¹⁷ “When the time that God had promised to Abraham had almost come, the number of our people in Egypt had grown very large. ¹⁸ Then a different king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt. ¹⁹ This king was shrewd in the way he took advantage of our people. He mistreated our ancestors. He made them abandon their newborn babies outdoors, where they would die.

²⁰ “At that time Moses was born, and he was a very beautiful child. His parents took care of him for three months. ²¹ When Moses was abandoned outdoors, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her son. ²² So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in what he said and did. ²³ When he was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴ When he saw an Israelite man being treated unfairly by an Egyptian, he defended the Israelite. He took revenge by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought his own people would understand that God was going to use him to give them freedom. But they didn’t understand. ²⁶ The next day Moses saw two Israelites fighting, and he tried to make peace between them. He said to them, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you treating each other unfairly?’

²⁷ “But one of the men pushed Moses aside. He asked Moses, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ After he said that, Moses quickly left Egypt and lived in Midian as a foreigner. In Midian he fathered two sons.

³⁰ “Forty years later, a Messenger appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush in the desert of Mount Sinai. ³¹ Moses was surprised when he saw this. As he went closer to look at the bush, the voice of the Lord said to him, ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and didn’t dare to look at the bush. ³³ The Lord told him, ‘Take off your sandals. The place where you’re standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I’ve seen how my people are mistreated in Egypt. I’ve heard their groaning and have come to rescue them. So now I’m sending you to Egypt.’

³⁵ “This is the Moses whom the Israelites rejected by saying, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?’ This is the one God sent to free them and to rule them with the help of the Messenger who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ This is the man who led our ancestors out of Egypt. He is the person who did amazing things and worked miracles in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for 40 years.

22 “Brothers and fathers, listen as I now present my case to you.”

² When the mob heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. Then Paul continued, ³ “I’m a Jew. I was born and raised in the city of Tarsus in Cilicia and received my education from Gamaliel here in Jerusalem. My education was in the strict laws handed down by our ancestors. I was as devoted to God as all of you are today. ⁴ I persecuted people who followed the way of Christ: I tied up men and women and put them into prison until they were executed. ⁵ The chief priest and the entire council of our leaders can prove that I did this. In fact, they even gave me letters to take to the Jewish community in the city of Damascus. I was going there to tie up believers and bring them back to Jerusalem to punish them.

⁶ “But as I was on my way and approaching the city of Damascus about noon, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice asking me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?’

⁸ “I answered, ‘Who are you, sir?’

“The person told me, ‘I’m Yeshua from Nazareth, the one you’re persecuting.’

⁹ “The men who were with me saw the light but didn’t understand what the person who was speaking to me said.

¹⁰ “Then I asked, ‘What do you want me to do, Lord?’

“The Lord told me, ‘Get up! Go into the city of Damascus, and you’ll be told everything I’ve arranged for you to do.’

¹¹ “I was blind because the light had been so bright. So the men who were with me led me into the city of Damascus.

¹² “A man named Ananias lived in Damascus. He was a devout person who followed Moses’ Teachings. All the Jews living in Damascus spoke highly of him. ¹³ He came to me, stood beside me, and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ At that moment my sight came back and I could see Ananias.

¹⁴ “Ananias said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the one who has God’s approval, and to hear him speak to you. ¹⁵ You will be his witness and will tell everyone what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ What are you waiting for now? Get up! Be baptized, and have your sins washed away as you call on his name.’

¹⁷ “After that, I returned to Jerusalem. While I was praying in the temple courtyard, I fell into a trance ¹⁸ and saw the Lord. He told me, ‘Hurry! Get out of Jerusalem immediately. The people here won’t accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹ “I said, ‘Lord, people here know that I went from synagogue to synagogue to imprison and whip those who believe in you. ²⁰ When Stephen, who witnessed about you, was being killed, I was standing there. I approved of his death and guarded the coats of those who were murdering him.’

²¹ “But the Lord told me, ‘Go! I’ll send you on a mission. You’ll go far away to people who aren’t Jewish.’”

²² Up to that point the mob listened. Then they began to shout, “Kill him! The world doesn’t need a man like this. He shouldn’t have been allowed to live this long!”

¹¹ You can verify for yourself that I went to Jerusalem to worship no more than twelve days ago. ¹² No one found me having a discussion with anyone in the temple courtyard or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues throughout the city. ¹³ These people cannot even prove their accusations to you. ¹⁴ But I’ll admit to you that I’m a follower of the way of Christ, which they call a sect. This means that I serve our ancestors’ God and believe everything written in Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets. ¹⁵ I hope for the same thing my accusers do, that people with God’s approval and those without it will come back to life. ¹⁶ With this belief I always do my best to have a clear conscience in the sight of God and people.

²³ Faith led Moses’ parents to hide him for three months after he was born. They did this because they saw that Moses was a beautiful baby and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s order.

²⁴ When Moses grew up, faith led him to refuse to be known as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to suffer with God’s people rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little while. ²⁶ He thought that being insulted for Christ would be better than having the treasures of Egypt. He was looking ahead to his reward.