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JUNE 26
And caused waters to run down like
rivers.
Proverbs 19:22–24 7:44–50 To counter the false charge that he
22 What is desired in a man is kindness, blasphemed the temple (6:13,14), Stephen
And a poor man is better than a liar. recounted its history to show his respect for it.
23 The fear of the LORD leads to life, 7:49,50 Quoted from Isaiah 66:1,2. Stephen’s
And he who has it will abide in point is that God is greater than the temple,
satisfaction; and thus the Jewish leaders were guilty of
He will not be visited with evil. blaspheming by confining God to it.
24 A lazy man buries his hand in the bowl,
And will not so much as bring it to his as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the
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mouth again. prophets did your fathers not persecute? And
they killed those who foretold the coming of
Acts 7:44–60
the Just One, of whom you now have become
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44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness the betrayers and murderers, who have
in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing received the law by the direction of angels and
Moses to make it according to the pattern that have not kept it.”
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he had seen, which our fathers, having 54 When they heard these things they were
received it in turn, also brought with Joshua cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with
into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy
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God drove out before the face of our fathers Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of
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until the days of David, who found favor God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of
before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens
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God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him a house. opened and the Son of Man standing at the
48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in right hand of God!”
temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice,
stopped their ears, and ran at him with one
49 ‘Heaven is My throne, 58
And earth is My footstool. accord; and they cast him out of the city and
stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their
What house will you build for Me? says clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
the LORD, 59
Or what is the place of My rest? And they stoned Stephen as he was calling
50 Has My hand not made all these on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my
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things?’ spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out
with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in with this sin.” And when he had said this, he
heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; fell asleep.
DAY 26:Why was Stephen martyred?
In the climax of Stephen’s sermon (Acts 7:51–53), he indicted the Jewish leaders for rejecting
God in the same way that their ancestors had rejected Him in the Old Testament.He told the mem-
bers of the esteemed Sanhedrin that they were “stiff-necked” like their fathers (Ex. 32:9; 33:5) and
“uncircumcised in heart and ears!” Thus they were as unclean before God as the uncircumcised
Gentiles (Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4; Rom. 2:28,29). “You always resist the Holy Spirit” by rejecting the
Spirit’s messengers and their message.And when he spoke of the “Just One,”Stephen reminds them
that they betrayed and murdered Him (v. 52). His words were reminiscent of those from Jesus’ ser-
mon in Matthew 23:13–39.
The reaction of the Sanhedrin was that they “gnashed at him with their teeth”(v.54).That is the
fullness of anger and frustration and was in contrast to Stephen, who “being full of the Holy Spirit,
gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (v. 55).
Isaiah (Is.6:1–3),Ezekiel (Ezek.1:26–28),Paul (2 Cor.12:2–4),and John (Rev.1:10) also received visions
of God’s glory in heaven.
Stephen’s words were so appalling that they took him out of the city and “stoned him.”This
was the punishment prescribed in the law for blasphemy (Lev. 24:16); however, this was not a formal
execution but an act of mob violence. And those who participated “laid down their clothes…Saul”
(v.58).Paul’s first appearance in Scripture.That he was near enough to the action to be holding the

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