Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, June 13, 2013 Read – Acts 7:44-50 We have already noticed the unusual way in which Stephen proceeded. He has yet to answer the main charge against him – that he has been proclaiming that Jesus said he would destroy the Temple. In this part of the speech he is getting closer to addressing that charge. Having brought the experience of Moses before his accusers as a kind of evidence that they are behaving like those who rejected Moses, Stephen now turns to the Temple. What Stephen points out is something the OT also knows very well – originally it was not God’s idea to build a Temple! God had provided a tent and that seems to be adequate to God (2 Samuel 7:4-17). Though it was David’s desire to build a magnificent Temple, God did not allow him to do so. It was Solomon who actually built the Temple. Throughout the OT there is this ambiguous tension centered on the Temple. Stephen uses that tension here. Once again Luke points to an OT passage from the prophets – this time from Isaiah. “Thus says the LORD; heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is my resting place? All these things my hand has made and so all these things are mine, says the LORD” (Isaiah 66:1-2). We have noticed that Luke does not share Mark’s hostility toward the Temple – for Mark the Temple must be destroyed. The Temple is still important for Luke and he has told us many times that the followers of Jesus were worshiping in the Temple. From Luke’s point of view what Jesus did was not destroy the Temple but reclaim it as God’s turf. That is the case here as well. The Temple does not belong to the religious aristocracy – it belongs to God. Stephen’s speech is nearing its conclusion. We can imagine his hearers beginning to fume with rage. It was not a speech to win the support of the religious aristocracy.