a good story needs a good foundation

Good morning friends,
I hope it was a great weekend for you and that the week is off to a good start. Today we continue the story of Stephen on trial. He left off the last paragraph talking about how God brought Joseph and then all of Israel to Egypt to avoid a famine. In our reading for today we see that the initial welcome in Egypt didn't last.

 We know the story, but Stephen's technique is helpful. He's really talking about Jesus, but he lays the groundwork carefully. The story of Jesus doesn't start with Jesus; it starts with the God's relationship with God's people from the beginning. Jesus is the next step in the story of Abraham, Moses, prophets, freedom and exile. Stephen is making the story clear by laying the foundation in events that his audience know well.

God bless,
Sam

Acts 7:17-29

¹⁷“But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied ¹⁸until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. ¹⁹He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die. ²⁰At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house; ²¹and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. ²²So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.

²³“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his relatives, the Israelites. ²⁴When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. ²⁶The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?’ ²⁷But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.