Now, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge, but know that it's never

too late to start and we're in this together. Thanks for journeying with us. And here's your host, Emma,

daughter. Thanks for joining. Today, we're reading Acts 7 and 8 answering the question,

how does Stephen's speech retell Israel's history and point to Jesus?

Now, while I wouldn't classify myself as a puzzle person, a few years ago during the great

Texas snowpocalypse, I was sitting on my living room floor surrounded by a thousand tiny puzzle

pieces. And for the first hour, I was convinced that the box had lied.

None of the colors matched. Half the edges didn't fit. And honestly, my motivation to finish this puzzle

was fading fast. And it was one of those I spy scene puzzles where it's a bunch of random

objects all collaged together.

And then my roommate walked by, who'd been the person to initially start this puzzle,

and she glanced down and was like,

Emma, you're trying to build this upside down.

And sure enough, the whole picture, the whole scene of random objects was flipped. And once I turned it around and looked at the cover picture, the whole scene of random objects, was flipped. And once I turned it around

and looked at the cover again, everything started to make a lot more sense. The random blue

pieces became a sky made out of buttons and the weird brown cluster became a mountain. And

suddenly, I could see the picture. And what my roommate did for me

is exactly what Stephen does in Acts 7. The religious leaders, they had all the pieces of

Israel's story, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, but they'd been trying to fit them together incorrectly.

And that's maybe an overstatement, but they're not getting the full picture.

And Stephen flips the story right side up and shows that every piece from Genesis to the prophets forms one image.

It's an image of Jesus, the righteous one they'd been waiting for, and had also rejected.

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