Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 6.djvu/77

Rh that they were committed. As Moses gave them not that bread, so neither did he give them that law from heaven, (John 6. 32.) but God gave it them; and he that gave them those customs by his servant Moses, might, no doubt, when he pleased, change the customs by his Son Jesus, who has received more lively oracles to give unto us, than Moses did.

VII. The contempt that was, after this, and notwithstanding this, put upon him by the people. They that charged Stephen with speaking against Moses, would do well to answer what their own ancestors had done, and they tread in their steps.

1. They would not obey him, but thrust him from them, v. 35. They murmured at him, mutinied against him, refused to obey his orders, and sometimes were ready to stone him. Moses did indeed give them an excellent law, but by this it appeared that it could not make the comers thereunto perfect, (Heb. 10. 1.) for in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt, and preferred their garlick and onions there, before the manna they had under the conduct of Moses, or the milk and honey they hoped for in Canaan. Observe, Their secret disaffection to Moses, and inclination to Egyptianism, (if I may so call it,) were, in effect, turning back to Egypt, it was doing it in heart; many that pretend to be going forwards toward Canaan, by keeping up a shew and profession of religion, are, at the same time, in their hearts turning back to Egypt, like Lot's wife to Sodom, and will be dealt with as deserters, for it is the heart that God looks at. Now if the customs that Moses delivered to them could not prevail to change them, wonder not that Christ comes to change the customs, and to introduce a more spiritual way of worship.

2. They made a golden calf instead of him, which, beside the affront that was thereby done to God, was a great indignity to Moses: for it was upon this consideration that they made the calf: because, as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him; therefore make us gods of gold; as if a calf were sufficient to supply the want of Moses, and as capable of going before them into the promised land. So they made a calf in those days when the law was given them, and offered sacrifices unto the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own hands. So proud were they of their new god, that when they had sitten down to eat and drink, they rose up to play! By all this it appears that there was a great deal which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh; it was therefore necessary that this law should be perfected by a better hand, and he was no blasphemer against Moses, who said Christ had done it.

42. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts, and sacrifices, by the space of forty years in the wilderness? 43. Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made, to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. 44. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. 45. Which also our fathers that came after, brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David. 46. Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. 47. But Solomon built him a house. 48. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, 49. Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? 50. Hath not my hand made all these things?

Two things we have in these verses:

I. Stephen upbraids them with the idolatry of their fathers, which God gave them up to, as a punishment for their early forsaking him in worshipping the golden calf; and this was the saddest punishment of all for that sin, as it was of the idolatry of the Gentile world, that God gave them up to a reprobate sense. When Israel was joined to idols, joined to the golden calf, and, not long after, to Baal-peor, God said, Let them alone; let them go on, v. 42. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven. He particularly cautioned them not to do it, at their peril, and gave them reasons why they should not; but when they were bent upon it he gave them up to their own hearts' lust, withdrew his restraining grace, and then they walked in their own counsels, and were so scandalously mad upon their idols, as never any people were. Compare Deut. 4. 19. with Jer. 8. 2.

For this he quotes a passage out of Amos 5. 25. For it would be less invidious to tell them their own from an Old Testament prophet, who upbraids them,

1. For not sacrificing to their own God in the wilderness; (v. 42.) Have ye offered to me slain beasts, and sacrifices, by the space of forty years in the wilderness? No; during all that time it was intermitted; they did not so much as keep the passover after the second year. It was God's condescension to them, that he did not insist upon it during their unsettled state; but then let them consider how ill they requited him, in offering sacrifices to idols, when God dispensed with their offering to him. This is also a check to their zeal for the customs that Moses delivered to them, and their fear of having them changed by this Jesus, that immediately after they were delivered, they were for forty years together disused as needless things.

2. For sacrificing to other gods after they came to Canaan; (v. 43.) Ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch. Moloch was the idol of the children of Ammon, to which they barbarously offered their own children in sacrifice, which they could not do without great terror and grief to themselves and their families; yet this unnatural idolatry they arrived at, when God gave them up to worship the host of heaven. See 2 Chron. 28. 3. It was surely the strongest delusion that ever people were given up to, and the greatest instance of the power of Satan in the children of disobedience, and therefore it is here spoken of emphatically, Yea, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, you submitted even to that, and to the worship of the star of your god Remphan; some think, it signifies the moon, as Moloch does the sun; others take it for Saturn, for that planet is called Remphan, in the Syriac and Persian languages. The Septuagint puts it for Chiun, as being a name more commonly known. They had images representing the star, like the silver shrines for Diana, here called the figures which they made to worship. Dr. Lightfoot thinks they had figures representing the whole starry firmament, with all the constellations, and the planets, and these are called Remphan, "the high representation," like the celestial