7:44 {5} Our fathers had the tabernacle of {r} witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
(5) Moses indeed erected a tabernacle, but that was to call them back to the one whom he had seen on the mountain.
(r) That is, of the covenant.
7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness. The tabernacle built at Sinai, a witness of the Covenant (Nu 18:2), and of the good things to come (Heb 8:5). This tabernacle, built by God's command, according to his pattern (Ex 25:9,40), they had rejected for the tabernacle of Moloch (Ac 7:43).
7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony - The testimony was properly the two tables of stone, on which the ten commandments were written. Hence the ark which contained them is frequently called the ark of the testimony; and the whole tabernacle in this place. The tabernacle of the testimony - according to the model which he had seen - When he was caught up in the visions of God on the mount.
7:42-50 Stephen upbraids the Jews with the idolatry of their fathers, to which God gave them up as a punishment for their early forsaking him. It was no dishonour, but an honour to God, that the tabernacle gave way to the temple; so it is now, that the earthly temple gives way to the spiritual one; and so it will be when, at last, the spiritual shall give way to the eternal one. The whole world is God's temple, in which he is every where present, and fills it with his glory; what occasion has he then for a temple to manifest himself in? And these things show his eternal power and Godhead. But as heaven is his throne, and the earth his footstool, so none of our services can profit Him who made all things. Next to the human nature of Christ, the broken and spiritual heart is his most valued temple.
