Shabbat Shalom, everyone. I would like you to please turn with me to the book of Acts today. And we are going to continue in our study of the book of Acts. We have arrived to chapter 7, and I would like to read the first 16 verses of Acts chapter 7, though I must say that we really need to read the whole chapter because Acts chapter 7 is the testimony of Stephen to his own brethren, the Jewish people, when he was testifying about the whole history of the whole history of the whole history of the nation of Israel. And he was presenting before the leaders of Israel, the Sanhedrin, how the history of Israel was filled with times of rejection of the word of God.

Now, this is something that is hard for us as Jewish people to say. But the truth is that when we look at the history of our people, which everyone who reads the Bible have an insight into it, we see how often time in the history of our nation, there was a time of decline, where Israel as a nation have rejected God's word and end up to be disciplined. By the very God who loved this nation. Here we are. Here we have a man by the name of Stephen, who was a Hebrew believer in Yeshua, the Messiah, who came from the diaspora. And you can see by virtue of his name, Stephen is a name that was given to the diaspora individual, Jewish people from the diaspora.

And he came to the land, accepted the Messiah, and he's standing here before the Sanhedrin, telling them the history of his people. And look at this. And look at this. And let's begin to read from verse 1. But for the context, I'm going to read verse 15 of chapter 6. 6. And all that sat in the Sanhedrin, or in the council, looking steadfastly on him. This is on Stephen. They saw his face, as it had been a face of an angel. Chapter 7, verse 1. 7. Then said the high priest, are these things so? And he said, men, brethren, and fathers, hearken, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran.

8. And he said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall tell thee. 9. Then came he out of the land of the Kaladins, and dwelt in Haran. And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell. 10. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. 11. Yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. 11. And God spake on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil for hundred years.

12. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God, and after that shall they come forth and serve me in this place. 13. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so Abram beget Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. 14. And Isaac beget Jacob, and Jacob beget the twelve patriarchs, and the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him. 15. And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 16. Now there came a dread over all the land of Egypt, and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance.

16. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first, and that the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. 17. Then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. 18. This is seventy-five souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he and our fathers, and were carried over into Shechem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for the sum of money of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. 18. And I'll stop here for today reading, at least at this point, because this is a long chapter that deals with the history of the nation of Israel.

19. Now remember, brothers and sisters, that what we see here is really the third persecution of the early church, the assembly, in the city of Jerusalem. 19. The first time, the city of Jerusalem. First, we saw Peter and John. Secondly, we saw the apostles. 19. And now we see Stephen is standing before the council in the city of Jerusalem. 19. If you remember the previous chapter, when we looked at this, and we studied together, and we noticed that there was a problem in Jerusalem, in the early assembly, in that location, 19. And it was a problem, because there was a conflict between the Jewish believers who came from the diaspora, from outside of the land, and the Jewish believers who were from the land, the local Jewish people.

19. And what happened, the conflict was because the widows of the foreign Jewish believers were not treated in a fair way. 19. And so, they had to choose seven men that the apostles had chosen, and they would be the one that will be dealing with the affairs that existed in the midst of the believers in Jerusalem. 19. And we know, there were thousands of them at that time. 19. Some suggested over 20, 25, 30,000 Hebrew Christians, Jewish believers in the Messiah, already at that time in the city of Jerusalem and beyond. 19. And so, they have chosen those seven men, and one of them in particular, we find here in chapter 6 and chapter 7, that really became prominent.

19. He was a simple man by the name of Stephen. 19. A Bible said to us in verse 8 of chapter 6 that he was full of faith, he was full of power, and he did all kind of miracles among the people. 19. And as he is doing all these miracles, in other words, he was also preaching the message of the word of God, accompany the message with miracles, there was those that opposing the message of Stephen from among the rest of the nation of Israel. 19. And so they took Stephen. And if you remember, they had a disputation with Stephen, they were not able to resist the wisdom of Stephen, and some of them, who were people that were paid in order to speak something against Stephen, and to accuse him for blaspheming.

