Zechariah 7:11 describes a people who "refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears." This deliberate rejection of God's Word reached its zenith in the first century. When Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin, he quoted this spiritual lineage, saying, "You stiff-necked people... you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51).
Zechariah's generation rejected the "former prophets," but the first-century generation rejected the Son. Stephen’s speech was the final legal indictment against the Old Covenant leadership. By "stopping their ears" (Acts 7:57)—a literal fulfillment of Zechariah 7:11—and killing Stephen, the religious elite sealed their fate, inviting the "great wrath" that Zechariah had warned would follow such a hardened heart.