Acts 7:55

55. Saw the glory of God Saw the Shekinah, for in Jewish phraseology the glory and the Shekinah are convertible terms. The martyr, like Moses, was for the moment permitted to see God face to face, even before quitting his veil of flesh. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and thereby the eyes of his own spirit were so quickened that no material object and no distance could prevent him from beholding, as through an opening heaven, the very presence of the Ancient of Days. He who in the first clause of his speech affirms in effect that Abraham beheld the God of glory now beholds that glory himself!

Right hand of God If Stephen saw one at the right hand of God, he must have seen the God at whose right hand he was. Now it is abundantly said in Scripture that “No man hath seen God at any time,” John 1:18. God is dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see,” 1 Timothy 6:16. And yet, on the other hand, it is said of the elders of Israel “they saw the God of Israel,” “they saw God,” Exodus 24:9-11. So Exodus 19:11; Deuteronomy 4:12; Exodus 33:11; Isaiah 6:1; Isaiah 6:5. By this class of passages must be meant that the Shekinah, the glory, was the “face of God,” was his “Presence,” was in symbol or fact himself.

If, then, Stephen saw God, he must have seen him so identified and located that one could be at his right hand. He must have beheld the glory condensed to a center, or at any rate there must have been some local symbol which he recognised as God. Daniel, in Acts 7:9, recognised him enthroned as “the Ancient of Days” with the “Son of man” not beside him but before him.