Acts 7:16-32

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.

²⁸‘Are you going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

²⁹When he heard this, Moses ran away. He went and lived in exile in the land of Midian, where two sons were born to him.

³⁰Forty years later, in the desert of Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush.

³¹When Moses saw this, he was amazed at the sight, and went over to take a closer look. The voice of the Lord spoke to him:

³²‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with fear and didn't dare look up.