This document is a comprehensive analysis of Acts 7, focusing on its spiritual and metaphysical interpretations. It explores various themes such as divine guidance, faith, and the journey of spiritual enlightenment, particularly highlighting the narrative and teachings in these verses. The material delves into the deeper meanings and spiritual lessons derived from this biblical passage.
ACTS 7:1-4:
Then said the high priest, “Are these things so?” And he said, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.’ Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.”
S First, raising up of the spiritual forces in the spiritual manner, seeking spiritual goals, a spiritual land, rather than that which was the physical being, the physical land. However, as for the understanding of the people of Abraham’s time and of Stephen’s time, there must be that given as a physical place, physical goals, physical things, that the minds of the time and people could understand. But you in your knowledge may understand it to be the spiritual-mental nature of an individual being met, and to find the promised land is to find it through the searching and work of the mind seeking out the spiritual nature, not in selfishness, as given so often, but to serve God in the way God would have you serve.
ACTS 7:5-7:
“And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. And God spake on this wise, ‘That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge,’ said God: ‘and after that shall they come forth and serve me in this place.’ ”
S This was establishing patience. This was establishing not so much a rule but a way. This was establishing that the individuals, even as a group of individuals, even as a history of individuals, even as generations of individuals, must keep in mind the goals. And the goal is that which is to overcome this earth, overcome this earthbound mind, and set the mind free that the spirit may be guided, and the spirit then may overcome this plane. Individuals at that time had the vague understanding of the spiritual nature of things but did not have the spiritual goal. Thus, a map was given, thus a plan was unfolded, thus the promise became reality – something that the mind of the time could grasp and hold onto.
ACTS 7:8-10:
“And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.”
S From that which is as a small beginning great things grow, and yet there is no such thing as a small beginning in the spiritual sense. All things measure equally. For without Abraham none could have been or not this manner. For Abraham or the spirit of Abraham or the thought of Abraham must be before the steps could be taken that was to be, that is and became. For without the first step, you cannot travel the path. Without the first thought you cannot complete the bevy of thoughts that are necessary to come to a true opinion or understanding. So, Abraham became the fountainhead or the source of a long line of events and people that were instrumental in becoming the Christ force within this earth.
ACTS 7:11-12:
“Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chana an, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.”
S The corn of Egypt, the lower, of the lower elements, the lower – the desire, the needs of the physical, may even be used to further the spiritual progress at their proper place and time. Thus, even though the spiritual beginning had its start at a higher level, it must descend into the lower, which is Egypt, or the material, which is not only the physical, as you see it, but the mental understanding, the wealth, the pomp and circumstances, and all that is that lead away from the spiritual path. It, once again, is the reinforcement, in its way, of faith and patience.
ACTS 7:13-15:
“And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So, Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,”
S The first efforts, then, on finding that which is the next or higher efforts or achievements, then pass away for they are no longer important and cannot be dwelled upon, or the individual so seeking cannot stop at one stage, but finding the new stage must progress the more, seeking stage after stage, never entwining oneself into one stage lest that stage become, not a stepping-stone but a millstone around the neck. Even so it is for those who seek in this world, this place, for the spiritual enlightenment; no one thing, no one place is sacred. Only that in this plane that represents God, which is the Christ, which is labeled Jesus the Christ, is as the door or the moving path rather than the static one.
Q What is symbolized by Jacob going down into Egypt and dying?
S He was the first stage of the progress after Abraham, you see, but Joseph being the next or higher stage must be adhered to and that which might be holding you back or those at that time back, represented in Jacob, must be put aside or must die the death.
ACTS 7:16-17:
“And were carried over into Sychem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,”
S There is always a proliferation of problems, ideas, those things that confront the individual, as you come to the time when you must make a choice of what you will be, which way you will go, how you will go about it. This is the multiplication of peoples, for even in Egypt at that time there was much to hold the people down or in Egypt, much attraction to, much authority, much force. Therefore, before the entities could move on (which is the leaving of Egypt), there must be found a force, a leader, a way, a truth. This, then, is a step beyond Joseph that was being sought or needed at that time.
ACTS 7:18-19:
“Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.”
S Now comes the time when decisions must be made as you in your life in the spirit must make decisions. First the obligation, as you see it, to the mental-physical, then to the mental-spiritual, and then in finality to the spirit or the spiritual nature. Thus, it was at that time. They were confronted by authority, by force, that no longer recognized the past but dwelt only in the force, the power, the physical and mental of the time and place, which is standard within an individual when they seek; therefore, must find the way to overcome that which they have established or patterns they’ve established. For there must be movement – movement in the mental, movement in the physical to find that which is the movement of the spiritual, which is always upward. To be understood you cannot be dormant, you cannot hibernate, you cannot be fixed in that which you believe, understand, even that which is the place that you live or the way you make your living. There must be changes here and there that you might experience, might grow the more. In the end, however, it is how you have achieved through faith. It is the knocking, it is the seeking, it is the asking, it is the opening, it is the overcoming, it is service.
And now we give that which is the love, the peace, the blessings of God Almighty, of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, one in the Father. We are through with this reading at this time.
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