“When
forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses trembled, and dared not look. The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.’
Acts 7:30-34
Acts 7 [26.] “The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
Acts 7 [30.] “When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses trembled, and dared not look. The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.’
Acts 7 [35.] “This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’ This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living revelations to give to us, to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’ They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
Meaning:
Moses had fled to Midian after his own people rejected him (Acts 7:29). Forty years later God met him at the burning bush. Stephen retells Exodus 3:2 to Exodus 3:10, drawing attention to where God appeared and what he said.
- “When forty years were fulfilled”
Stephen divides Moses’ life into three periods of forty years: in Egypt, in Midian and in the wilderness (Acts 7:23; Acts 7:36). The long years as a shepherd in Midian prepared him to lead God’s people through the desert.
- “in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush”
Exodus says that “Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush” and that “the bush was not consumed” (Exodus 3:2). The place is important to Stephen’s argument. God appeared not in Jerusalem or the temple, but in a desert far from the Promised Land.
- “I am the God of your fathers”
God identified himself by his covenant with the patriarchs. Jesus quoted these words to show that the dead will rise: God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:27; Luke 20:37). The God who appeared to Moses was the same God who had made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he had not forgotten them. Moses trembled before the holiness of God, as Exodus says: “Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:6).
- “the place where you stand is holy ground”
This is the heart of Stephen’s point. He was accused of speaking against “this holy place” (Acts 6:13). Yet God made a patch of desert holy simply by his presence. Holiness belongs to God, and any place becomes holy where he reveals himself. Joshua heard the same command near Jericho (Joshua 5:15).
- “I have surely seen the affliction of my people”
God saw, heard and came down: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry” (Exodus 3:7). He “remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24). Then he sent Moses, the man Israel had rejected, back to be their deliverer.
The Significance of Acts 7:30-34
- God meets people where they are
Moses was a fugitive shepherd in the desert when God met him. God is not confined to sacred buildings; he can meet anyone, anywhere.
- Reverence before a holy God
Moses removed his sandals and trembled. Familiarity with religious things should never replace awe before the living God.
- God hears the cry of the suffering
The God of the burning bush sees affliction and comes to deliver. His compassion is fully shown in Jesus, who came to set people free.
Cross-References:
Exodus 3:6: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." The words Stephen quotes.
Mark 12:26: "haven’t you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him" Jesus cites the burning bush.
Exodus 2:24: "God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." God remembers his promise.
Conclusion: After forty years in Midian, Moses met God in a burning bush in the desert near Sinai. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob declared that the place was holy, that he had seen his people’s suffering, and that he was sending Moses to deliver them. Stephen shows that God’s presence makes any place holy and that he sends deliverers even when people have rejected them.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible