Jul. 8, 9
Acts 7
Act 7:1 The high priest
said, "Are these things so?"
Act 7:2 He said,
"Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our
father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
Act 7:3 and said to
him, 'Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a
land which I will show you.'
Act 7:4 Then he came
out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there,
when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are
now living.
Act 7:5 He gave him no
inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised
that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after
him, when he still had no child.
Act 7:6 God spoke in
this way: that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and
that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.
Act 7:7 'I will judge
the nation to which they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after
that will they come out, and serve me in this place.'
Act 7:8 He gave him the
covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and
circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and
Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9 "The
patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt.
God was with him,
Act 7:10 and delivered
him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before
Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his
house.
Act 7:11 Now a famine
came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our
fathers found no food.
Act 7:12 But when Jacob
heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the
first time.
Act 7:13 On the second
time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's race was
revealed to Pharaoh.
Act 7:14 Joseph sent,
and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five
souls.
Act 7:15 Jacob went
down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,
Act 7:16 and they were
brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for
a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.
Act 7:17 "But as
the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham,
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18 until there
arose a different king, who didn't know Joseph.
Act 7:19 The same took
advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to
throw out their babies, so that they wouldn't stay alive.
Act 7:20 At that time
Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three
months in his father's house.
Act 7:21 When he was
thrown out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and reared him as her own
son.
Act 7:22 Moses was
instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his
words and works.
Act 7:23 But when he
was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers,
the children of Israel.
Act 7:24 Seeing one of
them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was
oppressed, striking the Egyptian.
Act 7:25 He supposed
that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them
deliverance; but they didn't understand.
Act 7:26 "The day
following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be
at peace again, saying, 'Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one
another?'
Act 7:27 But he who did
his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and
a judge over us?
Act 7:28 Do you want to
kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'
Act 7:29 Moses fled at
this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he
became the father of two sons.
Act 7:30 "When
forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in
the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
Act 7:31 When Moses saw
it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the
Lord came to him,
Act 7:32 'I am the God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob.' Moses trembled, and dared not look.
Act 7:33 The Lord said
to him, 'Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you
stand is holy ground.
Act 7:34 I have surely
seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard
their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will
send you into Egypt.'
Act 7:35 "This
Moses, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a
judge?'-God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand
of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Act 7:36 This man led
them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea,
and in the wilderness for forty years.
Act 7:37 This is that
Moses, who said to the children of Israel, 'The Lord our God will
raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.'
Act 7:38 This is he who
was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to
him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles
to give to us,
Act 7:39 to whom our
fathers wouldn't be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in
their hearts to Egypt,
Act 7:40 saying to
Aaron, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses,
who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of
him.'
Act 7:41 They made a
calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced
in the works of their hands.
Act 7:42 But God
turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is
written in the book of the prophets, 'Did you offer to me slain
animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of
Israel?
Act 7:43 You took up
the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures
which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'
Act 7:44 "Our
fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even
as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the
pattern that he had seen;
Act 7:45 which also our
fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into
the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of
our fathers, to the days of David,
Act 7:46 who found
favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God
of Jacob.
Act 7:47 But Solomon
built him a house.
Act 7:48 However, the
Most High doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet
says,
Act 7:49 'heaven is my
throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house
will you build me?' says the Lord; 'or what is the place of my rest?
Act 7:50 Didn't my hand
make all these things?'
Act 7:51 "You
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist
the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.
Act 7:52 Which of the
prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who
foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become
betrayers and murderers.
Act 7:53 You received
the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn't keep it!"
Act 7:54 Now when they
heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at
him with their teeth.
Act 7:55 But he, being
full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw
the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
Act 7:56 and said,
"Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing
at the right hand of God!"
Act 7:57 But they cried
out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with
one accord.
Act 7:58 They threw him
out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments
at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Act 7:59 They stoned
Stephen as he called out, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit!"
Act 7:60 He kneeled
down, and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, don't hold this sin
against them!" When he had said this, he fell asleep.