Hosts: Pastor Christina and Jennifer
Study Acts 7
‘Now the high priest said, “Are these things so?” And Stephen said, “Listen to me, brothers and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and He said to him, ‘G o from your country and your relatives , and come to the land which I will show you .’ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child. But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs , and they would enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years . ‘A nd whatever nation to which they are enslaved I M yself will judge ,’ said God, ‘ and after that they will come out and serve M e in this place .’ And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs. “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and his entire household. “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was revealed to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent word and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five people in all. And Jacob went down to Egypt, and he and our fathers died there. And they were brought back from there to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. “But as the time of the promise which God had assured to Abraham was approaching, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, until another king arose over E gypt who did not know J oseph . It was he who shrewdly took advantage of our nation and mistreated our fathers in order that they would abandon their infants in the Nile, so that they would not survive. At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful to God. He was nurtured for three months in his father’s home. And after he had been put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was proficient in speaking and action. But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his countrymen, the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended and took vengeance for the oppressed man by fatally striking the Egyptian. And he thought that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting each other, and he tried to reconcile them to peace, by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you injuring each other?’ But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘W ho made you a ruler and judge over us ? Y ou do not intend to kill me as you killed the E gyptian yesterday , do you ?’ At this remark, M oses fled and became a stranger in the land of M idian , where he fathered two sons. “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush. When Moses saw it, he was astonished at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came: ‘I am the G od of your fathers , the G od of A braham , and I saac , and J acob .’ Moses shook with fear and did not dare to look closely. But the L ord said to him, ‘ R emove your sandals from your feet , for the place on which you are standing is holy ground . I have certainly seen the oppression of M y people who are in E gypt , and have heard their groaning , and I have come down to rescue them ; and now come , I will send you to E gypt .’ “This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘W ho made you a ruler and a judge ?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your countrymen .’ …
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