Acts 7:23-29 23And as the time was fulfilled of when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. 24And seeing one of them being treated unjustly, he defended and made avengement for the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25And he thought that his brothers would get the idea that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you treat each other unjustly?’ 27But the one who was unjustly treating his neighbor pushed him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29And Moses fled at this word and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
Stephen continued his account of Israel’s history by summarizing the next forty years of Moses’ life described in Exodus 2:11-24. His retelling of the story is close to this passage with several notable changes that, once again, give us a clue into his two-part purpose of defending himself and presenting a choice to the Sanhedrin. Stephen added several details about Moses. The first was the addition of Moses’ age of forty. One-third of his life was spent as a prince of Egypt. He was already well into adulthood, highly trained, given the best of care, and knew well the inner workings of the Egyptian monarchy. What moved him to check on his brothers at that age is not clearly mentioned in either Exodus or Acts. Both passages imply that he had some self-identity of being a Hebrew, especially with the note of visiting his brothers, the sons of Israel.
Verse 24 is a simple summary of how Moses intervened on behalf of a mistreated Israelite slave and ended up killing the Egyptian taskmaster. Stephen adds the point about Moses avenging his injured brother. Moses was functioning even at that point as God’s instrument to free the people from slavery, though no one knew it at the time. Verse 25 gives more of Stephen’s interpretation of the event. He believed Moses was acting as a savior appointed by God to free Israel, even at that point in his life. This event was the spark that began the exodus from salvery and the beginning of Israel’s salvation. Moses served as a type for Jesus also in this part of Stephen’s speech. The Jewish leaders were in danger of missing the new thing God was doing in their day by the coming of Jesus.
Verses 26-28 highlight how his fellow Israelites did not see or believe this, but went in the opposite direction of criticizing their savior. More of Stephen’s interpretation is evident in these verses. When Moses saw two Israelite soldiers fighting, he stepped in and tried to stop them. The important theological word reconcile (synēllassen) is used. The same word and concept are used in Romans 5:10 for how God reconciled the world through Christ. The connection of these passages with this word and concept may be more than accidental, with Stephen implying that Jesus came as the great Reconciler, just like Moses.
Just as Israel rejected Moses as savior, so also Israel of the first century was rejecting Jesus as Savior. Stephen returns to the text of Exodus by quoting 2:14 in verses 27-28. The quote emphasizes rejection of God’s appointed leader. In verse 29, Stephen adds additional interpretation that the reason Moses fled was because of the word of the Israelites, whereas in Exodus, he fled because of Pharaoh. Verse 29 is a brief summary of the next forty years of Moses’ life in Midian. This shift may be another intentional inference pointed at the Jewish leaders interrogating Stephen. The thoughtful among them should have squirmed some at the purposeful changes in the story. They all likely had it memorized word for word. The Holy Spirit was bringng conviction to the group through the words of Stephen.
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