Acts 6:16-7:8. The high priest asks Stephen if it is true that he has been blaspheming the temple and Moses. At this question, Stephen begins to testify as to the history of Israel. He begins by exhorting all as brethren and fathers to hear him. He says God spoke to Abraham, calling him to the Promised Land, and making a covenant with him that, although his posterity "would be aliens in a land belonging to others who would enslave them and ill-treat them for four years", God would eventually bring them back to the Promised Land, and they would worship him there. This covenant was marked by circumcision, and so God gave Abraham a son, Isaac, whom Abraham had circumcised, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Stephen is going to tell these leaders who are questioning him the entire story of their people. He is clearly being prompted by the Holy Spirit, who has filled him with power and eloquence. So this is God, through Stephen, reminding Israel of their history, and God's covenant with them. Why is God doing this? For the same reason He inspired sacred Scripture to be written - to show all of us that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, of God's covenant.

Stephen's testimony is taking place very soon after Jesus' death, before any of the gospels have been written. This is the first time someone, other than Christ himself on the road to Emmaus, has tied all the Old Testament to Jesus Christ.

Stephen is just getting started, but we already hear that God's chosen people were established through Abraham and a covenant made that they would one day worship freely in the Promised Land. They are not there yet, even at the time that Stephen is speaking Israel is again under foreign control. We are not there yet, we are still under the yoke of sin. But Christ, as the new Moses, is the way to the true promised land, the place of our true freedom - Heaven.