The Call of Moses
After forty years an angel appears to Moses in the burning bush near Sinai, and the Lord speaks from the fire as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He declares the place holy, says he has seen and heard his people's oppression, and sends Moses back to Egypt.
A30fter forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him: 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. 33Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
Stephen says that this same Moses, once rejected with the question of who made him ruler and judge, is the one God sends as ruler and redeemer. He leads Israel out with wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and through forty years in the wilderness.
35This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.
Stephen then recalls Moses saying that God would raise up a prophet like him from among their brothers. He places Moses in the wilderness assembly receiving living words to pass on to Israel.
37This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ 38He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.