Study Desk

And God spoke to this effect, that his posterity would be aliens in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and ill-treat them four hundred years.

'But I will judge the nation which they serve,' said God, 'and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.'

"And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him,

"But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt

At this time Moses was born, and was beautiful before God. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house;

He supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand.

'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.' And Moses trembled and did not dare to look.

"This Moses whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' God sent as both ruler and deliverer by the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush.

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, 'God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up.'

But God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: 'Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices, forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

And you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of the god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.'

Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David,

who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God."

They all gave heed to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is that power of God which is called Great."

But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Sama'ria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,

But Peter said to him, "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.