Holy Scriptures and Israel

Gideon Levytam: Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah, and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's Word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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 our people, the nation of Israel.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: Chapter 7, verse 1. 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. And said unto him, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall tell thee." Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

Gideon Levytam: And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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 400 years. 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.

Gideon Levytam: And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. And Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the 12 patriarchs. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him. 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.

Gideon Levytam: Now there came a dearth 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 out our fathers first. At the second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren. And Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.

Gideon Levytam: Then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, three score and 15 souls. This is 75 souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt and died. He and our fathers. And were carried over into Shechem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. And I'll stop here for today reading at least at this point because this is a long chapter that deal with the history of the nation of Israel.

Gideon Levytam: 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, the city of Jerusalem. First we saw Peter and John. Secondly, we saw the apostles. And now we see Stephen is standing before the council in the city of Jerusalem.

Gideon Levytam: 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, because there was 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.

Gideon Levytam: And what happened, the conflict was because the widows of the foreign Jewish believers were not treated in a fair way. And so they had to choose seven men, that the apostles have chosen, and they would be the one that will be dealing with the affairs that existed in the midst of the believers in Jerusalem. And we know there were thousands of them at that time.

Gideon Levytam: 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. 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. He was a simple man by the name of Stephen.

Gideon Levytam: And the 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. 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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. And as it says in chapter 6 and verse 11, they said that he blasphemed against Moses and against God.

Gideon Levytam: So those people brought him now before the council. And they took Stephen. Again, I would like to say he must have been a 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 the opportunity to preach the message of the Messiahship of Yeshua to the rest of the nation of Israel.

Gideon Levytam: And so now he's 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.

Gideon Levytam: In fact, if you remember the last verse we just read of chapter 6, he was sitting there, the council looking at him, the Sanhedrin looking at him. And it said 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 look at him and his face was shining like an angel.

Gideon Levytam: Now that's remind 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, that the people of Israel, when they looked at him, they saw his face was glowing and shining.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: But when he turned around and he 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 that we can learn from that, 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.

Gideon Levytam: There's 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 will happen and can happen to you and I, as we are occupied with Jesus the Messiah, there will be a change in our lives.

Gideon Levytam: 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 a face of an angel, shining.

Gideon Levytam: The Shekinah glory is manifested through Stephen and the council is fixed upon him as Stephen begin to report to them and to share with them about the whole history of the nation of Israel.

Gideon Levytam: 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 blasphemed against God, against the temple, against Moses, the high priest come into him in verse 1 of chapter 7, he said, "Are these things so? Is that correct what they are claiming to say against you?"

Gideon Levytam: And 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 was 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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 Stephen again, in chapter 7, the council and the high priest saying, "Are those things so? Did you really blaspheme against God, against the law, against the temple, against the things of God, against Moses?"

Gideon Levytam: 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 recollect, he's reminding our nation Israel of the whole history of the nation. Of course, he is 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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 our father Abraham.

Gideon Levytam: 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 will speak to each other, we always refer to our forefather Abraham because when the nation had began as a nation, it began from Abraham.

Gideon Levytam: But look what Stephen does here, he shows us some things that you and I would not know unless we have read Act chapter 7 and the first few verses. He began by speaking to his brethren in verse 2. And he shows them the call of Abraham from Mesopotamia, verse 2, 3 and 4. And I'm reading these verses again.

Gideon Levytam: 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 Chaldeans. He dwelt in Haran, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell."

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: You notice that. And I'm reading for a moment Genesis chapter 12 and verse 1. Now, the Lord said unto Abram, "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."

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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.

Gideon Levytam: Again, I want to emphasize it. He's saying, "The God of glory," verse 2, "And appeared unto our father, notice Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran." Now, you 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.

Gideon Levytam: 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 problem for us when we first were exposed to the message of the Messiah is, what would my family say?

Gideon Levytam: 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?

Gideon Levytam: 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