19. And as it says in chapter 6 and verse 11, they said that he blaspheme against Moses and against God. So those people brought him before the council. And they took Stephen. Again, I would like to say he must have been very young in his faith or in his belief in the Messiah. It was the early part of the church age. But Stephen was a man of God, even though he was called to serve among the people of God at that time. He was a man that had the privilege and opportunity to preach the message of the Messiahship of Yeshua to the rest of the nation of Israel.

And so now he is in the middle of the council, and there false witnesses was raised, and they began to blame Stephen. And you know how it is when one such as Stephen is being blamed and misunderstanding by his own brethren, not recognizing the Messiahship of Yeshua, accusing Stephen of blasphemy, and yet the Lord was speaking through this man now to the council in the city of Jerusalem. In fact, if you remember the last verse we just read of chapter 6, he was sitting there, the council looking at him, the son had been looking at him, and it says in verse 15, they saw his face as it was a face of an angel.

They looked at him. Can you imagine? They must have been gravitated to this person. They looked at him, and his face was shining like an angel. Now, this reminds me, if you remember, in Exodus chapter 34, when Moses came down from the mountain of Sinai with the second set of the Ten Commandments, Aseret Hadibrot, we call it in Hebrew. He came down after the first one were broken, and when he came down in chapter 34 of the book of Exodus, the people of Israel, when they looked at him, they saw his face was glowing and shining. And why was his face shining? Because Moses was in the presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And when he was in the presence of God, his face did shine, and when the people looked at him, they really couldn't look at him, because Moses had to put a veil upon his face, because the nation could not look at him. The leaders of Israel could not look at him. But when he turned around and went back to the presence of the Lord, he took this veil out again. And when he came out to the nation, he put this veil again, because they could not look at him, because his face was shining. And there is a spiritual lesson here, when a person is really occupied with God, when a person is in the presence of the Lord, there is a change that is happening in his life.

There is a change, the Bible teaches us in the New Testament, we change from glory to glory. There is an effect on the life of the believer, when he is in the presence of the Lord. And that would happen, and can happen to you and I, as we are occupied with Jesus, the Messiah. There will be a change in our lives. If it will not be seen with the countenance, with the shining of our face, it will be evident in our mannerism, in our behavior, in our speech, in our conduct, it will be evident. And so we see here, the face of Stephen, as the face of an angel, shining.

The Shekinah glory is manifested through Stephen, and the counsel is fixed upon him, as Stephen began to report to them, and to share with them about the whole history of the nation of Israel. Now, you notice in the first verse of chapter 7, we have here the high priest. After all the accusation against Stephen, after all the claiming that he blessed him against God, against the temple, against Moses, the high priest coming to him in verse 1 of chapter 7, he said, Are these things so? Is that correct? What they are claiming to say against you? Now, I want you to remember, this is not the first time that the high priest and the council were accusing the believers.

If you remember, in Matthew chapter 26, the high priest were accusing Yeshua, the Messiah, when he was in the midst of his nation. In Acts chapter 4, Peter was there in the midst of the council when they are accusing him, and didn't want him to preach in the name of Yeshua the Messiah. In Acts chapter 5, the apostles were accused because they were sharing the message, and they were also accused, and didn't want them to preach in the name of Yeshua the Messiah. And here's Stephen again in chapter 7, the council and the high priest saying, I don't think so, did you really blaspheme against God, against the law, against the temple, against the things of God, against Moses?

And from verse 2, all the way to the end of chapter 7, to verse 60, Stephen is giving a message to his brethren. Now, what he does here, he simply recollects, he's reminding our nation, Israel, of the whole history of the nation. Of course, he's skipping some individuals, because the history is a great history, but he's just highlighting some individuals among the nation of Israel, that are very precious to our people, to the nation of Israel. And he's speaking, by the way, about Abraham, in verses 2 to 8. And then in verses 9 to 16, he's speaking about Joseph, or Yosef, verses 9 to 16. In verse 17 to verse 44, he's speaking about Moses. And then in verse 45, he's speaking about Joshua.

