Acts 7:38-43 - They made a calf

7:38-40

Stephen emphasises the credentials of Moses. He was with the Israelites all through the wilderness years, leading them faithfully. He was spoken to by the angel of the Lord at Sinai. He received the word of God, and the Jewish leaders acknowledged this, for they revered the Law. Indeed, it was the centrepiece of their religion. So what was the response of the Israelites at the time of Moses? They refused to obey Moses. As soon as Moses was gone (when he went up Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord), they got Aaron to make the golden calf and they chose to worship it instead of the living God. They rejected Moses. Israel, along with every the whole of mankind, needed to realise her own deeply ingrained sinfulness. Rejecting the man of God was not a new phenomena for Israel!

As a brief aside, note the references to Moses meeting an angel. The Jews were very reluctant to use God’s name directly, or talk about meeting with God, because they regarded God as holy. So angels were seen as an intermediary.

7:41-43

So what did God do in response to the idol-worship of the Israelites? God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of idols, or “host of heaven” as it says here. Note the similarity with what Paul says in Romans 1:18-32 about God giving men over to their sinful desires. Note also the influence of the thoughts of the prophets on what Stephen says. Isaiah, in particular, talks about men worshipping the work of their hands (eg IS 41:6,7). The quote here comes from the Greek version of Amos 5:25-27. Israel freely chose to worship idols, so she would be sent to the heart of idol worship, Babylon. The most fearful thing that God can do to a sinful man is to give him the desires of his heart. In the west I fear that God is giving the Western nations over to the desires of their hearts, and we will reap the consequences.