"Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground." The place is holy because of the appearance of Christ and is worthy of greater wonder than that which was in the Holy of Holies, because there was never such an appearance there. Furthermore, the great providence of God is also evident, because it says: "I have seen the oppression of My people… and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them."
Acts 7:35–41. This Moses, whom they rejected, saying: "Who made you a ruler and a judge?"—this man God sent as a ruler and deliverer through the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brethren, like me; listen to Him" (Deut. 18:15). "This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, and who received living words to pass on to us, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected him and turned their hearts back to Egypt, saying to Aaron: 'Make us gods that will go before us; for as for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
That Moses, who was in danger for his life, whom the Israelites counted as nothing and rejected, God raised up and "sent through the Angel who appeared to him in the burning bush." The one whom Stephen calls an Angel, Moses saw and called God. "This is that Moses who said to the sons of Israel: 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brethren, like me,'" that is, like me, counted as nothing for that for which he should much sooner have been deemed worthy of honor. Pharaoh wanted to kill Moses, and Moses fled; and Herod wanted to kill the Lord, and the Lord escaped into Egypt. Both Pharaoh and Herod plotted against an infant; both issued a decree; and neither decree found obedience.
"This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai." The words before us show that people become better or worse not because of their location, for those spoken of here, though already outside of Egypt in terms of place, were in Egypt in their disposition and did not abandon thoughts of Egyptian customs, as the Gospel also says: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Lk. 12:34). Many, while still on earth, gather treasure in heaven; there also is their heart. But the angels who transgressed God's will, though being in heaven, developed an inclination toward the things of earth; as a result of which their casting down to earth followed.
"Who received living words."
He calls "living" words of a special kind, the meaning of which is clarified by ordinary words, or prophecies.
"Make us gods." Not God, but gods.
"And they made a calf in those days." The same is found in David: "and they made a calf at Horeb" (Ps. 106:19). And Horeb is not mentioned without purpose, but in order to show the extreme madness of the Israelites: here God appeared to Moses, and here they made idols and offered sacrifices to them.
Acts 7:42–50. But God turned away and gave them over to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: "O house of Israel, did you offer Me slain beasts and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness? You took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan, images which you made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon" (Amos 5:25–27). "The tabernacle of witness was with our fathers in the wilderness, as He who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen. Which also our fathers, having received it in turn, brought with Joshua into the possession of the nations whom God drove out before the face of our fathers. So it was until the days of David. He found favor before God and asked that he might find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him a house. However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 'Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet. What house will you build Me, says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? Has not My hand made all these things?'" (Isa. 66:1–2).
The expression "gave over… to serve" is used in place of "permitted," just as in the Apostle Paul's words "God gave them over to a debased mind" (Rom. 1:28) it is used in place of "permitted them to give themselves over." So he says: since the Jews had such a passion — to serve the creature instead of the Creator, God often reproached them through the prophets for such a disposition, and then, when they proved obstinate, permitted them to do what they wanted. And the word "turned away" is used in place of the expression "having turned away from another will," because the will of God is one thing, and what is permitted by condescension is another. For His will is the same as the law: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve" (Lk. 4:8). But those who persisted in impiety He permitted to remain in impiety as well, because He does not wish to be served out of necessity, so as not to constrain the one who possesses free will.
"To the host of heaven" some think is equivalent to "the Angels." "The word spoken through Angels" (Heb. 2:2). But Stephen is speaking not of Angels, but of the stars, which the Jews rendered worship to, namely: the Calf, which substituted for the morning star — the day-star, and the moon, as the queen of heaven. This expression is used almost everywhere where the discussion concerns the luminaries and stars.
"O house of Israel, did you offer Me slain beasts and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness?" Notice that he first mentions that they offered sacrifices to Him, and then to idols. This is because before this, the word "sacrifice" is nowhere found, but only "commandments" and "living words." Moreover, he brings this testimony not without reason, but to show that there was no need for sacrifices. He says "did you offer Me slain beasts and sacrifices" instead of saying: "You cannot say that you offer sacrifices to idols because you offered them to God; on the contrary, you first offered sacrifices to them, and this in the wilderness, where I especially watched over you. Therefore, if I said that this temple would be destroyed and the rites and sacrifices would be changed, I said nothing new. For Moses, of whom you seem to have a high opinion, for forty years neither offered sacrifices nor built a temple, and neither did David do this, even though you already possessed this land, divided by lot. The prophets also speak of them as unnecessary. But how can you appeal to Moses in your defense, when your fathers rejected him, and so did you?"