Then finally, he's going to verse 46 to 50, he's speaking about David and Solomon, the kings of Israel. So he's really taking the council through the whole history of the nation. But you know what he's trying to do here? He's trying to show his own nation, his own brethren, that throughout the history, here and there, while there were time of glory, a time of obedience, there were much decline among our own nation. Here and there, there were unbelief. Here and again, they did not receive the promises of God, and God had to discipline the nation. And he showed this to us through Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, and Solomon.

And he began, of course, in the first eight verses, and he's speaking first of all about Father Abraham. And you know, if you ask any Jewish person today, the person, one of the most important people in the history of our nation, is Father Abraham. Every time when we would speak to each other, we always refer to our forefather Abraham. Because when the nation had began as a nation, it began from Abraham. But look what Stephen does here. He shows us some things that you and I would not know unless we have read Acts chapter 7 and the first few verses. He began by speaking to his brethren in verse 2 and he showed them the call of Abraham from Mesopotamia.

Verse 2, 3, and 4. And I'm reading these verses again. "...And he said, men and brethren, and fathers, hearken, the God of glory, appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran. And he said unto him, Get thee out of thy country and of thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall tell thee. Then came he out of the land of the Kaladins, he dwelt in Haran, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell." Now let's pause here and let me just mention something very interesting, very beautiful here. You notice that in our reading today, when we read in Genesis chapter 12, the first nine verses, we read there, the passage that speaks about the call of Abraham out of the land.

And the place that he was called out in chapter 12 was not from Mesopotamia, but it was from a place that is called Haran. You notice that? And I'm reading for a moment Genesis chapter 12 and verse 1. Now the Lord said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, out of thy kindred, and out of thy father's house, into the land which I will show thee. And now notice in verse 5, Abraham took Sarai, his wife, he took Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance which they have gathered, and the souls that they have gotten in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan, and to the land of Canaan they have arrived.

Now notice that the name Haran, when Abraham was called in Genesis chapter 12, it was not from Mesopotamia. Abraham was called from a place that is called Haran. Haran is actually the place where Abraham stopped, because he should have continued to go all the way to the promised land, but apparently Abraham stopped in Haran, and he remained there for a while. And there is a great lesson here to teach us, is that Abraham remained in Haran because his father was still alive. And because of the natural ties, it was very hard for him to separate from his own flesh and blood, his own father. And sometimes we learn here that God had to remove a person from a family member that is very dear, in this case Abraham's father, to remove him before Abraham can continue on in obedience to go to the promised land.

Again, I want to emphasize it, he's saying, the God of glory, verse 2, it appeared unto our father, notice Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran. Now remember what happened. In Haran, he told him, get out of your country, out of your kindred, but it mentioned also, out of your father's house. But here, in Acts chapter 7, in verse 3, the father's house is not mentioned at all, because at that time when God called Abraham, Abraham was called to leave the country, the kindred, and assuming that he will also leave his father's house. But because Abraham was so connected with his father, his father remained with him, and he didn't leave his father.

He didn't leave his family. And he remained there, and God had to remove the family ties until his father died, then Abraham could move on. Isn't it true, in your life and in my life? You know, one of the problems for us, when we first were exposed to the message of the Messiah, is, what would my family say? What about my husband, my wife, my father, my mother, my children? What would they say? I remember that for myself. When I was exposed to the Messiahship of Yeshua, immediately I was asking the question, but why? What about our people? What about our rabbis? What about our leaders?

What about my family? What about my grandfather, who was taking me to the synagogue every Shabbat in the city of Jerusalem? What would he say? And you see, what happened? Abraham, there was a relapse in his life, even though he was the father of all believers, even though he was a man of God. But God shows us that even in the history of Abraham, there was a relapse. There was a time that he did not follow through with that which God had called him. I'm reading this verse again. Stephen is saying, To them men, brethren, and fathers. He's speaking to his own nation. The God of glory had appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, notice, before he dwelt in Haran.

