When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
Moses wondered at the sight and drew near to examine it, when the voice of the Lord came to him at the burning bush in his wilderness encounter with God. At that time Moses was the prospective ruler of Egypt, but God could not take him from the king's court to do his appointed work, and only after he had been for forty years a faithful shepherd was he sent to be the deliverer of his people. Those years as a shepherd prepared and disciplined him, helping to remove the false teachings he had learned in Egypt, and as he worked toward clearer faith God revealed Himself to him, fitting him to understand himself and to serve God's purpose. He was thus prepared to lead Israel through hardship by forty years as a humble shepherd in Midian, where he learned adversity and poverty.
The passage from verse 31 through verse 36 presents Moses as called by God and sent to lead Israel out of Egypt, with forty years of training as a shepherd qualifying him to lead God's people under Jesus Christ. His experience proves that useful and honored workers in God's cause receive their training amid the humble duties of the most lowly positions in life. The voice of the Lord and of the angel who spoke with Moses was Christ, speaking through the prophets and patriarchs, including Moses.
The verse belongs to Stephen's rehearsal of the history of God's chosen people from Abraham to Solomon, including the story of Moses, selecting the most impressive points from the national records of Israel and showing thorough knowledge of the Jewish economy. It was spoken as part of Stephen's answer to the charge of blasphemy before the council, his final testimony under the direction of the Holy Spirit, in a clear, thrilling voice that held the assembly spell-bound, and its full significance is understood in light of the occasion, time, and place. From the Old Testament testimony Stephen used it to show that Christ was the Messiah, making manifest through Christ the spiritual interpretation of the Jewish economy and vindicating his cause. It belongs to the account of Stephen, in whose stoning Paul took part while a member of the Sanhedrin zealous for the suppression of Christianity, before Paul was stopped in his persecuting career on the way to Damascus.
Moses wondered at the sight and drew near to examine it, when the voice of the Lord came to him at the burning bush in his wilderness encounter with God. At that time Moses was the prospective ruler of Egypt, but God could not take him from the king's court to do his appointed work, and only after he had been for forty years a faithful shepherd was he sent to be the deliverer of his people. Those years as a shepherd prepared and disciplined him, helping to remove the false teachings he had learned in Egypt, and as he worked toward clearer faith God revealed Himself to him, fitting him to understand himself and to serve God's purpose. He was thus prepared to lead Israel through hardship by forty years as a humble shepherd in Midian, where he learned adversity and poverty.
The passage from verse 31 through verse 36 presents Moses as called by God and sent to lead Israel out of Egypt, with forty years of training as a shepherd qualifying him to lead God's people under Jesus Christ. His experience proves that useful and honored workers in God's cause receive their training amid the humble duties of the most lowly positions in life. The voice of the Lord and of the angel who spoke with Moses was Christ, speaking through the prophets and patriarchs, including Moses.
The verse belongs to Stephen's rehearsal of the history of God's chosen people from Abraham to Solomon, including the story of Moses, selecting the most impressive points from the national records of Israel and showing thorough knowledge of the Jewish economy. It was spoken as part of Stephen's answer to the charge of blasphemy before the council, his final testimony under the direction of the Holy Spirit, in a clear, thrilling voice that held the assembly spell-bound, and its full significance is understood in light of the occasion, time, and place. From the Old Testament testimony Stephen used it to show that Christ was the Messiah, making manifest through Christ the spiritual interpretation of the Jewish economy and vindicating his cause. It belongs to the account of Stephen, in whose stoning Paul took part while a member of the Sanhedrin zealous for the suppression of Christianity, before Paul was stopped in his persecuting career on the way to Damascus.