Acts 7:36
He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
He brought them out is part of Stephen's defense of his faith before the council in answer to the charge of blasphemy. His words were spoken under the direction of the Holy Spirit as his final testimony before hostile judges, and the time, place, and circumstances are essential to their full significance. They were spoken in a clear, thrilling voice that held the assembly spell-bound.
The verse belongs to Stephen's review of Israel's history and God's dealings with His chosen people. It traces God's dealings from Abraham generation by generation through all the national records of Israel to Solomon, taking up the most impressive points to vindicate his cause.
In its immediate sense it recounts Moses bringing Israel out of Egypt after God showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. That deliverance was marked by God's signs and wonders as Moses led Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness. It presents Moses leading Israel out after forty years of preparation as a shepherd, an experience that qualified him to lead God's people under Jesus Christ.
The history it rehearses displays thorough knowledge of the Jewish economy, whose spiritual meaning is made clear and manifest through Christ. Stephen used this account of Israel's history to defend his faith and to show how that history's spiritual meaning was made clear through Christ. As part of Stephen's survey from Moses and the prophets, the account of Moses and Israel is Old Testament evidence through which Christ is revealed. It gives inspired proof of Christ's mission, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension and proves His identity with the Messiah foretold in prophecy. It shows that the voice of Christ spoke through the patriarchs and prophets from the days of Adam, that Christ is revealed in the Old Testament and represented in its religious services and ceremonies, and that Christ is the key unlocking the Old Testament and giving access to its treasures.
Stephen's speech containing the verse was later echoed by Paul when arguing from prophecy that the crucified Jesus was the Son of God. The testimony to which the verse belongs ended with Stephen's stoning, in which Saul took part before he was stopped on the way to Damascus and became Paul.