What we read in Genesis chapter 12 is the call of God from Haran. And in a sense, it is the second calling of God to Abraham to come out of Haran. And there he's telling him, not only that you should leave your country, not only you should leave your kindred, but you need to leave your father's house. And family ties, you know, they said that blood is thicker than water. Family ties oftentimes hinder individuals from following after the Lord, from following after God, because of the resistance, because of the care that we do have, the natural tie that we have. He also noticed that he used that expression, the God of glory.

The Hebrew word for glory is kavod, the God of kavod, the God of glory. The God who has value. The God who is all-sufficient one. And he says he has appeared unto Abraham our father. He is the God of glory. The God who created everything. He is the God who is the all-sufficient one. And he has appeared unto Abraham long before he was in Haran. He appeared to him in Mesopotamia. This chapter actually began with the God of glory in verse 2. And it ends with the glory of God at the end of chapter 7, where Stephen saw the glory of God in verse 55. It is the God of glory and the glory of God that Stephen is trying to share with his own brethren, the nation of Israel.

Now, just to add a few more things here when we are speaking about Abraham. Remember that when Abraham was called out, Abraham was actually a pagan individual. Abraham was part of the pagan world. He is called Abraham the Hebrew after in chapter 14 when he left where he was and he crossed over the rivers and he entered into the land. He was called Abraham the Hebrew in chapter 14. But before that, the Bible teaches us that our forefather Abraham was actually worshipping other gods. Let me show you two verses. If you turn with me, first of all, to Deuteronomy chapter 26 for a moment. Moses there is speaking to the nation and he is telling them in the early part of this chapter.

He says in verse 5, You shall speak and say before the Lord God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father. And he went and he dwelt down to Egypt and he surging there with a few and he became there a nation great and mighty and populous. Moses taught Israel to say this, A Syrian ready to perish was my father. Abraham, before he became a great man that was called by the God of glory, He was really a Syrian ready to perish. But he was called by God. God made out of him a nation, the nation of Israel. He called him, he has chosen him, he has elected him.

Now turn to the book of Joshua. One book next, after the book of Deuteronomy. At the end of the book of Joshua, we are studying the book of Joshua on our morning classes. Joshua chapter 24. And there, the first few verses. Verses 2 and 3. And Joshua said unto all the people, And I'm reading verse 2 and verse 3 of Joshua chapter 24. Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in all time. Even Terach, the father of Abraham, And the father of Nachor, And they served other gods. Now brothers and sisters, This is exactly where Abraham came from.

Abraham served, as it says here in verse 2, With his father, Terach, With his brother, Nachor, They have served other gods. And then look what it says in verse 3. And I took your father, Abraham, From the other side of the flood. And I led him. And I brought him. And led him throughout all the land of Canaan. And multiplied his seed. And gave him Isaac. God reminding the nation of Israel. And that is exactly what Stephen is trying to show his brethren. When they were accusing him of speaking blasphemy against the temple. Against God. Against Moses. Against the law. Stephen is trying to show his brethren.

Look. We as a nation came from our forefather Abraham. Who was serving other gods with his father Terach and his brother Nachor. And God had brought him into this land. God had elected him. He had chosen him. And he became a child of God. Not because of any works that he had done. But only because he simply believed God. And he trusted his word. And so he says men and brethren. And how wonderful. I love when he called them men, brethren, fathers. Because Stephen was one of them. He was a Hebrew talking to the Hebrews. He was a Jew talking to his Jewish brethren. He was an Israeli talking to his Israeli nation.

And he's saying to them, fathers, brethren, men, God of glory have called our father Abraham. And he called him before Haran. And he called him from Mesopotamia. And he said to him, get thee out of the country and of thy fathers. And come into the land which I will show thee off. Now allow me please to slow down here on this because we are talking about the God of glory. The Hebrew word for glory is the Shekhinah or Shekhinah glory. And it speaks about what Israel as a nation have received. Israel is the only nation in this world that to them was given all the glory of God was given to the nation.

