David Bahn – Reflections

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Acts 7:1, 30-43

And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” ² And Stephen said:

“Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: ³² ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. ³³ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

³⁵ “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. ³⁷ This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ ³⁸ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. ³⁹ Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ⁴¹ And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. ⁴² But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

“‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
    during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
⁴³ You took up the tent of Moloch
    and the star of your god Rephan,
    the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me, but it does. When things about Jesus crop up in the Old Testament I’m surprised. Sometimes it’s obvious: A virgin shall conceive… Other times it’s more subtle, like this one, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. In either case the promise of a Savior reaches far back, even to the foundations of time. God told Satan, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel. This is known as the protoevangelium, the first gospel promise.

Here we have not only the promise that God will raise up a prophet from among his own people, but the example and identification of Moses as the ruler and redeemer. Moses was the great deliverer for the Old Testament people of God. He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. And I have a special place in my heart for those enslaved brick-makers. I worked in a brick factory for the 7 months after graduating from college and prior to entering the seminary. I know a thing or two about making bricks. I know the hard cold facts, or rather the hard HOT facts. A 1500 degree kiln running through the middle of the building was fine in the winter time. But come summer…no thanks! And Egypt would likely be more of a continuous summer. There may not have been a 1500 degree kiln, but it’s certain there wasn’t an airconditioned break room! Brick making is hard work.

And Moses delivered them from that abject life of pain and suffering. This was the great salvation event for the people of God in the Old Testament times. It was their go-to memory and source of encouragement. God had delivered them mightily. He would surely do it again.

But Stephen’s testimony is clear: in spite of God’s deliverance through Moses, the people rejected him and decided they wanted to go back to Egypt.

I guess that shouldn’t surprise me either. We’re living that dream now 3500 years later. We have been delivered from sin, death, and damnation by the curtain-splitting death and earth-shaking resurrection of Jesus. We’ve been saved. But we too want to go back to Egypt. We give in to temptation. We yearn for the forbidden fruit. We are a broken people who need Jesus, but too often we look to other redeemers and rulers.

Yet there is no other. We must not return to Egypt, but rather return to our Lord. For in Jesus alone is found true refreshment, satisfaction, comfort, peace, and joy.