What does it mean that God gave them up (Acts 7:42)?

from the old testament

• The background of Stephen’s historical summary is found in the Old Testament. For this article's question, the primary Old Testament context is found in Exodus 32. Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, and the people were growing anxious. They asked Aaron to make a golden calf for them so they could worship it.
• However, this was not just any idol. They called this idol “Yahweh,” saying, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD [Yahweh]” (Exodus 32:5). So, not only were they committing idolatry, but they were worshiping what they made as the god who rescued them from Egypt.
• When Moses returned, he was so angry that he broke the ten commandments God had written (Exodus 32:19). God then called them a “stiff-necked people” (Exodus 33:3, 4). The golden calf had a stiff neck, and the people likewise were stiff-necked like their god.
• This set the tone for the first generation of Israelites. They continuously complained against Moses and God (Numbers 14:1–4; Exodus 17:2–3) and ended up worshiping false gods (Numbers 25:1–3) and being forced to die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:26–35).
• Stephen quoted from Amos 5:25 about their idolatrous heart. That passage reads, “Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus.” God’s judgment was to send them to pagan nations in response to their desire for pagan gods.

from the new testament

• Acts 7:39–42 summarizes the Old Testament history about their love of idols and the golden calf, using a play on words to say that just as they “thrust [God] aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt,” so also “God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven.” Note: the KJV reads, “God gave them up,” but that is the same idea as the ESV’s “God gave them over.”
• God handed the Israelites (gave them over) to their idols. Specifically, He allowed them to follow their hearts, which were leading them to destruction. That was God’s method of judging that generation of Israelites for their rejection of Him. The idea of God judging by allowing sin, which brings heavier consequences in the future, is not new. For example, Paul, in Romans 1:18–32, explained why the Gentiles' sin was so great, saying that “although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him” (Romans 1:21–22). They “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things,” a reference to worshiping creation rather than its Creator (Romans 1:23).
• The result was that “God gave them up … to impurity” (Romans 1:24), “to dishonorable passions” (Romans 1:26), and “to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1:28), which concluded with: “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (Romans 1:29–31). Rebellion against God often results in God allowing the rebellion so that sin increases and, if one never repents, their final judgment becomes far more severe.
• For the first third of the book of Matthew, Jesus interacted with the Jewish leaders, showing them how He was their Messiah. However, after they accused Him of working miracles with the help of Satan (Matthew 12:24), Jesus judged them by removing their opportunity to repent. He did this with parables. The disciples asked why He was speaking in parables and He quoted a similar judgment in Isaiah, saying, “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them” (Matthew 13:14–15). Jesus was saying He intentionally spoke in ways they could not understand so that they would not understand. He pronounced judgment on them by removing any remaining opportunity for them to understand and be saved. God’s judgments are not always reactive. They can also be proactive by removing His restraints so that people sin even more and get the severe penalty they deserve.
• The author of Hebrews, like Stephen, appealed to the Israelites' rebellion as a general warning to all who claim to be God’s people. He said, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. … For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:12–19).

implications for today

God restrains people so they aren’t as sinful as they could be. That’s why even some unbelievers can be really nice. They have good traits because God has greatly restrained their sinful heart.

However, God does not force our hearts. Our hearts' desires tell us a lot about what we actually love and live for. When someone continually rejects God, refuses to repent, and insists on pursuing sin, there may come a point when God removes some of His restraint and allows that person to follow the path they have chosen.

This should be a sobering warning to all of us. It is easy to assume that we can keep putting off repentance, keep flirting with temptation, or keep excusing a particular sin and then deal with it later. But Scripture never promises another opportunity. A hardened heart rarely becomes softer with time; more often, sin becomes easier, conviction becomes weaker, and repentance becomes less likely.

This is why it's so important for us to respond when God convicts us of sin. Every victory over temptation, every desire to pray, every conviction of sin, and every longing to obey God is evidence of His gracious work in our lives. Rather than presuming on God's patience, we should respond quickly when He convicts us, confessing our sin and turning back to Him.

If you sense God exposing an area of disobedience in your life today, don't ignore it. The fact that you still feel conviction is itself a mercy from God. Turn to Christ now, thank Him for His patience, and ask Him to give you a heart that loves Him more than the sins that seek to pull you away from Him.