Stephen’s Address: The Call of Abraham

7 Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

² And he said, ^(A)“Brethren and fathers, listen: The ^(B)God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in ^(C)Haran, ³ and said to him, ^(D)‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then ^(E)he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was ^(F)dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. ⁵ And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, ^(G)He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. ⁶ But God spoke in this way: ^(H)that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into ^(I)bondage and oppress them four hundred years. ^7 (J)‘And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will ^(K)judge,’ said God, ^(L)‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’ ^8 (M)Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; ^(N)and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; ^(O)and Isaac begot Jacob, and ^(P)Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.

The Patriarchs in Egypt

^9 (Q)“And the patriarchs, becoming envious, ^(R)sold Joseph into Egypt. ^(S)But God was with him ¹⁰ and delivered him out of all his troubles, ^(T)and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. ^11 (U)Now a famine and great ^[a]trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. ^12 (V)But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. ¹³ And the ^(W)second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to the Pharaoh. ^14 (X)Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and ^(Y)all his relatives to him, ^[b]seventy-five people. ^15 (Z)So Jacob went down to Egypt; ^(AA)and he died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶ And ^(AB)they were carried back to Shechem and laid in ^(AC)the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

God Delivers Israel by Moses

¹⁷ “But when ^(AD)the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, ^(AE)the people grew and multiplied in Egypt ¹⁸ till another king ^(AF)arose who did not know Joseph. ¹⁹ This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, ^(AG)making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. ^20 (AH)At this time Moses was born, and ^(AI)was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. ²¹ But ^(AJ)when he was set out, ^(AK)Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. ²² And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was ^(AL)mighty in words and deeds.

^23 (AM)“Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. ²⁴ And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. ²⁵ For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶ And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ ²⁷ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ^(AN)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ ^29 (AO)Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he ^(AP)had two sons.

^30 (AQ)“And when forty years had passed, an Angel ^[c]of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, ³² saying, ^(AR)‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ^33 (AS)‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴ I have surely ^(AT)seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will ^(AU)send you to Egypt.” ’

³⁵ “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ^(AV)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer ^(AW)by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. ^36 (AX)He brought them out, after he had ^(AY)shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, ^(AZ)and in the Red Sea, ^(BA)and in the wilderness forty years.

Israel Rebels Against God

³⁷ “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ^(BB)‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. ^(BC)Him^[d] you shall hear.’

^38 (BD)“This is he who was in the ^[e]congregation in the wilderness with ^(BE)the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, ^(BF)the one who received the living ^(BG)oracles^[f] to give to us, ³⁹ whom our fathers ^(BH)would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ^40 (BI)saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ^41 (BJ)And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and ^(BK)rejoiced in the works of their own hands. ⁴² Then ^(BL)God turned and gave them up to worship ^(BM)the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:

God’s True Tabernacle

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses ^(BP)to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, ^45 (BQ)which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, ^(BR)whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the ^(BS)days of David, ^46 (BT)who found favor before God and ^(BU)asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. ^47 (BV)But Solomon built Him a house.

⁴⁸ “However, ^(BW)the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:

Israel Resists the Holy Spirit

⁵¹ “You ^(BZ)stiff-necked^[g] and ^(CA)uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. ^52 (CB)Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of ^(CC)the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, ^53 (CD)who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

Stephen the Martyr

^54 (CE)When they heard these things they were ^[h]cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. ⁵⁵ But he, ^(CF)being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the ^(CG)glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, ⁵⁶ and said, “Look! ^(CH)I see the heavens opened and the ^(CI)Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷ Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; ⁵⁸ and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And ^(CJ)the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, ^(CK)receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ^(CL)“Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.