Read Acts 7:51 slowly. Stephen is on trial in front of the most religious men in Jerusalem, and he says, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” These men had the temple, the law, and the Scriptures. They thought they were the ones protecting all of it. But “stiff-necked” is God’s own word for Israel at the golden calf, and Stephen just walked them through that whole story. Then verse 53: they “received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” You can be surrounded by the Bible and still be fighting the God who wrote it. And it can feel like faithfulness the whole time. Keep reading, though. A young man named Saul is standing right there, resisting too. Two chapters later, Jesus stops him on the road.
