ACC ~ Acts 7 v35 - 43

OVERVIEW:

Moses prepares the way for Christ as a sign that he will appear in the flesh (BEDE), but it was with Christ that Moses spoke in the wilderness. Christ gave precepts for Moses to give to the people. Sacrifices are of the people’s making, not God’s (CHRYSOSTOM). It is their attempt to offer their will, even though God is in no need of what they give (BEDE).

7:37 | God Will Raise a Prophet

A PROPHET LIKE MYSELF. BEDE: [The prophet will be] like myself in being visible in the flesh, but surpassing me in being terrible in majesty. Stephen says, “Lest the teaching about Christ be said to be new and strange, Moses himself, whom your fathers were unwilling to obey, proclaimed that he would have the form of a man and give precepts of life for all souls.” COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.37.

7:38 | The Congregation in the Wilderness

CHRIST GAVE THE LAW. CHRYSOSTOM: Do not be astonished, he says, if Christ confers benefits on those who decline his kingdom, since it was just the same in the case of Moses. And not only did he deliver them from Egypt, but also he saved them in the wilderness. … He shows that the prophecy must by all means be fulfilled and that Moses is not opposed to him. This is the man, he says, “who was in the assembly in the wilderness” and “who spoke to the children of Israel.” Do you see that this is where the root comes from and that “salvation is from the Jews”? “With the angel,” it says, “who had spoken to him.” Look, again he affirms that it was he [Christ] who gave the law, since Moses was with him “in the assembly in the wilderness.” HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 17.

7:42 | Did You Offer Sacrifices?

SACRIFICES NOT NECESSARY. CHRYSOSTOM: “But God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven.” From here come these customs and from here the sacrifices. They themselves were the first to offer sacrifices to the idols. For it is noted that they made a bull calf in Horeb and “offered sacrifices to the idol,” since previously “sacrifices” is nowhere mentioned, only “statutes of life” and “words of life.” “And they rejoiced,” it says, and so the reason for the feasts. “As it is written in the book of the prophets.” Notice he does not cite the text without a purpose but shows that there is no need of sacrifices. “Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices? … ” He speaks emphatically. “You cannot say,” he says, “that it was from sacrificing to me that you proceeded to sacrifice to them.” And this in the desert, where he had especially shown himself their champion. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 17.

GOD ACCEPTS THE OFFERER’S WILL. BEDE: Although they may have made offerings to the Lord because of the necessity of offering him service, it is nevertheless true to say that their minds were turned aside to the service of idols “from the time when they had transformed gold into the head of a calf.” “For the things we read they afterwards offered to God they did not offer of their own free will, but,” as we learn from this passage, “they made them out of fear of punishment and because of the slaying of those who fell on account of the idols.” “The Lord, however, does not accept the things offered but the wills of those making the offering. Besides, whenever there was an opportunity they returned in their hearts to Egypt.” COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.42.

7:43 | The Tent of Moloch

THE TENT OF MOLOCH. BEDE: Stephen says, “However much you may have been seen bringing victims and sacrifices to the tabernacle of the Lord, nevertheless, with the whole concentration of your minds you clung to the temple of Moloch. Now Moloch, or Melchom as it is often also read, is the idol of the Ammonites. It means your king.” COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.43A.

YOUR GOD REMFAM. BEDE: He says, “You have abandoned the living and true God and taken for your god the star Remfam, that is, ‘of your own making.’” It signifies, however, Lucifer, the morning star, to the worship of which the Saracen people were devoted, in connection with the honor paid to Venus. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.43B.

LED CAPTIVE BEYOND BABYLON. BEDE: He says, “On account of these sacrileges you will be led as captives not only into Babylon but even beyond Babylon.” “And we should not suppose that the first martyr made a mistake in saying ‘beyond Babylon’ for what in the prophet is written ‘beyond Damascus,’ he expressed the idea rather than the word, because they were led beyond Damascus into Babylon, or ‘beyond Babylon.’” COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.43D.