"You took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan." The divine Moses went up to the mountain to receive the law, and they, Israelites by blood, stood before Aaron, saying: "Make us a god" (Ex. 32:1). So they made a calf in the wilderness, and this calf was an obvious idol; and gradually they fashioned many other idols as well. They were especially devoted to the worship of stars. Besides the calf, they also "took up" the "tabernacle of Moloch." Having made a tabernacle, they set up an idol in it and called it Moloch. This is a Moabite idol. It had a transparent stone on the upper part of its forehead in the form of the morning star — the day-star. And the word "Moloch" in translation means "their king." For so Aquila and Theodotion explain it. And the image of the day-star was crafted by artisans. So they "took up the tabernacle of Moloch," that is, the tabernacle of your king. And what kind of king was he? "The star of your god Remphan," whose name in translation means "darkening" or "blinding." Thus they worshipped the morning star, which rises before the appearing of the sun's radiance. However, what befell these worshippers was blinding, or remphan, not because the star produced this blinding, but because this veneration became the cause of such darkening.
"I will carry you away beyond Babylon." The prophet said: "I will carry you away beyond Damascus" (Amos 5:27). But Stephen said "beyond Babylon," following the exposition of the Hebrews, or because Babylon is the border of the land of the Damascenes. The Seventy translators said: "Beyond Damascus."
"The tabernacle of witness was with our fathers in the wilderness." They had it in order to have God as a witness. He calls it the tabernacle of testimonies, that is, of miracles and commandments.
"As He who spoke to Moses commanded." The establishment of the tabernacle took place on the mountain, and in the wilderness it was portable, not fixed in one place. Even if it was an Angel who spoke with Moses on the mountain, he nevertheless spoke with him on behalf of God. And there is much of this kind in Divine Scripture. Thus, in the book of Exodus it is said that the Angel of the Lord said to Moses: "Moses, Moses!.. Do not come near here" (Exod. 3:4–5). And a little further on, this Angel says: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Exod. 3:6).
Acts 7:51–53. You stiff-necked! People with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers — you who received the law through the ministry of Angels and did not keep it.
Why does he who until now had been speaking to the people gently here use harsh words? Because he saw that they were paying no attention to what was being said. "You always resist the Holy Spirit" – not only now. By this he shows:
What he said was from the Holy Spirit, and especially so when the hour of his death was approaching, because he, of course, knew this, being filled with the Holy Spirit. He displayed great and fearless boldness, and what he said to them was not his own, but the words of the prophets. "You always," he says, "resist." When God did not want sacrifices, you offered sacrifices, and then, when He wants a sacrifice, you do not offer it. Again, when the temple existed, you served idols, and when He wants you to renounce the temple, you do the opposite. Moreover, he did not say "you resist God," but "the Spirit."
For there is no distinction between the Spirit and God.
"You resist… as your fathers did, so do you." He shows that this evil falls upon them all the more because it has come down to them from of old. Christ did the same, because they greatly boasted of their ancestors.
"Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?" If your fathers killed these foreheralds, then there is nothing surprising that I, who preach the One foretold by them, will be killed by you, who take too much pride in your ancestors.
"They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One." He says "the Righteous One," showing that He was unjustly killed by them, because if He is righteous, then those who killed Him are very much in the wrong. He calls Him righteous because even they could not deny this. They nowhere condemned Him as unrighteous, for how would they condemn on this count one who did not even have a shelter? But he sets before them two of their crimes: murder and betrayal. For he says: "You have now become betrayers and murderers… you who received the law through the ministry of Angels and did not keep it," that is, arranged by Angels and delivered by the One who appeared in the bush. He shows that they did not obey and do not obey either God, or Angels, or prophets, or the Spirit.
Acts 7:54–56. Hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazing up into heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said: "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
If the Jews wanted to kill Stephen, then why did they not kill him immediately? Because they wanted to present a plausible pretext for their audacity, since the insult he had caused them was not a plausible pretext for killing him; moreover, what they considered an insult to themselves was not his own insult, but rather a rebuke made to the Jews by a prophet. At the same time, they also did not want people to think that they killed him for something that pertained to them personally, as was also the case in the condemnation of Christ to death, but rather that they were supposedly killing him for impiety. Because they were not satisfied with defiling themselves by murder, but they hoped and took care to stain the honor of the one being killed as well. For they feared that he would come to enjoy even greater veneration if they killed him for a personal insult to them.