Acts 7:39-43 39Our fathers did not want to be obedient to him, but rejected and turned in their hearts to Egypt, 40saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. For this Moses, who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41And they formed an idol in those days, and offered a sacrifice and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you not bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
Even though God was clearly working through Moses with the many wonders and signs, the people of Israel refused to obey him. By rejecting Moses’ leadership, the people were essentially rejecting God. Moses was God’s prophet and savior to the people, to help them escape from Egyptian slavery. The next part of Stephen’s speech recounts the episode of forming the golden calf in Exodus 32.
By turning to Egypt, the people went the opposite way of repentance, which is turning to God. Egypt represents the old life and all the gods of Egypt that were enticing because of their false promises and the allure of the flesh. They had already abandoned God, even before forming the golden calf. Stephen’s spiritual insight and wisdom come through in verse 39 when he pointed out that the problem with the people was spiritual, in their hearts. The same issue faced the Jewish leaders. They looked righteous and holy on the outside, with their flowing robes and pious behavior, but inside, they were spiritually dead just like their ancestors (Matthew 23).
The people asked the complicit Aaron to make a golden calf for them to represent their depraved thinking. The condition of their hearts comes through with Stephen’s words at the end of verse 41 about the people rejoicing in the work of their hands. They made their escape from Egypt all about themselves. Even with the obvious miracles of water from a rock and crossing the Red Sea, they looked to themselves and their own understanding and abilities, which is the root of sin. At the core of the sin problem is idolatry, which represents people trying to control their own destiny and satisfy their needs with something from the world. The Jewish leaders had formed idols in their lives of position, power, and prestige, thinking that their religious piety and obedience to the Law as they interpreted it would all make them righteous in God’s sight, but they had actually replaced God with their idols of their own making. The most obvious sign of their depravity was in their abandonment of God’s Messiah. By this point, some of them may have been squirming in their seats, starting to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
God’s response to their turning from him was that he turned from them. If they wanted to worship idols, so be it, and let them see how far it got them—no where! He gave them over to their depraved thinking, like what Paul warned about in Romans 1:24-28. Those are some of the saddest words in the Bible, when God lets people go their own way into sin because they turned their hearts away from him to self. Israel’s idolatry problem showed up throughout their history and eventually led to their exile in Babylon (verses 42-43). Stephen quotes from the Book of the Prophets, referring to the book of twelve minor prophets, with a passage from Amos 5:25-27. The Jews of the first century were no different and had substituted religion for God. Every human shares in the same core problem of sin and idolatry, because “in Adam, all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). We abandon God for gods of our own making.
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