Acts 7

₁The high-priest asked Stephen: ‘Is it true what these people say?’ ₂Then Stephen said: ‘My friends, you must listen carefully. God, who is King, appeared to our forefather Abraham when he lived in the land of Mesopotamia, before Abraham lived in the town of Haran. ₃God said to Abraham: “You must go away from your land and from your family. You must go into the land that I will show you.” ₄And Abraham went away from the land of the Chaldeans and he lived in the land of Haran.

After Abraham's father died, God told Abraham to come to this land where you live now. ₅God did not give any land to Abraham, not even a small piece of land. But God promised that He would give the land to the children_of_Abraham. At that time Abraham did not have any children. ₆God said: “Abraham's descendants will not live in their own land. They will be strangers in another land and the people of that land will oppress Abraham's people and they will be slaves for 400 years.” ₇God also said: “But I will punish the people who have oppressed Abraham's descendants. When that happens, Abraham's descendants will go away from that land and they will serve Me in this land that we live in now.”

₈God made a covenant with Abraham, and the sign for this covenant was circumcision. And when Abraham became the father of Isaac, he circumcised Isaac when Isaac was 8 days old. And Isaac circumcised Jacob and Jacob circumcised his 12 sons, our forefathers.

₉Because these forefathers were jealous of their brother Joseph, they sold him to people of the land of Egypt, but God was with Joseph. ₁₀God saved Joseph when he had big problems. God gave Joseph a lot of wisdom so that the king of Egypt respected Joseph and made him the governor over all the people and things in Egypt, and over the king's palace.

₁₁And when there was a famine in Egypt and Canaan, the people had no food and they suffered a lot. Our forefathers also did not have food ₁₂and when they told Jacob there was food in Egypt, he sent his sons, our forefathers, to Egypt for the first time. ₁₃When they went there the 2nd time, Joseph told his brothers and the people who he was and then the people also told the king of Egypt of Joseph's family.

₁₄Then Joseph told his father Jacob and all the people of his family to come to Egypt. There were 75 people. ₁₅Jacob went down into Egypt and he and our forefathers later died there. ₁₆The Israelites took the bodies of Jacob and his sons back to the town of Shechem and they buried their bodies in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the family of Hamor in the town of Shechem.

₁₇When the time came for God to do what He had promised Abraham, the Israelites were already a very big nation in Egypt. They were a lot of people.

₁₈Then another man became king in Egypt. He did not know who Joseph was and what he had done. ₁₉The new king was bad. He told our forefathers to throw their babies outside to die.

₂₀During that time Moses was born. He was a beautiful baby. His father and mother kept him safe and looked after him in their home for 3 months. ₂₁When they put him outside, the daughter of the king of Egypt found him and took him home and raised him like her own son. ₂₂Moses learned all the wisdom of the people of Egypt. He knew the right things to say and do.

₂₃When Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ₂₄He saw an Egyptian man who was beating an Israelite. Moses helped the Israelite. He beat the Egyptian and killed him. ₂₅Moses thought that the Israelites would understand that God wanted to use him to save them, but they did not understand.

₂₆The next day Moses saw 2 Israelites who were fighting. He wanted to help them make peace and he said: “Friends, you are Israelites. Why do you fight with each other?” ₂₇But the one who had started the problem pushed Moses away and said: “Who chose you to rule and judge over us? ₂₈Do you want to kill me like you killed the Egyptian man yesterday?”

₂₉When Moses heard this, he ran away and went to live in the land of Midian. He was a stranger there and he became the father of 2 sons.

₃₀It was 40 years later when an angel appeared to Moses in the desert at Mount Sinai. The angel was in the flames of a burning bush. ₃₁Moses was surprised when he saw the burning bush and he went closer to see better. He heard the voice of the Lord who said: ₃₂“I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Moses trembled and he was too afraid to look at the fire.

₃₃The Lord said to him: “Take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy. ₃₄I saw how my people suffered in Egypt and I heard them crying. I have come down to save them. Come here. I want to send you to Egypt.” ’

₃₅Stephen then said: ‘You must remember: The Israelites did not want Moses to be their leader. They said: “Who has chosen you to be ruler and judge over us?” But God sent him. He sent Moses to be ruler and saviour. God did this when the angel appeared to Moses in the bush.

₃₆Later Moses took the Israelites out of Egypt and for 40 years he did miracles and signs in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the desert. ₃₇It was this man, Moses, who told the Israelites: “God will send a Prophet to you and this Prophet will be one of your own people. He will be a Prophet like me.”

₃₈Moses was with our forefathers in the desert where he spoke to them. He was also with the angel on Mount Sinai. There the angel spoke to Moses and Moses received the words of God, the words that give eternal_life, and Moses gave them to us. ₃₉But our forefathers did not listen to Moses. They did not want to listen to what he said and they wanted to go back to the land of Egypt. ₄₀They told Aaron: “You must make gods for us that can lead us further, because we do not know what has happened to Moses who brought us out of Egypt.”

₄₁Then they made an idol that looked like a bull-calf and they gave offerings to the idol. They were very happy with the idol that they had made and they had a feast.

₄₂Then God turned his back on them and He went away from them. He did not stop them when they wanted to worship the stars in the sky. It is written in the book of prophets:

₄₄Stephen also said: ‘Our forefathers had the tent of the Lord, and the 10 commandments that were in the tent, with them when they were in the desert. That was the same tent of the Lord that God had told Moses to make. It looked like the tent that God had showed Moses. ₄₅Our fathers brought that tent of the Lord into this land when Joshua took over the land, after God chased away the people who had lived here before, so that our forefathers could live here. And the tent was in this land until the time when King David lived. ₄₆God was good to David and David wanted to build a house of worship, a temple, where the children_of_Jacob could serve God. ₄₇But it was David's son, Solomon, who built a temple for God.

₄₈But we know that God lives in the highest heaven. He does not live in temples that people have built. This is what the prophet said:

₅₁Then Stephen said to the Jewish_leaders: ‘You are stubborn and you are the same as people who do not believe in God. You think like they do. You do not listen to God and you are always against the Holy_Spirit, the same as your forefathers were. ₅₂Your fathers did bad things to all the prophets. Your forefathers killed people who said that a Righteous One would come. And now you have betrayed and murdered that Righteous Person. ₅₃It was angels who gave the laws of God to you, but you did not listen to God's laws.’

₅₄When the Jewish_Council heard what Stephen said, they became very angry and upset. They bit their teeth together because they were so angry with Stephen. ₅₅But Stephen was full of the Holy_Spirit. He looked up to heaven and he saw the glory of God. He also saw Jesus standing at the most important place next to God. ₅₆Stephen said: ‘I can see into heaven. It is open and I see the Son of man standing at the most important place next to God.’

₅₇But the Jewish_Council did not want to listen to what Stephen said. They shouted_loudly and they put their hands over their ears. They ran to Stephen ₅₈and they pulled him out of the city, then they started to throw stones at him. There was a young man, Saul. He looked after the clothes of the witnesses. ₅₉While the Jewish_Council threw stones at Stephen, he prayed and said: ‘Lord Jesus, I am dying. Please take my spirit.’

₆₀Then he fell to his knees and he shouted_loudly: ‘Lord, please do not punish these people for this sin that they are doing, because they do not know what they are doing.’

And then Stephen died.