And they needed to be reminded as a nation again and again that they are a favored nation. But a favored nation that was chosen by God. It was not on the basis of Israel's merit. But it was totally on the basis of the grace of God. And so he's using this expression, the God of glory, because to Israel the glory was given. But to Israel the glory was taken away from because when Israel disobeyed God, the glory had been removed. And we know that from history. Do you remember in the book of Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 4, when Eli was an unfaithful high priest and God raised Shmuel, the young boy, and God said to Shmuel that he is going to deal with Eli and his family because Eli unfaithfulness.

And in chapter 4, when the nation of Israel went to fight against the Philistines, as they were fighting, the Philistines defeated the nation of Israel. So you know what Israel did? Israel said to Eli and he said, where is the Ark of the Covenant? Let us take the Ark of the Covenant. We bring it into our midst. And when we're going to have the Ark of the Covenant in our midst, the glory of God in our midst, we will be able to defeat the Philistines. But the mistake of Israel was there. It's that God, because of the disobedience of the nation, God was not intent to help them in a time of disobedience.

And so they brought the Ark. And when the Ark was brought, Israel was shouting and the Philistines said, wow, the Ark has come and we are now going to be defeated by the nation. Well, you know what happened? When they began to fight against the Philistines, Israel was defeated the second time by the Philistines because of their disobedience to God. And you know what the Philistines did? They took the Ark with them. And the Ark had been taken away. Eli's two sons died. Then later on, Eli's died. And then when Eli's daughter-in-law was mentioning that when she found out that the Ark was taken, her husband died, her father-in-law died, she said, the glory have departed.

And the Ark was taken away from among the nation of Israel from the area that is called Shiloh in the Tabernacle. And you see, it is important when Stephen is mentioning the glory, because he is speaking here about the God of glory, Israel, the favored nation, that should have accepted the Messiah. They should have accepted the testimony of Peter and John. They should have accepted the testimony of the Apostle. And now they're accusing Stephen. And when Stephen telling them, you violated God's word, look at the history of our people. Let's make sure that we don't blame Israel, because the history of the church is far worse than the history of the nation of Israel.

But nevertheless, Stephen, as a Jew among his own people, is presenting to them the fault that they have had. And so he says in verse 3, Get thee out of your country, out of your kindred, come into the land which I will show thee of. Then he came into the land of the Kaladin. He dwelt in Haran, and from thence, when his father was dead, you notice that, he removed him from there into the land where you are now dwelling. So, his father had to be removed in order for Abraham to continue on to follow the Lord. And the message to us is this. Sometimes there are hindrances in our lives that cause us not to move forward because of our family members.

We love our family. We love our nation. We love our people. But nevertheless, God had to teach Abraham to follow him, even if the family, if his father was not called and was not the one that will follow. And so now in the next verses, in verses 5, we find out the next thing we said here, And he gave him no inheritance here, not so much as to set his foot, yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession and to his seed after him, when, as yet, he had no child. So, God had promised the land to Abraham, but really, Abraham actually did not inherit the land.

God had promised this to Abraham and his seed. And the nation of Israel right now, at that time, they were already in the land. But Abraham himself had not yet have enjoyed it. He promises to his seed. And the benefit that they have enjoyed to be in the land at that time, even though they were still under the Roman occupation. And now in verses 6, 7, and 8, the message of the God of Abraham concerning his people. You see, he's showing to his own brethren, Stephen showing it to the nation there. And he says, God said to Abraham that his own people will go down for 400 years to be in bondage.

And we know that that's the history of Israel being in Egypt for 400 years. And then also that they will come out of bondage. They're going to be delivered out of bondage. And they will come forth and serve him here in this land. And then also he says about Abraham in verse 8, he gave him a covenant of circumcision. And Abraham begat Isaac, and he circumcised Isaac on the eight days. And Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the patriarchs, the 12 sons' tribes, beginning from Reuben and ending up with Benjamin. And here you can see that God not only had given to Israel the glory, but he also made a covenant with this nation.

