Acts 7:17-29 :

“But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, until there arose a different king, who didn’t know Joseph. The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive. At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father’s house. When he was thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son. Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works. But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand.

“The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

Here, Stephen reminds the Jewish leaders of another time that the majority of them decided to reject the one that God had chosen for them. This time it is Moses, the one that they admire. God, through Stephen, makes a good case for the fact that at any time, a majority of us can reject God’s will and, instead go against it. Even as believers, we need to continue to trust God and not rest in our own feelings or even in the feelings of the majority and simply believe God. Just because there is trouble in the temple over what Stephen said, does not mean that he is the one to blame for it. History tells us that the people could be the ones who are wrong.

Moses killed an Egyptian man in an attempt to help a Hebrew, but even then, the Jews took it wrong and didn’t respect him as one God sent. As we read along, it is evident that the Jews have been poor discerners of who came from God and who didn’t. This is the same for any of us whether Jew or Gentile. We need God to help us even in recognizing who to listen to and who not to listen to.