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Acts 7:38 – An Angel? (June 27)
Hello and thanks for joining in on to today’s daily devotion. Today is Monday. June 27th. The 2nd day of the Hebraic week.
Our verse today is Acts 7:38.
OK. Did you catch that? He said an angel spoke to Moses. Wait a minute. I thought it was YWHW Himself who spoke to Moses. Actually it was. And even Stephen acknowledges that in verses 30 through 34. They read.
“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord’s voice: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. 33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'”
So why does Stephen say an “Angel”? While there are many opinions on this topic, the one that I lean to the most is that of the same reason we see Mathew say “Kingdom of Heaven” instead of “Kingdom of God” like the other gospels. Mathew knew that most Jews preferred to reference God as little as possible out of reverence and never said His name. So, not to lose his witness to them, he said “Kingdom of Heaven” and not “Kingdom of God”. It is very possible that Stephen had that same mindset when saying “Angel”. He didn’t want to lose anyone listening to him on a minor disagreement about referencing God or His name. If this is indeed the case, I think it’s pretty cool to see that Stephen didn’t force his opinion on them regarding YHWH’s name.
Let this be a focus in your time of meditation throughout the day. Until tomorrow, shalom!
