And the high priest said, Are these things indeed true?

Stephen said, fathers and brothers, please listen. On that day, when our ancestor Abraham was still living in Haran before Mesopotamia, the God of Glory appeared to him,

Say to him, ‘Leave your place and your relatives, and go to the place that I will show you.’.

He left the land of the Chaldeans and stayed in Haran. After his father’s death, God ordered him to move from there to the place where you are now living.

In this place, God did not give him an inheritance, nor did he even give him a place to stand. But I promise to give this land to him and his descendants as an inheritance. At that time, he didn’t have a son yet.

God said, His descendants will sojourn in a foreign land, and the people there will make them slaves and mistreat them for four hundred years.

And God said, I will punish the kingdom that enslaved them, and they will come out to serve me in this place.

God also gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham gave birth to Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac gave birth to Jacob, and Jacob gave birth to twelve ancestors.

The ancestors were jealous of Joseph and sold him to Egypt. But God is with him,

Save him from all his suffering, and give him grace and wisdom before Pharaoh the king of Egypt. Pharaoh appointed him as the prime minister of the kingdom of Egypt and also as the ruler of his entire family.

Later, Egypt and all Canaan suffered from famine and great hardship, and our ancestors ran out of food.

When Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time.

The second time Joseph recognized his brothers, his kinship was also known to Pharaoh.

Joseph sent his brothers to invite his father Jacob and his whole family of seventy-five people.

So Jacob went down to Egypt, and later he and our ancestors died there.

He was brought to Shechem again and buried in the tomb that Abraham bought for money from the descendants of Hamor in Shechem.

As the day of God’s promise to Abraham approached, the people of Israel prospered and multiplied in Egypt,

Until a new king arose who did not know Joseph.

He treated our ancestors with deceit and persecuted them, causing them to abandon infants and rendering them unable to survive.

At that time, Moses was born with extraordinary beauty and was raised in his father’s house for three months.

When he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter picked him up and raised him as his own son.

Moses learned all the knowledge of the Egyptians, and was able to speak and act with talent.

At the age of forty, he decided in his heart to visit his brothers, the Israelites.

When they arrived there, they saw that one of them had been wronged, so they protected him and avenged the oppressed one, killing the Egyptian.

He thought his brothers would understand that God delivered them through his hand. But they don’t understand.

The next day, when two Israelites were fighting, he urged them to reconcile and said, “You two are brothers, why do you bully each other?”?

The one who bullied his neighbor pushed him away and said, “Who made you our leader and judge?”?

Are you going to kill me, like killing that Egyptian yesterday?

Upon hearing these words, Moses fled and sojourned in Midian. Two sons were born there.

After forty years, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses from the flames of thorns.

Moses was amazed when he saw the vision. As he approached to watch, the voice of the Lord said,

I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses was trembling and afraid to watch.

The Lord said to him, Take off the shoes on your feet. Because the place where you stand is a holy land.

I have truly seen the suffering of my people in Egypt. I also heard their mournful voices. I will come down to save them. Come, I will send you to Egypt.

This Moses, who the people rejected and said, Who made you our leader and judge. But God sent him as a leader and a redeemer through the hand of the angel who appeared in the thorns.

This man led the people out and did wonders and miracles in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

This is Moses, who once said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet like me among your brothers.’.

This person was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai in the wilderness assembly, and with our ancestors, and received lively holy words to preach to us.

Our ancestors refused to listen, but abandoned him and turned their hearts to Egypt,

And he said to Aaron, Make some gods for us, and lead the way before us. Because we do not know what has happened to Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt.

At that time, they made a calf and offered sacrifices to the statue, rejoicing in the work in their hands.

God turned his face away and let them serve the sun, moon, and stars in heaven, just as it is written in the book of the prophets: O house of Israel, did you offer me sacrifices and sacrifices in the wilderness for forty years?

You carry the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the God of Rephan. It is the image you have created to worship. Therefore, I will move you outside of Babylon.

Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the Testament in the wilderness, which God commanded Moses to make according to the pattern he had seen.

Our ancestors inherited this tabernacle one after another. When God drove out the Gentiles before them, they and Joshua brought the tabernacle into the land of inheritance, and it remained until the day of David.

David found favor before God and prayed to prepare a dwelling for the God of Jacob.

But Solomon made a temple for God.

In fact, the Supreme does not dwell on what is made by human hands. As the prophet said,

The Lord said, Heaven is my seat, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of temple are you going to build for me? Where is my resting place?

Isn’t all of this made by my hands?

You stiff necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears, always resist the Holy Spirit. Like your ancestors, so are you.

Which prophet was not persecuted by your ancestors? They also killed the person who was rumored to be the righteous one. Now you have sold and killed the righteous one again.

You have received the law spoken by angels, but have not kept it.

When everyone heard these words, they were extremely angry and gritted their teeth at Stephen.

But Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on heaven, saw the glory of God, and saw Jesus standing on God’s right hand.

Just say, I saw the sky open and the Son of Man standing on the right side of God.

Everyone shouted loudly, covered their ears, and rushed forward together.

Push him outside the city and hit him with stones. The witnesses placed their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

As they were stoned, Stephen called on the Lord, saying, May Jesus receive my soul.

Kneeling down again and shouting loudly, Lord, do not attribute this sin to them. After saying these words, I fell asleep. Saul also rejoiced in his murder.