Bible: Acts 7:2-38

7:2 So he replied, 1  “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our forefather 2  Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, 7:3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your country and from your relatives, and come to the land I will show you.’ 3  7:4 Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God 4  made him move 5  to this country where you now live. 7:5 He 6  did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, 7  not even a foot of ground, 8  yet God 9  promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, 10  even though Abraham 11  as yet had no child. 7:6 But God spoke as follows: ‘Your 12  descendants will be foreigners 13  in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. 14  7:7 But I will punish 15  the nation they serve as slaves,’ said God, ‘and after these things they will come out of there 16  and worship 17  me in this place.’ 18  7:8 Then God 19  gave Abraham 20  the covenant 21  of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, 22  and Isaac became the father of 23  Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. 24  7:9 The 25  patriarchs, because they were jealous of Joseph, sold 26  him into Egypt. But 27  God was with him, 7:10 and rescued him from all his troubles, and granted him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made 28  him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 7:11 Then a famine occurred throughout 29  Egypt and Canaan, causing 30  great suffering, and our 31  ancestors 32  could not find food. 7:12 So when Jacob heard that there was grain 33  in Egypt, he sent our ancestors 34  there 35  the first time. 7:13 On their second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers again, and Joseph’s family 36  became known to Pharaoh. 7:14 So Joseph sent a message 37  and invited 38  his father Jacob and all his relatives to come, seventy-five people 39  in all. 7:15 So Jacob went down to Egypt and died there, 40  along with our ancestors, 41  7:16 and their bones 42  were later moved to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a certain sum of money 43  from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

7:17 “But as the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had declared to Abraham, 44  the people increased greatly in number 45  in Egypt, 7:18 until another king who did not know about 46  Joseph ruled 47  over Egypt. 48  7:19 This was the one who exploited 49  our people 50  and was cruel to our ancestors, 51  forcing them to abandon 52  their infants so they would die. 53  7:20 At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful 54  to God. For 55  three months he was brought up in his father’s house, 7:21 and when he had been abandoned, 56  Pharaoh’s daughter adopted 57  him and brought him up 58  as her own son. 7:22 So Moses was trained 59  in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful 60  in his words and deeds. 7:23 But when he was about forty years old, it entered his mind 61  to visit his fellow countrymen 62  the Israelites. 63  7:24 When 64  he saw one of them being hurt unfairly, 65  Moses 66  came to his defense 67  and avenged the person who was mistreated by striking down the Egyptian. 7:25 He thought his own people 68  would understand that God was delivering them 69  through him, 70  but they did not understand. 71  7:26 The next day Moses 72  saw two men 73  fighting, and tried to make peace between 74  them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why are you hurting one another?’ 7:27 But the man who was unfairly hurting his neighbor pushed 75  Moses 76  aside, saying, ‘Who made 77  you a ruler and judge over us? 7:28 You don’t want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ 78  7:29 When the man said this, 79  Moses fled and became a foreigner 80  in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

7:30 “After 81  forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert 82  of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 83  7:31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and when he approached to investigate, there came the voice of the Lord, 7:32 ‘I am the God of your forefathers, 84  the God of Abraham, Isaac, 85  and Jacob.’ 86  Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look more closely. 87  7:33 But the Lord said to him, ‘Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 88  7:34 I have certainly seen the suffering 89  of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. 90  Now 91  come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 92  7:35 This same 93  Moses they had rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’ 94  God sent as both ruler and deliverer 95  through the hand of the angel 96  who appeared to him in the bush. 7:36 This man led them out, performing wonders and miraculous signs 97  in the land of Egypt, 98  at 99  the Red Sea, and in the wilderness 100  for forty years. 7:37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, 101  ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ 102  7:38 This is the man who was in the congregation 103  in the wilderness 104  with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, 105  and he 106  received living oracles 107  to give to you. 108 

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