Acts 7:20-39 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

The Divine and the human.

I. DIVINE INTERVENTION . The hand of God is sometimes visible though it is usually unseen. We see the Divine working in

II. HUMAN NOBLENESS . ( Acts 7:23-28 ; see Hebrews 11:24-26 .) It was" in Moses' heart to visit his brethren," and he took their cause in hand in a very practical and decisive way ( Acts 7:24 ). He may have been mistaken in the method which he adopted, but that is of very small moment. The great thing is that it was in his heart to sympathize with and succor his brethren. The temptation to become naturalized as an Egyptian must have been great indeed. High honors, great wealth, abundant gratification of the lower instincts,—these prizes and pleasures, which are dear to men in general, were well within his reach. He deliberately chose to forego them all that he might play a nobler and braver part. Well has the event justified his choice. For as a rich and powerful Egyptian, he would have achieved nothing of any value to mankind; he would long ago have been forgotten; but as it is, he has rendered a service to the human race second to none that lived before the Savior, and has a name that will never die while the world has any place in its memory for its heroes and its martyrs. Not on the same splendid scale, but in the same estimable spirit, can we emulate his nobility, preferring an honorable affliction to unholy pleasure, a sacred and useful life among the lowly to ungodly distinction among the great, the service of Christ anywhere to the smiles and favors of the world.

III. DIVINE MANIFESTATION . ( Acts 7:30-33 , Acts 7:38 .) God there revealed himself to the bodily senses in a wondrous form; in such form that Moses felt that, in a very unusual degree, he stood near to his Creator. Jesus Christ now manifests himself to us as he does not unto the world:

IV. DIVINE COMPASSION . ( Acts 7:34 .) To the toiling and suffering Israelites God must have seemed very far away. It must have appeared to them as if he were blind to their miseries, deaf to their sighs and groans, indifferent to their wrongs. But they were mistaken. All the while he was observing and pitying them, and was ready to interpose at the right time on their behalf. When to our fainting and distrustful heart it seems as if our Divine Lord were unobservant or unmoved, we may rest assured that he sees, that he compassionates, that he holds himself ready to put forth his redeeming strength on our behalf when the hour for our deliverance has struck.

V. HUMAN INAPPRECIATIVENESS . ( Acts 7:35-39 .) If we were to contend that the best and noblest men who have rendered the most signal and splendid service to our race are certain to be appreciated according to the height of their virtue and the value of their help, we should go in the teeth of human history. Some of the very best and wisest have been least understood, most despised and ill used. Moses, one of the very greatest, "attaining to the first three," most eminent in privilege, in character, in accomplishment, was one "whom they refused" ( Acts 7:35 ), "whom our fathers would not obey" ( Acts 7:39 ). We may work, hoping to he appreciated and honored of men, accepting gladly and gratefully the esteem and the love they award us; but we must not build upon it as a certain recompense of our endeavor. We must be prepared to do without it, to be able to say, "I will work on, 'though the more abundantly I love the less am I loved.'" Our true reward is in the smile of the Savior, the approval of our own heart ( 1 John 3:21 ), the consciousness that we are serving our generation, the blessing which awaits the faithful in the land of promise.

VI. HUMAN RESEMBLANCE TO THE DIVINE . ( Acts 7:37 .) The Christ that should come was to be "like unto" the faithful servant in the house of God ( Hebrews 3:5 ). As he was to be like one of us, so we are to strive to be "like unto him." And we may bear his image, breathe his Spirit, live his life, do in our sphere the work he did in his: "As he is, so are we in this world." "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."—C.