Acts 7:17-36, Moses’ Faith

Acts 7:17-36, Moses’ Faith

17."As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased.
18.Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt.
19.He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20."At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father's house.
21.When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.
22.Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23."When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.
24.He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.
25.Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.
26.The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, `Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?'
27."But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, `Who made you ruler and judge over us?
28.Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'
29.When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
30."After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
31.When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice:
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.
33."Then the Lord said to him, `Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground.
34.I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'
35."This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, `Who made you ruler and judge?' He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36.He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.

 Stephen proclaims Moses and his God to the persecuting Jews.

1. 17-22, God provides an environment of suffering prepared as promised. For believers, every suffering is the Lord’s providence.
2. Stage 1 of 3 in Moses’ life (I’m somebody):
  Moses is born on the brink of death, but God saves him and makes him grow up to be a prince, the son of Pharaoh's princess.

3. 23-29: 2nd period (I’m Nobody):
  He opens his eyes to his nation and history, steps forward as a humane savior, but falls into a failure. He herds sheep and undergoes training in the wilderness for 40 years. His two sons, Gershom (‘I am a stranger’) and Eliezer (‘My God is a helper’) are his testimony.

4. 30-36: 3rd period (I’m God’s buddy,):
  At the age of 80, he received God’s calling on Mount Horeb. 1) “Take off your sandals from your feet (Your past, old character.” (33) 2) Go and liberate your people from Egypt. God called Moses and sent him as their savior (30). He is used as an instrument of God.

    Let us all be used by God as instruments of salvation, like Moses and Stephen. I pray that you will be trained in this wilderness-like world and be used as a man of God like Moses. Let us live as saints of faith who only look to Jesus and spread the gospel of the cross. We are all blessed to have a new encounter with the God whom Moses met, and to carry out well the mission of salvation of souls and kingdom of God that he received. Amen.