Acts 7:35-43. Stephen continues: So the same Moses who the Jews asked "Who made you a ruler and a judge?" was sent back to Egypt by God to be the Jews' ruler and deliverer. He performed many wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and led the people out of Egypt and into the wilderness for forty years. God continued speaking to Moses throughout this time, but the Jews refused to listen, and turned instead to other gods and longed again for Egypt. They made a golden calf and sacrificed to it, but even so, God kept calling to them, through Moses, as they sojourned in the desert.

There is that forty years again! Stephen definitely was pointing this time period as a recurring one in the history of the Jews! Stephen also reminds the council that Moses said "God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up." Stephen is using Moses' story to show the Jews that Jesus is that prophet, and more. Just as Moses was rejected by the Jews, but appointed by God to be their ruler and deliver, so Jesus, who these men had killed and are still rejecting, has been appointed by God to be the ruler and deliverer of all.

Still, the Jews in the wilderness took a long time, forty years, before they were ready to accept God's deliverance and enter the Promised Land. They constantly turned from Him and Moses had to keep interceding for them. So, too, it will take a long time for these Jews to accept Jesus as their Savior, but God is patient, especially with His chosen people.