Friday in Easter

1Verse 1. Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2Verse 2. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed. 3Verse 3. So Moses thought, “I must go over and see this marvelous sight. Why is the bush not burning up?” 4Verse 4. When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered. 5Verse 5. “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6Verse 6. Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7Verse 7. The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings. 8Verse 8. I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey— the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 9Verse 9. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10Verse 10. Therefore, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.” 11Verse 11. But Moses asked God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12Verse 12. “I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.”

1Verse 1. Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?” 2Verse 2. And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3Verse 3. and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’ 4Verse 4. So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living. 5Verse 5. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child. 6Verse 6. God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7Verse 7. ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’ 8Verse 8. Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. 9Verse 9. Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10Verse 10. and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household. 11Verse 11. Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food. 12Verse 12. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13Verse 13. On their second visit, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh. 14Verse 14. Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all. 15Verse 15. So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died. 16Verse 16. Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.