Get to the main point
Acts 7:14
“After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy- five in all.”
Now I wouldn’t normally use this verse to write a devotion on Easter Sunday but as you know we are going through Acts so we are sticking with it!
This verse doesn’t look contentious, but it really is. Muslims and atheists use this as evidence that the Bible is in error.
Genesis 46:26-27 There was seventy.
Exodus 1: 5 There was seventy.
Deuteronomy 10:22 There was seventy.
Acts 7:14 Stephen says there was seventy-five.
So which is it, 70 or 75?
There are many suggestions of how Stephens numbering could get to 75 with the inclusion of 5 others.
Luke who is recording this certainly doesn’t adjust Stephens speech in order to make it in line with the Old Testament. He leaves the anomaly there.
Whatever the reason it is showing that God was going to build a big nation from a small number and that’s the point.
Back to Easter Sunday. As the above is useful.
Each gospel writer tells a different story but the point remains the same: Jesus was resurrected.
Yes atheists and Muslims dispute it.
But the stories are consistent.
Even under persecution the apostles never changed the story.
People cannot make up such an event and get away with it.
The gap between the resurrection and the story being written is very short in comparison to other undisputed historical events that have 10 times the gap.
There may have different parts of the story bring focused upon and that gives us a more fuller picture. However what is the point?
Jesus was raised from the grave. That’s the point.
The next question is the most important:
What does that mean for me?
Missions Paul 