Acts 7:3 - Printer Friendly

ESV: and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’

NIV: ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’

NASB: and He said to him, ‘GO FROM YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME TO THE LAND WHICH I WILL SHOW YOU.’

CSB: and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.

NLT: God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’

KJV: And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

NKJV: and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’

The Jesus-follower Stephen is answering accusations that he disrespects the temple. Stephen is on trial before the Sanhedrin whose members live in and around Jerusalem. But his accusers are from Alexandria, Cyrene, and modern-day Asia Minor (Acts 6:9). These mostly Greek-speaking people are referred to as Hellenists. They have traveled to or moved to Jerusalem, and the city and the temple are precious to them. There is nothing like the temple outside of Jerusalem where God meets with His people…or so they think.

The Jews felt this acutely centuries before. Because of their rebellion and idolatry, God called Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the Jews and exile most of them in Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:1–21). When Stephen's audience would think of Babylon, they would think of their shame, their disconnection from God, and the burned temple left behind (Daniel 9:3–15; Jeremiah 52:12–23). But Stephen reminds them that the great exile was not the first time the Jews were in the area of Babylon.

Stephen is quoting Genesis 12:1. When Abraham heard from God, he lived in places like Ur, on the Euphrates river not far from the Persian Gulf, and Haran, in modern-day Turkey. Babylon sits between these two cities. Stephen is showing that God doesn't need Jerusalem or the temple to speak to His people. First the tabernacle, and then the temple in Jerusalem, are the places God ordained for the Jews to worship Him. But, in Abraham, the Jews first worshiped Him in Ur and Abraham would have passed through Babylon as he followed God's calling.

Acts 7:1–8 is the beginning of Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin. Jews from outside Judea have accused Stephen, a follower of Jesus, of speaking against Moses, the Law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). Stephen uses the history of Israel to show how hypocritical the charges are. In Abraham's story, alone, Stephen shows how God is sovereign over His people outside Israel and outside the Mosaic law. God called Abraham hundreds of miles from Jerusalem in Mesopotamia and made a covenant with him hundreds of years before the Israelites received the Law. This story is told in full in Genesis 11:27—30:24.

Stephen is a Greek-speaking Jewish Christian and one of the first deacons in the church in Jerusalem (Acts 6:1–7). He's also a skilled apologist and has been debating Jews from outside Judea about the proper place of the Mosaic law and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). His opponents cannot counter his arguments so they resort to lies. They tell the Sanhedrin that Stephen wants to destroy the temple and repeal the Mosaic law. Stephen counters that his accusers don't respect Moses or the Law, and the temple isn't necessary to worship God. This enrages the mob, and Stephen is stoned, becoming the first Christian martyr.

Chapter 7 is one of the pivot points of the book of Acts. Until recently, the early church has seen favor from the people and indifference from the Sanhedrin. Now, the Sanhedrin has beaten the apostles and ordered them not to preach about Jesus (Acts 5:40), and the people are starting to realize how different Christianity is. In Jerusalem, a Hellenist Jewish Jesus-follower named Stephen has been in a debate with other foreign Jews who finally accuse him of wishing to destroy the temple, like Jesus (Acts 6:8–15). This is Stephen's defense, which leads to his death and the introduction of Paul.

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.