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I am using readings from the 49 Week Bible Challenge as the basis for these devotions. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are Acts 7:46-60; Joshua 14; 15; 23; 2 Chronicles 2.
Acts 7:51-60
[Stephen is speaking]
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
People have long tried to blame those who lose their lives for a cause, as if they somehow invited their own fate. I recently came across a line from Charlie Sheen’s book: “As long as I kept wearing hamburger pants on safari, I couldn’t complain about being attacked by a lion.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek way of saying, “If I keep putting myself in harm’s way, I can’t be surprised by the consequences.”
Some may be tempted to use that logic about people like Charlie Kirk, as though he “made himself a target” for the assassin’s bullet that ended his life last week. That is a cruel and false moral equivalence, unworthy of serious thought.
Consider Stephen in Acts 7. He speaks boldly to the Jewish leaders, naming their part in Jesus’ death: “the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.” He accuses them of receiving the law “as delivered by angels” yet failing to keep it. No wonder they were enraged! Yet James reminds us, “The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). When truth exposes our sin, we may respond with indignation or even violence, rather than repentance.
It is never right to excuse wrongdoing, whatever the provocation. But look carefully at the events surrounding Stephen’s death and you see a larger story unfolding. Tertullian famously wrote, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Stephen’s witness—and his willingness to die—became the spark that propelled the gospel outward. When Stephen’s accusers laid their garments at the feet of Saul, none of them could imagine how central Saul (soon to be Paul) would become in carrying the good news of Jesus to the nations.
And good news it is. For Jesus has overcome death, sin, and the devil. He forgives our sins and strengthens us to stand against evil and the evil one. He promises life even in the face of death. This gospel truth will stand forever and produce the righteousness of God in hearts and lives — something no human anger or effort could ever accomplish.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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