Monday, July 3: “Uncircumcised Ears I”
Acts 7: 51, 54, 57: “You men who are stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did … Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him … they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse’”
Having been accused of speaking against the Law and wanting to change the Jewish customs, St. Stephen’s lengthy reply was, in a nutshell, “So what? You yourselves have been ignoring it for the last 1500 years.” This truth moved them, but not to repentance; instead, they killed the messenger. The Lord speaks strong words at times, not out of anger, but in an effort to bring forth the kind of sorrow that leads to repentance. If we respond to His concern with anger, that is on us, not Him (2 Corinthians 7: 10).
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