﻿Acts.
Chapter 7.
Then the high priest asked, “Are these things so?” 
Stephen replied, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, 
and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land I will show you.’ 
Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God moved him from there to this land where you now live. 
He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a place to set his foot, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, even though he had no child. 
God spoke in this way: his offspring would live as foreigners in another land, and they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 
‘But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out and worship me in this place.’ 
He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs. 
The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. But God was with him 
and delivered him from all his afflictions. He gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household. 
Then famine and great affliction came upon all Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could find no food. 
When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 
On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 
Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all. 
Jacob went down to Egypt, and he and our fathers died. 
They were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. 
As the time drew near for the promise God had made to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 
until another king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. 
He dealt craftily with our people and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so that they would not survive. 
At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was brought up for three months in his father’s house. 
When he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him in and brought him up as her own son. 
Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and deeds. 
When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 
When he saw one of them being mistreated, he defended him and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 
He thought his brothers would understand that God was giving them deliverance through his hand, but they did not understand. 
The next day he came upon some of them fighting and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you wronging one another?’ 
But the one who was wronging his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? 
Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 
At these words Moses fled and became a foreign resident in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons. 
After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 
When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came: 
‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 
The Lord said to him, ‘Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 
I have surely seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you to Egypt.’ 
This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge?’—God sent this very man as ruler and deliverer, with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 
He led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. 
This is the Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ 
He was with the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers. He received living words to give to us. 
Our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside and turned back to Egypt in their hearts, 
saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us, for we do not know what has happened to this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt.’ 
In those days they made a calf, offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 
But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel? 
You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the images you made to worship them. I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’ 
Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness, just as the one who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. 
Our fathers received it in turn and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land of the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the days of David, 
who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. 
But Solomon built him a house. 
Yet the Most High does not dwell in places made by human hands, as the prophet says: 
‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? 
Did not my hand make all these things?’ 
You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; you are just like your fathers. 
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. 
You received the law as ordained by angels, yet you did not keep it.” 
When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts and gnashed their teeth at him. 
But he, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 
He said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 
They shouted at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and rushed at him together. 
They drove him outside the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. 
As they stoned Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 
Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” After saying this, he fell asleep. 
