Acts 7:17-53

New King James Version

God Delivers Israel by Moses

¹⁷“But when ^(A)the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, ^(B)the people grew and multiplied in Egypt ¹⁸till another king ^(C)arose who did not know Joseph. ¹⁹This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, ^(D)making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. ²⁰^(E)At this time Moses was born, and ^(F)was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. ²¹But ^(G)when he was set out, ^(H)Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. ²²And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was ^(I)mighty in words and deeds.

²³^(J)“Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. ²⁴And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. ²⁵For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ ²⁷But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ^(K)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹^(L)Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he ^(M)had two sons.

³⁰^(N)“And when forty years had passed, an Angel ^[a]of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. ³¹When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, ³²saying, ^(O)‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ³³^(P)‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴I have surely ^(Q)seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will ^(R)send you to Egypt.” ’

³⁵“This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ^(S)‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer ^(T)by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶^(U)He brought them out, after he had ^(V)shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, ^(W)and in the Red Sea, ^(X)and in the wilderness forty years.

Israel Rebels Against God

³⁷“This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ^(Y)‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. ^(Z)Him^[b] you shall hear.’

³⁸^(AA)“This is he who was in the ^[c]congregation in the wilderness with ^(AB)the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, ^(AC)the one who received the living ^(AD)oracles^[d] to give to us, ³⁹whom our fathers ^(AE)would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰^(AF)saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ⁴¹^(AG)And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and ^(AH)rejoiced in the works of their own hands. ⁴²Then ^(AI)God turned and gave them up to worship ^(AJ)the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:

^(AK)‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness,
O house of Israel?
⁴³You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
And the star of your god Remphan,
Images which you made to worship;
And ^(AL)I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’

God’s True Tabernacle

⁴⁴“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses ^(AM)to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, ⁴⁵^(AN)which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, ^(AO)whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the ^(AP)days of David, ⁴⁶^(AQ)who found favor before God and ^(AR)asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷^(AS)But Solomon built Him a house.

⁴⁸“However, ^(AT)the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:

⁴⁹‘Heaven^(AU) is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,
Or what is the place of My rest?
⁵⁰Has My hand not ^(AV)made all these things?’

Israel Resists the Holy Spirit

⁵¹“You ^(AW)stiff-necked^[e] and ^(AX)uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. ⁵²^(AY)Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of ^(AZ)the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, ⁵³^(BA)who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”