And the covenant was seen through the circumcising of the children at eight days old. You see, Stephen is pointing out to this because two things. Number one, the glory have departed because of disobedience of the nation. And number two, the nation has thought that because they have been circumcised physically, that this is the only thing that God is expecting from the nation. And if you remember, it was in the book of Deuteronomy that God said to Israel, circumcise the four skins of your heart. God not only wanted the external circumcision, but he wanted the internal circumcision, the circumcision of the heart in Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 16.

And this is exactly what Stephen is pointing out to the leaders in the Sanhedrin as they placed him there in the middle and began to accuse him for blasphemy. And so, the first eight verses, he is dealing with the life of Abraham, showing to Israel that Abraham came to God by faith. Abraham was a man that was serving idols. He was chosen by God. He came to God by faith. God gave him the glory. God gave him the covenant. And he's challenging them. He says, did you, in a sense, recognize where is the glory of God departed? Where is the covenant in obedience to God?

It's not only in circumcision of the flesh. It has to be the circumcision of the heart as well. And so now, after he finished with Abraham, he is moving on to Joseph. And you notice here, when he's speaking about Joseph, he shows them that there was a rejection of Joseph when he first came among his brethren. Look, it says here in verse 9. And the patriarchs, they moved with envy, and they sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him. See again? He's pointing to rejection. Why? Because they rejected the Messiah. They rejected the testimony of Peter. Now they're rejecting the testimony of Stephen. He's pointing to them.

He doesn't do it out of hatred. He does it out of love for his brethren, because he really loved the nation. He shows what the patriarchs did. They moved with envy, and they sold Joseph. Now, Joseph, in the Bible, is a very prominent man. He was the favorite son of Jacob, the first son of Rachel, and he was the one that God used him to see dreams and visions and to interpret them. And you remember from the history in chapter 37, how when Joseph was dreaming dreams before his brethren, his brethren were envying at him. And when they were envying at him, they did not like him to get to this prominent place.

He had this coat that his father made him, full of stripes. He was very unique. And then his brethren moved with envy, and they sold him. You remember the story how they sold him? And he cried to them. He says, please, don't do that. And they end up putting him in a pit. And then they took him out of the pit. And they sold him, this young man, his own brother. They sold him and took him to the Ishmaelite, the Midianite. And they took him down to Egypt. And Joseph had been there for many years. And this story, it even is mentioning to the council to remind them of history, of consistent violation and rebellion against God.

And he does it on order to stir them up, to turn around and accept the Messiah. They sold him out of envy. And then, it's so beautiful in this verse 9b and 10, you can see that Joseph was taken care by God. God was with him. He delivered him out of his affliction. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Joseph? Yes, this young man, Joseph, that was rejected by his brethren, found favor in the home of Potiphar. And later on, the king of Egypt, have ended up to be attracted to him because God was with Joseph.

And if there is any beautiful picture of the Messiah in the Bible, dear brothers and sisters, is this man by the name of Joseph. We see his rejection, and then we see his acceptance by his brethren. We see the time that he was rejected by his own dear brethren, whom he loved so much, but they rejected him. They didn't want him to be a leader, a ruler among them. But then later on, he revealed himself to them. And Israel as a nation have accepted him at a second time. And look, it says here in verse 11 and 12, how God, in a supernatural way, lead the nation to come to the very brother that they have rejected.

It says here in verse 11, Now there came a famine, draft, over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent to our fathers first. And then it says here in verse 13, But at the second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren, And Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. You remember that story, brothers and sisters, at the time when Israel, the brethren, came down to Egypt to have food. Joseph became second to Pharaoh. He was leading the whole nation. Everything went through Joseph. And Joseph, leading the whole nation of Egypt, gave them instruction.

