Acts 7:17-43
A People Who Resisted the Deliverer
17As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number.
18Then another king, who knew nothing of Joseph, arose over Egypt.
19He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.
20At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in the sight of God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house.
21When he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.
22So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
24And when he saw one of them being mistreated, Moses went to his defense and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian who was oppressing him.
25He assumed his brothers would understand that God was using him to deliver them, but they did not.
26The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’
27But the man who was abusing his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?
28Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’
29At this remark, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he lived as a foreigner and had two sons.
30After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
31When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him:
32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
34I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
35This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.
37This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’
38He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.
39But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
40They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’
41At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.
42But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43You have taken along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
Berean Standard Bible
Stephen continues through Moses. Moses is rescued as a child, educated in Egypt, and later tries to help his people. Yet the man he defends asks who made him a ruler and judge. Israel rejects the one God sends, first with Moses and later with Jesus.
This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, Who made you ruler and judge? is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Stephen also recalls the golden calf and the people's turn toward created things. His speech is not a detached history lesson. It asks the council whether they recognize their own pattern of resisting God's messengers.
Stephen continues with Israel's pattern of resisting the deliverer God sends. When Moses is on Mount Sinai, the people ask Aaron to make gods to lead them. They turn toward the work of their own hands, and the prophets later describe that same drift as worshiping the stars and carrying the symbols of false gods.
The tabernacle is present through the wilderness and later comes with Joshua into the land. David asks to find a dwelling place for God, but Solomon builds the house. Stephen is not denying the temple's place in Israel's story; he is denying that the Most High can be contained by a building made by human hands. Isaiah's words make the point: heaven is God's throne, and creation is his work.
Stephen then turns from history to accusation. His hearers are stiff-necked and resist the Holy Spirit just as their ancestors did. They have received the law, yet they have not kept it, and they have betrayed and murdered the Righteous One. The speech is painful because it exposes a pattern the listeners would rather attribute only to earlier generations.
Questions
1 How did some Israelites respond to Moses?
AnswerThey rejected him by asking who had made him ruler and judge.
2 What did God send Moses to be?
AnswerGod sent him to be their ruler and redeemer.
3 What did the people make in the wilderness?
AnswerThey made a golden calf and offered sacrifices to an idol.
4 What question does Stephen's history raise?
AnswerIt asks whether the listeners are repeating the pattern of resisting the one God sends.
What This Means for Us
Being familiar with a story does not guarantee obedience to its lesson. Ask where your household resists correction because it arrives through an unexpected person or in an inconvenient form.
Prayer
Lord, keep us from resisting the help you send. Give us humble hearts that listen before defending our habits or reputation. Amen.