7:17
“As the time drew near for God to fulfil His promise ...” Our sense of timing and God’s sense of timing are completely different. The promise had been given to Abraham hundreds of years beforehand. Likewise, promises of the Messiah had been given at various points in the Old Testament, but the Messiah came hundreds of years later. And promises of the return of the Lord, of the new heaven and earth have been given thousands of years before they will be fulfilled. The inbetween time is not just a time of waiting. The Lord had greatly increased the numbers of the Israelites in Egypt. When Jesus came to earth good communication systems had been established by the Romans, there was a fairly common language (Greek), so conditions were right for the spread of the gospel. Between then and whenever the Lord returns the gospel has been going out to the nations of the earth.
7:18,19
Stephen quotes from Ex 1:8. Joseph had been made “prime minister” by Pharaoh, and he had guided the nation through a period drought, and had brought prosperity to the land. He was honoured, but many years later a different king was on the throne who did not value what Joseph had done at all. This is similar in many ways to the situation in the West. Christianity has had a profound influence on Western culture and civilisation. This has not always been good, but much of it has, and most of the good features of western society are due to Christian influence. This includes things like education, health services, equality before the law, democracy and freedom. However, our society no longer values its Christian heritage and is doing its best to jettison all remnants of the heritage. Pharaoh sought to kill the boy babies. It is interesting how this pattern repeats. Herod infamously sought to slaughter the innocent babies. In our day millions of unborn children are killed each year.
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