Psalm 105:1-22; 1 Samuel 8:1-22; Acts 6:15-7:16; Luke 22:24-30
In Genesis there are multiple occasions where the phrase “obey the voice” appears. Adam obeyed the voice of his wife, Abraham obeyed the voice of Sarah in the matter with Hagar, and Jacob obeyed the voice of his mother several times in the chicanery he worked to steal his brother’s birthright and blessing and then in the move to find a wife among Rebekah’s people. In this passage there are multiple occurrences of this phrase. Samuel listens to the voice of the Lord who three times tells him to obey the voice of the people. When Samuel tells them what sort of king they will have, he ends with telling them that because the thing they want is a wicked thing, when they cry out to the Lord He will not hear their voice. They wanted to be like the other nations, they were tired of being different and yet the thing that set them apart was that the Lord was their king. Their experience was that men were inconstant and it was difficult to have succession because men’s children were frequently not like the men themselves. How their solution changed anything is not certain, they just knew that they wanted change.
How amazing that in this moment the disciples go back to the argument of who is the greatest. How could they make this moment about themselves? We do it all the time, we should recognize this behavior as common to all men. Jesus has to redefine greatness for them in the kingdom, saying that it isn’t like what they know of greatness at all. The path to greatness in God’s kingdom begins with recognizing that He is the king and nothing can approach Him so it doesn’t matter which of us is great. Once that issue is out of the way, we can seek greatness in God’s eyes through our service to Him, one another and the world. I wonder what they thought when they heard that they would be at the table in Jesus’ kingdom judging the tribes of Israel. I would imagine that at that moment they had delusions of grandeur dancing through their heads. In order to be just judges we have to be humbled a bit first.
Why does Stephen preach a sermon based in Israel’s history in response to the question by the council? “Are these things true?” simply means did you teach against the temple and the law. Stephen’s sermon is a familiar refrain to the council, such a sermon has been preached by many, prophets and Psalmists alike have given this message of the men of old who failed to live by faith or faithfully. The temple and the law aren’t the Lord Himself and Stephen wants them to be attached to the Lord not the law or the temple. He knows a greater truth than these men and in order to set Jesus in His proper place in Judaism requires Him to give the history of God’s dealings with the people. He is the king and ultimately, they have rejected Him as king when they crucified Jesus.
All laud we would render; O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee,
And so let Thy glory, Almighty, impart,
Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.
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