Acts 7:37,38 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

This is that Moses which said, A prophet, &c. Here Stephen shows that there is no opposition between Moses and Christ. And it is mentioned as one of the greatest honours God put upon Moses; nay, as that which exceeded all the rest, that by him God gave notice to the Israelites of the great prophet that should come into the world, raised their expectation of him, and required them to receive him on pain of utter destruction. Now this was very full to Stephen's purpose, supposing him to have intimated, as his accusers affirmed, that Jesus should change the customs of the ceremonial law. And he is so far from blaspheming Moses, that he really does him the greatest honour imaginable, by showing how one of the most important of his prophecies was fulfilled. This is he (Moses) that was in the church in the wilderness Presiding in all the affairs of it for forty years, and being king as well as prophet: in Jeshurun, Deuteronomy 33:5. Here we see the camp of Israel is called the church in the wilderness; and with good reason, for it was a sacred society, incorporated by a divine charter, under a divine government, and blessed with a divine revelation. It was a church, though not yet so perfectly formed as it was to be when they should come to Canaan. It was the honour of Moses that he was in that church; and many a time it would have been destroyed, if Moses had not been in it to intercede for it. But Christ is the president and guide of a more excellent and glorious church than that in the wilderness; and is more in it than Moses could be in that, as being the life and soul of it. With the angel that spake to him The Angel of the covenant, even of the old as well as of the new. The angel that went before him and was a guide to him, otherwise he could not have been a guide to Israel. Of this God speaks, (Exodus 23:20,) I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, &c., beware of him, and obey his voice, for my name is in him. He was in the church with the angel, without whom he could have done no service to the church: but Christ is himself that angel which was with the church in the wilderness, and therefore has an authority above Moses. Who (Moses) received the lively oracles Not only the ten commandments, but the other instructions, which the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak them to the children of Israel. Observe, reader, 1st, The words of God are oracles, certain and infallible, and of unquestionable authority and obligation: they are to be consulted as oracles, and by them all controversies must be determined. 2d, They are lively oracles, for they are the oracles of the living God, not of the dumb and dead idols of the heathen. They are full of divine life and energy; quick and powerful, (Hebrews 4:12,) enlightening the eyes, rejoicing the heart, converting the soul, raising the dead: for the word that God speaks is spirit and life: they were delivered in an awakening and impressive manner, and instruct us in the way to life and happiness. Not that the law of Moses could give life of itself, but it showed the way to life, especially as exhibiting, in types and shadows, good things to come. 3d, It was the principal privilege of the Jews that unto them were committed these oracles, and it was by the hand of Moses that they were committed. Moses was not the author of them, nor of the law contained in them: he was merely the medium, or instrument, of their communication. And he that gave those customs by his servant Moses, might, no doubt, when he pleased, change them by his Son Jesus, who has received more lively oracles to give unto us than Moses gave.