Acts 7:17–60

MOSES, A REJECTED SAVIOR

¹⁷“As the time was approaching to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt^{q 18}until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.^{C 19}He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them abandon their infants outside so that they wouldn’t survive.^{r 20}At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home for three months. ²¹When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.^{s 22}So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.^t

²³“When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. ²⁶The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’^u

²⁷“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying: Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?^Av

²⁹“When he heard this, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.^{w 30}After forty years had passed, an angel^B appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: ³²I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.^Ca Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.

³³“The Lord said to him: Take off the sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.^Db

³⁵“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?^A—this one God sent as a ruler and a deliverer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.^{c 36}This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt,^d at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.^e

ISRAEL’S REBELLION AGAINST GOD

³⁷“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: God^E will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.^{Ff 38}He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors.^g He received living oracles to give to us.^{h 39}Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.^{i 40}They told Aaron: Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.^{Gj 41}They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.^{k 42}God turned away^l and gave them up to worship^m the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

House of Israel, did you bring me offerings and sacrifices

for forty years in the wilderness?

⁴³You took up the tent of Moloch

and the star of your god Rephan,

the images that you made to worship.

So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.^An

GOD’S REAL TABERNACLE

⁴⁴“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.^{o 45}Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them,^p until the days of David. ⁴⁶He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God^B of Jacob.^{q 47}It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house,^{r 48}but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:^s

⁴⁹Heaven is my throne,

and the earth my footstool.

What sort of house will you build for me?

says the Lord,

or what will be my resting place?

⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?^Ct

RESISTING THE HOLY SPIRIT

⁵¹“You stiff-necked^u people with uncircumcised hearts and ears!^v You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. ⁵²Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?^w They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers^x you have now become. ⁵³You received the law under the direction of angels^y and yet have not kept it.”

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYR

⁵⁴When they heard these things, they were enraged^D and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.^{z 56}He said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”^aa

⁵⁷They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. ⁵⁸They dragged him out of the city and began to stone^ab him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.^{ac 59}While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”^{ad 60}He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,^ae “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he fell asleep.^af