Part 9

007:027 "But the man who was doing the wrong resented his interference, and asked, "`Who appointed you magistrate and judge over us?

007:028 Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'

007:029 "Alarmed at this question, Moses fled from the country and went to live in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.

007:030 "But at the end of forty years there appeared to him in the Desert of Mount Sinai an angel in the middle of a flame of fire in a bush.

007:031 When Moses saw this he wondered at the sight; but on his going up to look further, the voice of the Lord was heard, saying,

007:032 "`I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.' "Quaking with fear Moses did not dare gaze.

007:033 "`Take off your shoes,' said the Lord, `for the spot on which you are standing is holy ground.

007:034 I have seen, yes, I have seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to deliver them. And now I will send you to Egypt.'

007:035 "The Moses whom they rejected, asking him, `Who appointed you magistrate and judge?'--that same Moses we find God sending as a magistrate and a deliverer by the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

007:036 This was he who brought them out, after performing marvels and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and in the Desert for forty years.

007:037 This is the Moses who said to the descendants of Israel, "`God will raise up a Prophet for you, from among your brethren, just as He raised me up.'

007:038 `This is he who was among the Congregation in the Desert, together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our forefathers, who received ever-living utterances to hand on to us.

007:039 "Our forefathers, however, would not submit to him, but spurned his authority and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

007:040 They said to Aaron, "`Make gods for us, to march in front of us; for as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'

007:041 "Moreover they made a calf at that time, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and kept rejoicing in the gods which their own hands had made.

007:042 So God turned from them and gave them up to the worship of the Host of Heaven, as it is written in the Book of the Prophets, "'Were they victims and sacrifices which you offered Me, forty years in the Desert, O House of Israel?

007:043 Yes, you lifted up Moloch's tent and the Star of the God Rephan-- the images which you made in order to worship them; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.'

007:044 "Our forefathers had the Tent of the Testimony in the Desert, built as He who spoke to Moses had instructed him to make it in imitation of the model which he had seen.

007:045 That Tent was bequeathed to the next generation of our forefathers. Under Joshua they brought it with them when they were taking possession of the land of the Gentile nations, whom God drove out before them. So it continued till David's time.

007:046 David obtained favour with God, and asked leave to provide a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob.

007:047 But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.

007:048 Yet the Most High does not dwell in buildings erected by men's hands. But, as the Prophet declares,

007:049 "`The sky is My throne, and earth is the footstool for My feet. What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord, or what resting place shall I have?

007:050 Did not My hand form this universe.'

007:051 "O stiff-necked men, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you also are continually at strife with the Holy Spirit-- just as your forefathers were.

007:052 Which of the Prophets did not your forefathers persecute? Yes, they killed those who announced beforehand the advent of the righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become--

007:053 you who received the Law given through angels, and yet have not obeyed it."

007:054 As they listened to these words, they became infuriated and gnashed their teeth at him.