Acts 7:17-36 - Moses, A Rejected Savior
17 As the time drew near for the fulfilment of the promise God had made to Abraham, the people became more and more numerous in Egypt, 18 until another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. 19 He took advantage of our people and oppressed our forefathers, making them abandon their infant children, so that they should not live. 20 It was at this time that Moses was born. He was a wonderfully beautiful child, and for three months he was taken care of in his father's house. 21 When he was abandoned, the daughter of Pharaoh adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 So Moses was educated in all the Egyptian culture; he was strong in speech and action.
23 When he was forty years old, it occurred to him to visit his brothers, the descendants of Israel. 24 Seeing one of them being imposed upon, he interfered and defended the man who was being ill treated, striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was using him as the means of delivering them, but they did not. 26 The next day, he came across two of them fighting and tried to pacify them. He said to them, 'You are brothers. Why should you injure each other?'
27 But the aggressor thrust him off, saying, 'Who made you our ruler and judge? 28 Do you mean to kill me as you did that Egyptian yesterday?'
29 At those words Moses fled, and went and lived for a time in Midian, and two sons were born to him there. 30 When forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it he wondered at the sight, and when he went up to see what it was, the voice of the Lord said, 32 'I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses was terrified and did not dare to look at it.
33 Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your shoes, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have seen all the oppression of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their groans, and I have come down to save them. So come! I will make you my messenger to Egypt!'
35 The Moses whom they had refused, saying to him, 'Who made you our ruler and judge?' God sent both to rule and to deliver them, with the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush. 36 It was he who brought them out of Egypt, and did wonders and signs there, and at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the desert.