New Testament in a Year
22 Moses had teachers who taught him all the wise things that the Egyptians knew. He learned how to speak well. He could also do powerful things.
23 When Moses was 40 years old, he went to see his own people, the people of Israel. 24 He saw that an Egyptian man was being cruel to one of the Israelite men. So he went to help the Israelite man. He killed the Egyptian man to punish him. 25 Moses thought that his own people would understand him. They would know that God was using him to save them. They would no longer be slaves to work for the Egyptians. But his people did not understand all this. 26 On the next day, Moses saw two Israelite men. They were fighting each other. He tried to make them become friends. He said to them, “Listen to me, men. You are both in the family of Israel. You should not hurt each other.”
27 The man who was being cruel to the other man pushed Moses away. He said to Moses, “You have no authority to rule us. You are not our judge. 28 I know that yesterday you killed an Egyptian man. So do you want to kill me too?”
29 When Moses heard this, he decided to run away. He went to the land of Midian and he lived there. He married a wife and they had two sons.
30 Moses lived in Midian for 40 years. Then, one day, he was in the wilderness near Sinai mountain. He saw a bush there that was burning. An angel appeared to him in the fire. 31 Moses was very surprised by what he saw. He went near to the bush so that he could see it better. Then he heard the Lord God speak to him from the bush. 32 God said, “I am the God of your ancestors. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Moses was very frightened. He was too afraid to look at the bush any more.
33 Then the Lord God said to Moses, “Remove your shoes from your feet, because you are standing in a very special place. This is my own place. 34 I have seen that the Egyptians are being cruel to my people. My people are crying with pain and I have heard them. Now I have come down to save them. So come here and listen to me. I will send you back to Egypt.” ’[a]
35 Then Stephen said, ‘Moses is the man that the people of Israel would not accept. They had said to him, “You have no authority to rule us. You are not our judge.” But God did send Moses to rule them. God himself sent Moses to save them from the Egyptians. God spoke to Moses through the angel that appeared to him in the bush. 36 So it was Moses who led the people of Israel out of Egypt. He did some powerful things before the people left Egypt. This showed that God was with him. He did more miracles at the Red Sea. Then he led the people through the wilderness for 40 years. He also did more miracles there.[b]
37 It was Moses who said to the people of Israel, “God will send you a prophet. He will be one of your own people. He will speak God's message as I have done.” 38 This is the same Moses who was leader of our people in the wilderness. He was there with our ancestors when the angel spoke to him on Sinai mountain. He received the message from God to give to us. Those words from God bring life to us.
39 But our ancestors would not obey Moses. They did not accept him as their leader. They wanted to go back to Egypt. 40 So the people said to Aaron, “Please make us some gods that we can carry in front of us. Yes, that man Moses brought us out of Egypt. But now we do not know what has happened to him.”[c]
41 It was then that the people made something that would be an idol for them. They made it from gold with the shape of a young bull. They killed some animals and they burned them as a gift for their idol. The people then had a big meal together because they were very happy. They thought that they had made something that was very good.[d]
42 But God turned away from his people. He let them do what they wanted to do. He let them worship the stars in the sky.
One of God's prophets wrote about this long ago:
“God said, ‘People of Israel, listen!
When you were in the wilderness for 40 years,
you brought sacrifices and gifts to me.
But you did not really worship me when you did that.
43 No. You carried with you the idol of the god called Molech.
You also carried an idol with the shape of a star,
to be like your god, Rephan.
These were the idols which you worshipped in the wilderness.
So now I will send you away from your own country.
You will go to live in places beyond Babylon.’ ”[e]
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