Stephen's understanding of Moses was as orthodox as his view of God, but his presentation of Moses' career made comparison with Jesus' career unmistakable. As in the previous pericope, there is a double emphasis in this one, first, on God's faithfulness to His promises in the Abrahamic Covenant and, second, on Moses as a precursor of Jesus.
"More specifically than in the life of Joseph, Stephen sees in the story of Moses a type of the new and greater Moses--Christ himself."321
7:17-18 Stephen had gotten ahead of himself briefly in verse 16. Now he returned to his history of Israel just before the Exodus. "The promise"God had made to Abraham was that He would judge his descendants' enslaving nation and free the Israelites (Gen. 15:14). This was a particular way that He would fulfill the earlier promises to give Israel the land, to multiply the Israelites, and to curse those nations that cursed Israel (Gen. 12:1-3, 7). The Israelites increased in Egypt until another Pharaoh arose who disregarded Joseph (Exod. 1:7-8).
Similarly Christ had come in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4). Before Moses appeared on the scene, Israel increased in numbers and fell under the control of an enemy that was hostile to her. Likewise before Jesus appeared, Israel had increased numerically and had fallen under Roman domination.
7:19 This Pharaoh took advantage of the Israelites and mistreated them by decreeing the death of their infants (Exod. 1:10, 16, 22). Like Pharaoh, Herod had tried to destroy all the Jewish babies at the time of Jesus' birth.
7:20-22 Moses, the great deliverer of his people, was born, preserved, protected (by Pharaoh's daughter no less), and educated in Egypt.
". . . the pillar of the Law was reared in a foreign land and in a Gentile court."322
Moses became a powerful man in word (his writings?) and deed. All this took place outside the Promised Land, which further depreciated the importance of that land.
Like Moses, Jesus was lovely in God's sight when He was born, and Mary nurtured Him at home before He came under the control of the Egyptians temporarily (cf. Matt. 1:13-21). Moses had great knowledge as did Jesus; both became powerful men in words and deeds (v. 22).
". . . after forty years of learning in Egypt, God put him [Moses] out into the desert. There God gave him his B. D. degree, his Backside of the Desert degree, and prepared him to become the deliverer."323
7:23-29 Moses' presumptive attempt to deliver his people resulted in his having to flee Egypt for Midian where he became an alien (cf. v. 6). These verses relate another story of an anointed leader of God's people, like Joseph, being rejected by those people. Yet God did not abandon Moses or his people. God blessed Moses in a foreign land, Midian, by giving him two sons.
Moses offered himself as the deliverer of his brethren, but they did not understand him. The same thing happened to Jesus. Moses' Jewish brethren who did not recognize that God had appointed him as their ruler and judge rejected him even though Moses sought to help them. Likewise Jesus' Jewish brethren rejected Him. Moses' brethren feared that he might use his power to destroy them rather than help them. Similarly the Jewish leaders feared that Jesus with His supernatural abilities might bring them harm rather than deliverance and blessing (cf. John 11:47-48). This rejection led Moses to leave his brethren and to live in a distant land where he fathered sons (v. 29). Jesus too had left His people and had gone to live in a distant land where He was producing descendants (i.e., Christians).
7:30-34 It was in Midian, after 40 years, that God appeared to Moses in the burning bush. The angel that appeared to Moses was the Angel of the Lord, very possibly the preincarnate Christ (vv. 31-33; cf. Exod. 3:2, 6; 4:2; John 12:41; 1 Cor. 10:1-4; Heb. 11:26). God commanded Moses to return to Egypt as His instrument of deliverance for the Israelites. God revealed Himself and His Law outside the Holy Land.
Moses received a commission from God in Midian to return to his brethren to lead them out of their oppressed condition. Jesus, on God's order, will return to the earth to deliver Israel from her oppressed condition during the Tribulation when He returns at His second coming.
7:35-36 The very man whom the Israelite leaders had rejected as their ruler and judge (v. 27) God sent to fulfill that role with His help. Moses proceeded to perform signs and wonders in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness.
The third reference to 40 years (cf. vv. 23, 30, 36) divides Moses' career into three distinct parts. These stages were (1) preparation ending with rejection by his brethren, (2) preparation ending with his return to Egypt, and (3) ruling and judging Israel. The parallels with the career of Jesus become increasingly obvious as Stephen's speech unfolds.
"Jesus too had been brought out of Egypt by Joseph and Mary, had passed through the waters of Jordan at his baptism (the Red Sea), and had been tempted in the wilderness for forty days."324
As Moses became Israel's ruler and judge with angelic assistance, so will Jesus. As Moses had done miracles, so had Jesus. The ultimate prophet that Moses had predicted would follow him was Jesus (cf. 3:22).
"Stephen naturally lingers over Moses, in whom they trusted' (Jn. v. 45-47), showing that the lawgiver, rejected by his people (35), foreshadowed the experience of Christ (Jn. i. 11)."325
