Acts 7:1, 30-43And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said:
“Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
“‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
On the Way to Box Canyon | Big Bend National Park | May 2023Compare these two statements:
God cares for us out of his fatherly, divine goodness and grace.
I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow.
The first is from Luther’s Small Catechism. The second one is from Matthew 25:24.
The first one is the statement of one who fears, loves, and trusts in God above all things. This is one who sees God as redeemer and ruler – not as ruler and judge (in the pejorative sense of the term). The first one is from one who sees God as ruler and redeemer. Between those two understandings of God is a chasm of eternal proportions.
The Hebrew in Egypt accused Moses of usurping the role of ruler and judge. God had determined that he would be redeemer and ruler. The former would question every order, directive, idea, or motive of Moses. God had intended that Moses be followed, trusted, obeyed, and honored.
Consider how you think of God. Is he one to be followed, trusted, obeyed, and honored? Or is there a place in your life that you reserve to yourself, thinking that God is only ruler and judge. Do you see God as good and gracious, just and loving? Or do you think of him as aloof, judging, and condemning; one to be appeased. The way you think of God will shape your willingness to fear, love, and trust him. It will determine whether you call on God in humility, awaiting his answer, or you cower in fear and do all you can to stay out of his way, and off his radar.
Sometimes we forget. Surely the Hebrews did – as Stephen testifies here. They abandoned Moses and rejected God’s gifts, making a false idol, a golden calf. It’s a wonder that God didn’t completely reject them. But even though they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years before they entered the Promised Land, eventually the Hebrew nation did enter the Promised Land.
All this is by God’s grace. That grace reaches to us as well, when we realize we’ve thought wrongly of God and failed to trust him. Think of God as redeemer and ruler. Fear, love, and trust in him.
Say outloud or in your heart: He has redeemed me. I will live under him in his kingdom. Check this out:
Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord,
who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death,
that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom
This is most certainly true. – from Luther’s Small Catechism, 2nd Article of the Creed
David Bahn - Reflections 
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