Acts 7:22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.”

Acts 7:23 “And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.”

Acts 7:24 “And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:”

Acts 7:25 “ For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.”

Hello readers, I hope you had a good week! It’s Saturday morning where I am as I type this. Spring is just around the corner, we’ve had our first taste of it in the last week or so! But not quite yet, it’s just a teaser!

In recent days I’ve been thinking about this phrase from Acts 7:25 “for he supposed”. Maybe you’ve said “I s’pose” before! We all do a lot of supposing in our lives, and supposing can lead to much disappointment when we suppose wrong… as Moses did here!

Moses supposed. He acted based on supposing rather than knowing.

Biblical Christianity is not “supposing”, and it’s not supposing on people, it’s based on knowing God through his “more sure word”. John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Of course, if you read Acts 7 for yourself for necessary context, you’ll know that this phrase “for he supposed” is found as part of Stephen’s sermon before he got stoned to death.

It’s one of the most amazing chapters in the Bible, as Stephen recounts Hebrew Biblical history and proves that it is not he, but they who are accusing him, who truly are against Moses, the temple, the law, and God!

It’s amazing how those that accuse people are generally guilty of what they are accusing someone else of. And that was the case here for sure. And the truth about themselves hurt them… so they hurt him. And yet we see the grace of God in this unimaginable situation so glorious and great. It’s one of the greatest deaths in the Bible “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

Stephen is a character in the Bible that only gets a few chapters, but leaves a lifelong impression… an unforgettable character in the Bible and in history. How could he forgive those pelting him with stones? That’s Christlike. He was and is a true Christian.

They had no other option, I guess, than to stone him, because the Bible says “they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.” So all that was kinda left was rabid, uncontrolled mad violence to shut him up. People are getting madder and madder at the Bible these days too, we see how this is more than possible.

But as stated at the outset, I’ve been thinking about this phrase “for he supposed”. It’s been running through my head a bit recently, this phrase.

I usually use Webster’s 1828 dictionary to define terms, but the top result on the good old Google search yielded me this definition for “suppose”, which is to “think or assume that something is true or probable but lack proof or certain knowledge.”

So when you suppose something, you’re thinking it to be true… but it doesn’t mean it is true!  I mean, it may be, but it may not be too! The key is… you don’t know. You’re believing something that you don’t know for a fact.

When we suppose, we make something up to be true in our own head before we actually know it is true. We imagine it to be so before we know it is so, which is very different to believing something to be so because we know it is so!

It’s amazing what we convince ourself of as true when it’s not. And we end up in the world of “supposing” rather than “knowing”.

Where Moses got seriously let down is that he supposed on other people. See, people are the wrong object to “suppose” upon. Maybe you’ve found that out the hard way in life, maybe you’ve supposed a lot about people in the past and it’s led to much disappointment and even despair.

You may have trusted someone in the past, and you were counting on them and believed they would act a certain way, speak a certain way, behave a certain way and treat you in a certain way… and you supposed it, and then you were disappointed and let down when it didn’t happen like you supposed!

This doesn’t mean you never trust anyone ever again, because you can trust and count and believe about someone based on evidence in their life. Supposing lacks evidence and proof, and Moses had none, whereas say you know a Christian who’s life is proof of what they say… well then you’re not supposing about them anymore!

Yes they’re still humans who sin, but what you expect about them is based on who and what they are, not who and what you hope or want or wish or “suppose” them to be.

There’s a big difference between supposing and knowing. Knowing is based on evidence beforehand, but supposing lacks evidence to base the belief upon.

What did Moses suppose? Well he “supposed” that his brethren would have “understood” some things about him, about God, and about how God was going to deliver them…

… but they didn’t! They didn’t understand any of it! And it really knocked him around, because what he did was based on supposing, rather than because he knew for a fact.

He would learn his lesson! Because forty years later he’d turn up in Egypt again not with a suppose… but with a “thus saith the Lord!”. Big difference! He left all those supposes behind!

Yes we all can suppose stuff. But what we believe to be true, which then influences what we do… should be based on knowing stuff, and obviously the Bible is THE place to bed down what we know.

Because the fact is, the Christian life should not be full of supposing as it can be, it’s a faith in that God has said and what God has said in his word.

I’m a Christian obviously. But I don’t suppose the Bible is true and believe it, I believe it because I’m satisfied the word of God is truth first and foremost. My belief isn’t imagining it to be true, hoping it to be true, and because it need it to be true.

So let’s pin our faith on God’s word. Let’s stop making stuff up in our heads. And don’t count on other people getting it. Because they may not. They didn’t here in this story. Ultimately it’s just you and God. Because others may not be where you are at, want what you want or be going where you are going!

Moses supposed they understood… he then took action based on that. But they didn’t understand! And just because he supposed they did, never meant they did. And that left him high and dry!

So next time, Moses didn’t suppose. The next time he went to Egypt there was no supposing, he went because God had said go, and he went with the authority of God’s word.

So the Bible is really where we should base our action and lives upon. Let’s hold to be true what we know to be true based on God’s perfect word. Let’s not make up a reality that doesn’t exist in our heads. Because if we suppose on the wrong things and on other people, we’re in for a real rollercoaster, but the Bible promises if you trust in God you’ll never be confounded or ashamed.

Don’t suppose so… know so!

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