Acts 7:1-27

¹“Are these allegations true?” the high priest asked.

²“Brothers and fathers, listen to me!” Stephen replied. “God in his glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was living in Mesopotamia, before he moved to Haran.

³God told him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and go to the country that I'm going to show you.’

⁴So he left the country of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. After his father's death, God sent him here to this country where you now live.

⁵God didn't give Abraham an inheritance here, not even one square foot. But God did promise Abraham that he would give him and his descendants possession of the land, even though he had no children.

⁶God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign country, and that they would be enslaved there, and would be mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷God said, ‘I will punish the nation that enslaves them. Eventually they will leave and come here to worship me.’

⁸God also gave Abraham the agreement regarding circumcision, and so when Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹The patriarchs, who were jealous of Joseph, sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him,

¹⁰and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave him wisdom and helped him gain the favor of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and the royal household.

¹¹Now a famine occurred throughout Egypt and Canaan. It caused terrible misery, and our forefathers had no food.

¹²When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt he sent our forefathers down on their first visit.

¹³During their second visit, Joseph revealed to his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh discovered Joseph's family background.

¹⁴Joseph sent for his father and all his relatives—seventy-five in total.

¹⁵Jacob traveled to Egypt, and died there—as did our forefathers.

¹⁶Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought with silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷As the time approached regarding the promise that God had made to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt increased.

¹⁸A new king came to the throne in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.

¹⁹He took advantage of our people and treated our ancestors badly, forcing them to abandon their babies so they would die.

²⁰It was at this time that Moses was born. He was a handsome child, and for three months he was looked after in his father's home.

²¹When he had to be abandoned, Pharaoh's daughter rescued him and took care of him as her own son.

²²Moses received instruction in all areas of Egyptian knowledge, and he became a powerful speaker and leader.

²³However, when he was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the Israelites.

²⁴He saw one of them being mistreated, so he intervened to defend him. On behalf of the man he took revenge and killed the Egyptian.

²⁵Moses thought his fellow Israelites would see that God was rescuing them through him, but they didn't.

²⁶The next day when he arrived, two Israelites were fighting one another. He tried to reconcile them and stop the fight. ‘Men! You are brothers!’ he told them. ‘Why are you attacking each other?’

²⁷But the man who had started the fight pushed Moses away. ‘Who put you in charge over us? Are you our judge now?’ he asked.