Same things going on today!

Acts 7:30 "And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

Stephen is recapping Moses' journey and this is the first thing that really stuck out to me. Moses was a Godly man, yet after he fled to Midian, God waited 40 years before Moses was really "put into action".

The interesting thing is, just before this verse one of the guys that was fighting with the other said to Moses:
Acts 7:27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE OVER US?

What an amazing foreshaddowing.....God made Moses ruler of the Jews and through Moses gave us the Ten Commandments which essentialy is what we will be judged by if we die in our sin.

Here's is anothoer AMAZING foreshaddowing:

Acts 7:38-39 "This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,
39 whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,

God used Moses to free the Jews from bondage and He gives Moses the Ten Commandments. But instead, they choose to be disobedient and return to bondage. How amazing is that parrallel. We see that today. People are presented with the only One that can free them from the bondage of sin and death and instead of obeying Him they choose to return to the bondage of sin and death.

Just like we see they did in verse 41, people are creating idols to bow down to instead of surrendering to the One and Only Living God.

Acts 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

Our idols may not be a golden calf, but it is money, Hollywood, booze, drugs, pornography, work, sports, gambling, sex, religion, good works, politics, our kids, our spouse....the list goes on, but the end result is the same; we are putting something or someone else before God and that "thing" that is between us and God will ultimately be the "thing" that will separate us from God for eternity.

Matthew 10:37-38 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
:38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

But just as today, they did not want to receive Stephen's Word. The Holy Spirit was doing it's job of convicting them of sin, Righteousness and Judgment, but look at what Stephen says to them:

Acts 7:51 "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

Look at their response....were they repentant?....NO!

Acts 7:54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

Act 7:58-60 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.