Acts 7
Stephen Addresses the Council 1Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these accusations true?”
2This was Stephen’s reply: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.
5“But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants—even though he had no children yet.
6God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land, where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.
7‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place.’
8“God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time. So when Abraham became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day. And the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob, and when Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Israelite nation.
9“These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him 10and rescued him from all his troubles. And God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace.
11“But a famine came upon Egypt and Canaan. There was great misery, and our ancestors ran out of food.
12Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons—our ancestors—to buy some.
13The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers,
17“As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. 18But then a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. 19This king exploited our people and oppressed them, forcing parents to abandon their newborn babies so they would die.
20“At that time Moses was born—a beautiful child in God’s eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months. 21When they had to abandon him, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. 22Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in both speech and action.
23“One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. 24He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man’s defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. 25Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t.
26“The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. ‘Men,’ he said, ‘you are brothers. Why are you fighting each other?’
27“But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside. ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. 28‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ 29When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born.
30“Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the LORD called out to him, 32‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look.
33“Then the LORD said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.
34I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt.’
35“So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?’ Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and savior. 36And by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness for forty years.
37“Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people.’
39“But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt.
40They told Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don’t know what has become of this Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’
41So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and celebrated over this thing they had made.
42Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written,‘Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings
44“Our ancestors carried the Tabernacle
46“David found favor with God and asked for the privilege of building a permanent Temple for the God of Jacob.
49‘Heaven is my throne,
51“You stubborn people! You are heathen
54The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.
57Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him
58and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.