Abraham and the Promise

Stephen's Witness · Acts 7

Story guide: Illustration of the historical account in Stephen’s speech: Stephen recounts God's call to Abraham and the promise. This historical tableau illustrates his speech, not an event in the council room.

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2And he said, “Brothers and fathers, listen: the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.”

3And he said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred, and come into the land that I will show you.’

4Then, after he had gone out from the land of the Chaldeans, he settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God moved him into this land in which you now live,

5And he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

6But God spoke in this way: that his offspring would be a foreign resident in a strange land, and they would enslave it and mistreat it for four hundred years.

7And I will judge the nation that they will serve, God said, and after these things they will come out and worship me in this place.

8And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.

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