Acts 7:2-16

First Division of the Speech, 2-16. The Age of the Patriarchs Abraham and Joseph.

(a) Acts 7:2-8. Abraham the father of the faithful. Stephen relates the well-known incident, fraught with such mighty consequences for the chosen people, of the appearance of the visible glory of the Lord to the great father of the race, Abraham; but the visible glory appeared to and spoke with Abraham ‘when as yet he had no child,' that is, before even Isaac, the father of Jacob, from whom sprang the twelve tribes, was born.

[The promise of love and protection then was made to Abraham the father of faithful trusting souls, rather than to Abraham the ancestor of the race.]

Abraham was only a stranger (as were also Isaac and Jacob, and his sons the twelve patriarchs) in that country which the Jews call the Holy Land: ‘He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on.'

[God then was the Protector of Abraham and the patriarchs when they were wanderers, independent of any peculiar country.]

The promise of the glorious inheritance was made to our forefather Abraham before God instituted the sacrament of circumcision, and entered thereby into a formal covenant with him and his descendants.

[Thus the promise to Abraham and his posterity stands clear of the legal sacrament.]