After forty years had passed, while he was in the desert near Mount Sinai, the Messenger of YAHWEH appeared to him in the midst of a flaming thorn bush. Moses was astonished and stunned by what he was seeing, so he drew closer to observe this marvel. Then the Lord YAHWEH spoke to him out of the flames:
‘I am the living God, the God of your ancestors.
I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’
“Trembling in God’s presence and overwhelmed with awe, Moses didn’t even dare to look into the fire.
“Out of the flames the Lord YAHWEH said to him:
‘Take the sandals off your feet,
for you are standing in the realm of holiness.
I have watched and seen how my people
have been mistreated in Egypt.
I have heard their painful groaning,
and now I have come down to set them free.
So come to me, Moses,
for I am sending you to Egypt to represent me.’
“So God sent back to Egypt the man our people rejected and refused to recognize by saying, ‘Who appointed you to be our ruler and judge?’ God sent this man back to be their ruler and deliverer, commissioned with the power of the messenger who appeared to him in the flaming thorn bush. This man brought the people out from their Egyptian bondage with many astonishing wonders and miracle signs—miracles in Egypt, miracles at the Red Sea, and miracles during their forty-year journey through the wilderness. This is the same Moses who said to our ancestors, ‘The Lord God will raise up one from among you who will be a prophet to you, like I have been. Listen to everything he will say!’
“Moses led the congregation in the wilderness and he spoke face-to-face with the angel who spoke with him on the top of Mount Sinai. Along with our ancestors, he received the living oracles of God that were passed down to us. But our forefathers refused to obey. They pushed him away, and their hearts longed to return to Egypt.
“While Moses was on the mountain, our forefathers said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to lead us, because we don’t know what has become of this Moses who brought us out of Egypt.’
“So they made a god, an idol in the form of a bull calf. They offered sacrifices to it and celebrated with delight what their own hands had made.
“When God saw what they had done, he turned away from them and handed them over to the worship of the stars of heaven, as recorded in the prophetic writings:
‘People of Israel, you failed to worship me
when you offered animal sacrifices
for forty years in the wilderness.
Instead you worshiped the god Moloch,
and you carried his tabernacle, not mine.
You worshiped your star-god, Rephan.
You made idols with your hands
and worshiped them instead of me.
So now I will cast you into exile beyond Babylon.’
“God gave Moses the revelation of the pattern of the tabernacle of the testimony. By God’s command, he made it exactly according to the specifications given to him for our ancestors in the wilderness. The next generation received possession of it, and under Joshua’s leadership they took possession of the land of the nations, which God drove out in front of them. The tabernacle was carried about until David found loving favor with God and prayed for a dwelling place for the God of Jacob, but it was Solomon who built him a house.
“However, the Most High God does not live in temples made by human hands, as the prophet said:
‘Heaven is my throne room and the earth
is but a footstool for my feet.
How could you possibly build a house
that could contain me?’ says the Lord YAHWEH.
‘And where could you find a place where I could live?
Don’t you know that it is my hands
that have built my house, not yours?’
“Why would you be so stubborn as to close your hearts and your ears to me? You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just like your forefathers! Which prophet was not persecuted and murdered by your ancestors? Name just one! They killed them all—even the ones who prophesied long ago of the coming of the Righteous One! Now you follow in their steps and have become his betrayers and murderers. You have been given the law by the visitation of angels, but you have not obeyed it.”
When they heard these things, they were overtaken with violent rage filling their souls, and they gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, overtaken with great faith, was full of the Holy Spirit. He fixed his gaze into the heavenly realm and saw the glory and splendor of God—and Jesus, who stood up at the right hand of God.
“Look!” Stephen said. “I can see the heavens opening and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God to welcome me home!”
His accusers covered their ears with their hands and screamed at the top of their lungs to drown out his voice. Then they pounced on him and threw him outside the city walls to stone him. His accusers, one by one, placed their outer garments at the feet of a young man named Saul of Tarsus.
As they hurled stone after stone at him, Stephen prayed, “Our Lord Jesus, accept my spirit into your presence.”
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