Contemplative Bible Reading

Acts 8:1 (New Living Translation)

1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.

This is one of those transition verses in the New Testament. Stephen had just been stoned to death for teaching that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God to take away the sins of the world. The religious leaders of the Jews had Jesus crucified by the Romans for what Jesus said and did. The religious leaders had Stephen executed in the Jewish manner of stoning.

The next event was a great wave of persecution that caused Christians in Jerusalem to scatter or head for the hills. Just leave behind everything and run with what you could carry. That was a major and horrible upheaval in the lives of these Christians.

I would think someone would have told Stephen to tone it down a bit. Preach the good news of Jesus, but don’t slam the religious leaders so hard. I mean, surely someone asked Stephen to … well, not enrage the religious leaders. It could lead to bad things.

Stephen didn’t tone it down. A great wave of persecution did happen. That was terrible, right? Well, in the short term of course it was terrible. The scattering, however, had the result of all these Christians going all over the place and explaining their changed lives to everyone they met.

Stephen’s hard line and loud teaching created missionaries. God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes the ways hurt many Christians for a time. Please God, help me to accept your ways and help me in my unbelief.