New Testament in a Year

²² Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful both in word and in deed.

²³ “When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow countrymen, the children of Israel. ²⁴ When he saw one of them being maltreated, he went to his aid and avenged the victim by slaying the Egyptian. ²⁵ He thought that his brethren would realize that God was offering them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

²⁶ “The next day, he came upon two of them fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren! Why are you trying to hurt one another?’ ²⁷ But the man who had wronged his neighbor pushed him aside, saying, ‘Who appointed you to be our ruler and judge? ²⁸ Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ Moses fled when he heard this, and he dwelt as an alien in Midian and became the father of two sons.

³⁰ “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert near Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he was amazed, and as he approached to examine it, the voice of the Lord said to him, ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’

“Moses was terrified and did not dare to look. ³³ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴ I have seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their sighs, and I have come down to rescue them. Now come! I will send you to Egypt.’

³⁵ “This Moses whom they rejected by saying ‘Who appointed you to be our ruler and judge?’ God now sent forth as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ It was he who led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the desert. ³⁷ It was this Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you, from your own people, a prophet like me.’ ³⁸ It was he who was in the assembly in the desert with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and who received words of life to hand on to us.

³⁹ “This is the man whom our ancestors refused to obey. Instead they thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead us on the way. As for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

⁴¹ “It was then that they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced over the work of their hands. ⁴² So God turned away from them and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: