Stephen Explains Moses

One of those first seven deacons, Stephen, was raised up by God to perform miracles just like the apostles did, and to preach the gospel with great power. The leaders of the Jews manufactured false accusations against him and got people to make the accusations so they could drag Stephen before the Sanhedrin.

Acts 6:10–14: But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” 12 And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council. 13 They put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; 14 for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.”

Acts 7:1: The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

Stephen did nothing less than summarize the Old Testament. It is the pinnacle of examples of declaring one's faith in the face of death for the sake of Christ. He began with the book of Genesis (7:1-16). The next 28 verses zero in on part of the false accusations: “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

Stephen preaches truth about Moses and shows that it is not he, but his accusers, who are against Moses. This is an overview of the life and ministry of Moses in 694 words. It's perfectly appropriate that we take this as a shining example of knowing God's word so well that you can summarize nearly four books of the Bible on one page. Moses' life unfolds in three periods of 40 years each.

1. Forty Years Developing (17-28)
2. Forty Years Hiding (29)
3. Forty Years Leading (30-43)