Acts 7:30-36

The Voice

³⁰ Forty more years passed. One day while Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai, a heavenly messenger appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush. ³¹ The phenomenon intrigued Moses; and as he approached for a closer look, he heard a voice—the voice of the Lord: ³² “I am the God of your own fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”^[a] This terrified Moses—he began to tremble and looked away in fear. ³³ The voice continued: “Take off your sandals and stand barefoot on the ground in My presence, for this ground is holy ground. ³⁴ I have avidly watched how My people are being mistreated by the Egyptians. I have heard their groaning at the treatment of their oppressors. I am descending personally to rescue them. So get up. I’m sending you to Egypt.”^[b]

³⁵ Now remember: this was the same Moses who had been rejected by his kinfolk when they said, “Who made you our prince and judge?” This man, rejected by his own people, was the one God had truly sent and commissioned by the heavenly messenger who appeared in the bush, to be their leader and deliverer.

³⁶ Moses indeed led our ancestors to freedom, and he performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness over a period of 40 years.