Zeal: what leaders protect and what they perceive their role to be – defending their way of life
Zeal for the Jews from the Old Testament:
- The story of Moses in deliverance, the tabernacle, and the giving of the law: one God and the restoration of life as in the Law.
- The stories of zeal for God that are told to the children: the story of Phinehas -in Numbers 25 and Psalm 106 as well as Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
- Two groups of thought at this time: Hillel and Gamaliel – live and let live; and Shammai who saw violence as a necessary means to protect Gods honor, glory, and presence. This is to enemies outside as well an contaminates on the inside as the stories of Phinehas and Elijah demonstrate.
- History matters as it tells us something about events today. Yitzhak Rabin, Peres, and Arafat at Oslo accords, and Nobel Peace Prize. Amir was a zealous Torah student, and is still unrepentant. November 4 1995.
- Finally, the Hope of Israel is total deliverance and a turning to the one true creator God.
The parallels between Moses and Jesus show a different reading of the story. You see the correlation to Jesus: in this understanding, the new way is much more faithful to the scriptures! He shows how Jesus is the fulfillment of the messianic promises! This is how the Jewish religion ought to have been understood! The holy place is the community of believers, and obedience to the Holy Spirit is the law!
Look how the story unfolds: just like Jesus Moses is the baby saved at a time when the fulfillment of the promise was near; came to brothers offering peace, but is rejected; he was mighty in word and deed; he was rejected, but later accepted on the second visitation, just like the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; confirmed by signs and wonders; Moses is also rejected a second time even with a more powerful deliverance, the people turn to idols and end up in exile. So Jesus must suffer before entering glory.
This will launch the end of the Jerusalem narrative and move us into the gospel to the whole world.
The reading is a major change from how those of the day thought about the temple and the law. Indeed, the fact that Jesus saw himself as the temple instead of a building was considered blasphemy
But Stephen sees the place where heaven interacts with earth in Jesus, and because the Holy Spirit now in dwells those who believe in him, there is a new way of reading the scriptures. They all speak of Jesus!
And now Stephen is relating these leaders of the people to the leaders who persecuted the prophets, including Moses and all the rest? He accuses them of killing ‘the Hope of Israel’! Hope is not wanting something, it is a a futuristic waiting on the Messiah.
But they saw themselves as being righteous, no wonder their anger burned.
Challenge: where does our background, childhood stories, culture keep us from understanding Jesus as the great victor in our lives, and in the lives of those who are different from us?
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