Acts 7

Stephen’s Address: The Call of Abraham

7Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

²And he said, ^a“Brethren and fathers, listen: The ^bGod of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in ^cHaran, ³and said to him, ^d‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ ⁴Then ^ehe came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was ^fdead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. ⁵And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, ^gHe promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. ⁶But God spoke in this way: ^hthat his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into ⁱbondage and oppress them four hundred years. ^7j‘And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will ^kjudge,’ said God, ^l‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’ ^8mThen He gave him the covenant of circumcision; ⁿand so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; ^oand Isaac begot Jacob, and ^pJacob begot the twelve patriarchs.

The Patriarchs in Egypt

^9q“And the patriarchs, becoming envious, ^rsold Joseph into Egypt. ^sBut God was with him ¹⁰and delivered him out of all his troubles, ^tand gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. ^11uNow a famine and great ¹trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. ^12vBut when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. ¹³And the ^wsecond time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to the Pharaoh. ^14xThen Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and ^yall his relatives to him, ²seventy-five people. ^15zSo Jacob went down to Egypt; ^aand he died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶And ^bthey were carried back to Shechem and laid in ^cthe tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

God Delivers Israel by Moses

¹⁷“But when ^dthe time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, ^ethe people grew and multiplied in Egypt ¹⁸till another king ^farose who did not know Joseph. ¹⁹This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, ^gmaking them expose their babies, so that they might not live. ^20hAt this time Moses was born, and ⁱwas well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. ²¹But ^jwhen he was set out, ^kPharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. ²²And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was ^lmighty in words and deeds.

^23m“Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. ²⁴And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. ²⁵For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ ²⁷But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ⁿ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ ^29oThen, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he ^phad two sons.

^30q“And when forty years had passed, an Angel ³of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. ³¹When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, ³²saying, ^r‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ^33s‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴I have surely ^tseen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will ^usend you to Egypt.” ’

³⁵“This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ^v‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer ^wby the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. ^36xHe brought them out, after he had ^yshown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, ^zand in the Red Sea, ^aand in the wilderness forty years.

Israel Rebels Against God

³⁷“This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ^b‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. ^cHim ⁴you shall hear.’

^38d“This is he who was in the ⁵congregation in the wilderness with ^ethe Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, ^fthe one who received the living ^goracles ⁶to give to us, ³⁹whom our fathers ^hwould not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰ⁱsaying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ^41jAnd they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and ^krejoiced in the works of their own hands. ⁴²Then ^lGod turned and gave them up to worship ^mthe host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:

ⁿ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness,

O house of Israel?

⁴³You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch,

And the star of your god Remphan,

Images which you made to worship;

And ^oI will carry you away beyond Babylon.’

God’s True Tabernacle

⁴⁴“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses ^pto make it according to the pattern that he had seen, ^45qwhich our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, ^rwhom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the ^sdays of David, ^46twho found favor before God and ^uasked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. ^47vBut Solomon built Him a house.

⁴⁸“However, ^wthe Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:

⁴⁹‘Heaven ^xis My throne,

And earth is My footstool.

What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,

Or what is the place of My rest?

⁵⁰Has My hand not ^ymade all these things?’

Israel Resists the Holy Spirit

⁵¹“You ^zstiff-necked ⁷and ^auncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. ^52bWhich of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of ^cthe Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, ^53dwho have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

Stephen the Martyr

^54eWhen they heard these things they were ⁸cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. ⁵⁵But he, ^fbeing full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the ^gglory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, ⁵⁶and said, “Look! ^hI see the heavens opened and the ⁱSon of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; ⁵⁸and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And ^jthe witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, ^kreceive my spirit.” ⁶⁰Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ^l“Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.