There would be seven years of famine. And there would be prior to it, seven years of plenty. He built barns, and they collected so much food for the seven years of plenty. Because when there was a famine in the land, everyone came down to Egypt. And God, in his sovereign ways of dealing with his own nation, Israel, caused in Canaan to have famine as well. And Jacob sent his own sons down to Egypt. As they came to Egypt, you remember, they didn't recognize Joseph, their brother. How could they recognize him? The last time they have seen him, they have cast him into the pit. And then they sold him to the Ishmaelite.

Who would imagine that Joseph would become second to the king of Egypt? Well, the God of glory, working in the lives of every individual. Here he's working in the life of Joseph, and he made him second to the king. And when the brethren came down to Egypt, needing food, the one they came to, was this second to Pharaoh. And now he gave them some food that they bought from him, of course. And then he put in his own younger brother, Benjamin, a cup. And when they've gone away, back to their father on the way, they captured them, and they told them, you have stolen the cup that belonged to Joseph.

And you remember, they took the cup, they have shown it to them, and they came back, and Joseph brought them inside. And when Joseph saw his younger brother, Benjamin, he couldn't hold his tears. He went out in a secret place, and he began to weep as he's looking at his brethren, the very brethren who rejected him and sold him. But his love for them was so great, and he couldn't hold himself. And I would like you, if you don't mind, please, to go to Genesis. I want to read these verses there. Genesis chapter 45. Beautiful story. It shows us how the love of Joseph resembled the love of the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah.

I'm reading verse 1. Joseph could not refrain himself before all of them that stood with him. And he cried. And he said, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud. Can you imagine? He was rejected. For years he was there in Egypt. His brethren didn't know him, didn't know anything about him, assuming that he's dead. He looked at them. He wept aloud. I can just hear that cry. And the Egyptian in the house of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, and ye yourself.

That's my father yet alive. And his brethren could not answer him. For they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me. I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am yourself, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourself, that ye sold me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years has the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which there shall neither be earring nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you at posterity in the earth and to save your lives by this great deliverance.

Now brothers and sisters, if you can just imagine the heart of Yosef here, after not seeing his brethren for so many years, he could have been so angry with them. He could perhaps, those years that he was in Egypt, could harbor hatred towards his brethren. He could say, I'm going to get them one day. I'm going to make sure that I'm going to get back at what they have done to me. But Joseph is a picture of Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of this world. Instead of harboring anger, he took it from God. Instead of harboring hatred, he acknowledged that God is the one that is in full control.

And he said to his brethren, you sold me to Egypt. Now he says, don't be grieved that you sold me. He says, God has sent me before you, this is verse 5, to preserve life. You see again, brothers and sisters, this is the God of glory who is in full control over the affairs of this world. Working behind the scene in the life of these 12 men. Working behind the scene in the life of Jacob and his sons. And here in this case, Yosef, Joseph. Allowing him to go through suffering and rejection. Allowing him to experience this, but changing the wind of the direction of God and moving him up to be second to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.

And bringing the brethren, the very one that have rejected him and sold him the first time, bringing them to a point when they are totally dependent upon Joseph's mercies. And Joseph have embraced him. And he wept and embraced him. He says, come near to me. You know, again, I would like to say that this is a miniature picture of what is going to happen when Israel, the nation, who have rejected the Messiah for already 2,000 years, when as a nation, according to the prophet Zechariah, chapter 12, and verse 10, when the prophet says, they should look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one mourner for his only child.

And Israel as a nation will finally acknowledge that Yeshua is the Messiah. This is exactly what Stephen is trying to do here when he is sharing with the Sanhedrin the history of our nation. He's talking about Abraham and how he was called by the God of glory and how this mishap in his life, shortcoming, not necessarily obeying at first, but after his father was removed, he moved on to the promised land. And then he's speaking about Yosef, Joseph, the second figure that we have here in this text. And there is more that can be said. I just wanted to highlight one or two things before I'm going to close.

