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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Acts 7:17 - 7:29
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NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act_7:17-29
17But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, 18until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. 19It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose their infants and they would not survive. 20It was at this time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father's home. 21And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. 22Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. 23But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. 24And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. 25And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, "Men, you are brethren, why do you injure one another?" 27But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, "Who made you a ruler and judge over us? 28You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?" 29At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
Act_7:17 This would refer to Gen_15:12-16 (the Promise) and Exo_1:7 (their large number).
Act_7:18 "until there arose another king" This is a quote from Exo_1:8. There has been and continues to be debate among scholars on the date of the Exodus. The identity of this Egyptian king is caught up in the disagreement. One could identify him as an Egyptian king from the XVIII dynasty (1445 b.c.) or from the XIX dynasty (1290 b.c.). One theory is to relate this Egyptian king to the first native Egyptian dynasty who overthrew the Hyksos (Semitic) rulers of Egypt. This would explain the use of heteros in Act_7:18. A native Egyptian would not want Semites, like the Hebrews, in large numbers in his territory, fearing another invasion like the Hyksos.
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Act_7:19 This account is found in Exo_1:10 ff.
Act_7:20 "Moses was born" This account is found in Exodus 2.
▣ "was lovely in the sight of God" This is a Hebrew idiom of beauty (cf. Exo_2:2). Even Josephus comments on Moses' beauty (cf. Antiq. 2.9.6).
Act_7:21 This account is found in Exo_2:5-6; Exo_2:10.
▣ "he had been set outside" This is the Greek term ektithçmi, which means "to expose" (cf. Act_7:19) or "place outside." The Egyptians forced the Hebrews to abandon their male children to the elements and wild beasts so as to control their rapid population growth.
NASB, NKJV "Pharaoh's daughter took him away"
NRSV, NJB "Pharaoh's daughter adopted him"
TEV "the king's daughter adopted him"
The term anaireô literally means "to lift up." Moses was literally "lifted up" out of the river and by this act, became the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Act_7:22 Moses had the best academic and military training available in his day at the court of Pharaoh.
▣ "he was a man of power in words and deeds" This must be a summary of Moses' later life because at his encounter with YHWH at the burning bush he claimed he could not speak well (cf. Exo_4:10-17).
Act_7:23-24 This account is in Exo_2:11-12.
Act_7:23 "he was approaching the age of forty" I think it was D. L. Moody who said Moses' life can be divided into three groups of forty:
1. for the first forty years he thought he was somebody (i.e., educated at Pharaoh's court)
2. for the second forty years he thought he had become a nobody (i.e., exiled to the land of Midian and learned the ways and terrain of the Sinai desert)
3. for the third forty years he found out what God could do with a nobody (i.e., led the people of God to the Promised Land)
Act_7:25 This verse is Stephen's assumptions (possibly Jewish traditions); they are not stated in Exodus.
Act_7:26-29 This account is found in Exo_2:13-14.
Act_7:28 The question expects a "no" answer.
Act_7:29 "At this remark Moses fled" This account is found in Exo_2:15; Exo_2:22. Moses' fear at killing an Egyptian shows that Pharaoh was not supportive of his being an adopted child of one of his daughters. Even so, Heb_11:27 is clear!
▣ "and became an alien in the land of Midian" God appeared to Moses at the burning bush in the land of Midian (cf. Exodus 3-4) and revealed His law to him at Sinai in the land of Midian (cf. Exodus 19-20), which shows that God was not limited as to where He revealed Himself. This same emphasis on God revealing Himself apart from the Temple in Jerusalem is seen in Act_7:36; Act_7:44; Act_7:48; Act_7:53.
▣ "became the father of two sons" This account is found in Exo_2:22; Exo_4:20; Exo_18:3-4.