of God’s faithfulness in their history as the educational institutions of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (see calvinseminary.edu/150th). Jul and his wife, Jackie, have been married for over 40 years and are blessed with two adult children and a son-in-law.
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