Many times people say that the Bible is not accurate because of some things that are mentioned that are not similar. For example, you notice that it says here in verse 6 of Acts 7, that God spake on this wise that his seed should sojourn in a strange land that they should bring them into bondage and they will entreat them evil for 400 years. But if you read in the book of Exodus, Israel was 430 years in the land of Egypt. And so some would say to us, the Bible is not consistent, there is an error in the Bible because it says here 400 years. In Exodus 12, verses 40 and 41, does mention there that Israel was 430 years in Egypt, not only 400 years.

So some say that you see there is something wrong here with the text. Now look at the next verse, in verse 14, which we read. And Joseph sent and he called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred 75 souls. Notice that? 75 souls. Now if you're going to go to Genesis chapter 46 and verse 26 and 27, it says when Jacob went down to Egypt, there were 70 souls. You notice it mentioned there 70 souls. So here, those who do not acknowledge that the word of God says, you see, here is again something that is wrong. Stephen says 75 souls, while the book of Genesis, it says 70 souls. Here is again something that is not consistent.

Now let's remember that the Hebrew Bible that we have in our hand today is the Masoretic text. The Masoretic text was compiled or acknowledged by about 1,000 A.D., about 1,000 years ago. And this is the text that our people, the Jewish people are reading today. But when Stephen read the scripture and when Stephen was speaking, he was not speaking from what is known today as the Masoretic text. He read the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew scripture, the Tanakh, which was written by 70 rabbis to make it available for the Greek world of that time. And it was written about 200, 250 B.C. Now there's about 1,250 years different between the Masoretic text that we have today in the Hebrew and the Old Testament text of the Septuagint, which Stephen was mentioning here, that it was over 1,250 years ago.

Now remember, the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Tanakh, the Bible, the Old Testament. And it was made available for the world at that time. And I do not know exactly how it was quoted there, but when Stephen was mentioning that, he was quoting from the Septuagint. And these discrepancies that sometimes seem to be mentioned to us, those who try to find fault with what we believe in, is not fair because they are trying to find fault in the word of God. It is far more accurate to have the Septuagint than even the Masoatic text because there we have a more early translation of the Hebrew scripture.

And remember, when Stephen was speaking, he was sitting there before all the Sanhedrin. he didn't have time to say, let me open to Genesis chapter 12. He was in a sense vocaling the history of the people of Israel. And he was just speaking forth without any sitting there and giving them verse and chapter and so on. He was under pressure. The animosity was great against him. The pressure was tremendous against Stephen. And he was speaking the history of the nation of Israel. He perhaps did not look for every accuracy of every number. Like we often time when we mention something, you know, it's mentioned in Genesis so and so and in Exodus so and so.

We don't always mention accurate every number. It is important to mention it, but nevertheless we don't always do it. So people who are trying to find something wrong with this text are saying that, oh, you see, Stephen says 75 souls. Where did he get 75 souls? In Genesis, it's mentioning only 70 souls went down to Egypt. Now, others say that if you read in the book of Chronicles, Stephen was adding the number of Joseph's grandchildren from Ephraim and Menashe. Ephraim and Menashe had one of them two sons, another one three sons, and he was adding 70 souls, including Joseph who were in the land of Egypt plus the five souls of the children of Ephraim and Menashe to bring it up to the number 75.

I do not know, I'm just giving this before you, the reason, I do not know why it says here 75 and there 70, but we believe the word of God for what God had said, we believe that God is accurate, and here is just a recording of Stephen speaking to the Sanhedrin when he was accused of blasphemy against the temple, against Moses, and against the law. So to conclude with verse 15 and 16, so Jacob went down to Egypt and he died there, he and our fathers, and they were carried over into Shechem, and they were laid in a sepulcher that Abraham bought for the sum of money of the son of Hamor, the father of Shechem, and if you remember, later on in the history of Israel, Joseph took Jacob, his father, buried him in Hebron there, and then later on the people of Israel took also the bones of Joseph, and they buried him in a place that is called the city of Shechem in the promised land of Israel.

May God bless those thoughts, and I trust that we have gleaned something from this today. Can we say amen to that? Amen.