Study Desk

and rescued him from all his troubles. And God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace.

"As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased.

Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn't.

‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look.

"So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?' Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and savior.

"Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people.'

Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods! In the book of the prophets it is written, ‘Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel?

No, you carried your pagan gods— the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into exile as far away as Babylon.'

"Our ancestors carried the Tabernacle with them through the wilderness. It was constructed according to the plan God had shown to Moses.

Years later, when Joshua led our ancestors in battle against the nations that God drove out of this land, the Tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory. And it stayed there until the time of King David.

"David found favor with God and asked for the privilege of building a permanent Temple for the God of Jacob.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand.

Everyone, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as "the Great One—the Power of God."

But now the people believed Philip's message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.

You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God.

And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is indeed the Son of God!"

He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God.

One afternoon about three o'clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. "Cornelius!" the angel said.

Cornelius stared at him in terror. "What is it, sir?" he asked the angel. And the angel replied, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering!

But the voice spoke again: "Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean."