https://youtu.be/EcTZmzvhfN0

Whatcha Gonna Do When They Gnash on You?

Acts 7:54-60

Synopsis:

When they heard these things,…. How that Abraham, the father of them, was called before he was circumcised, or

the law was given to Moses, or the temple was built, which they were so bigoted to, and charged with speaking

blasphemously of; and how that Joseph and Moses were very poorly treated by the Jewish fathers, which seemed to

resemble the same usage Christ and his apostles met with from them; and how their ancestors behaved in the

wilderness when they had received the law, and what idolatry they fell into there, and in after times; and how that

though there was a temple built by Solomon, yet the Lord was not confined to it, nor would he dwell in it always; and

especially when they heard him calling them a stiffnecked people, and uncircumcised in heart and ears; saying, that

they persecuted and slew the prophets, and were the betrayers and murderers of an innocent person; and

notwithstanding all their zeal for the law, and even though it was ministered to them by angels, yet they did not

observe it themselves:

they were cut to the heart; as if they had been sawn asunder; they were filled with anguish, with great pain and

uneasiness; they were full of wrath and madness, and could neither bear themselves nor Stephen:

and they gnashed on him with their teeth: being enraged at him, and full of fury and indignation against him.

They were cut to the heart.—Literally, were sawn through and through. The word describes a keener pang than the “pricked” of Acts 2:37, producing, not repentance, but the frenzy of furious anger.

They gnashed on him with their teeth.—Here it clearly expresses brute passion rather than despair. At this point rage and fury—the fury caused by the consciousness that the stern words are true—had become altogether beyond control. They had passed beyond articulate speech into the inarticulate utterances of animal ferocity.

There are a few other Scriptures in reference to the gnashing of teeth against the righteous:

Psalm 37:12 “The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth”

Curiously, the others references in NT scripture to “gnashing of teeth” are found in

Luke 13:28 “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom, and you yourselves thrust out”

Sobering words

Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 22:13,  24:51, 25:30 and these are a reference to hell.

Some of erroneously thought that the “gnashing of teeth” in hell will be because those will be bitten in torment- but

this is not the case. Gnashing of teeth refers to understanding the truth, but not wanting to repent and thus become

so furious with disappointment or rage that you cannot speak.

We should read Scripture with a sober mind. Take the things of God with utmost seriousness. God is not playing a game with us.

These men were cut to the heart- literally the words Stephen spoke, sawed them in half. They knew it was true, they

knew the words he spoke were good and right,