John Calvin Commentary Acts 7:11

"Now there came a famine over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance." — Acts 7:11 (ASV)

There came a famine. This shows that the deliverance of Joseph was a benefit common to all the family of Jacob. For, as the famine approached, Joseph was sent ahead in good time to provide sustenance for the hungry, as he himself acknowledges the wonderful counsel of God in that matter.

Nevertheless, the free goodness of God appears plainly in the person of Joseph, in that he is appointed to nourish and feed his brothers, who had sold him, by that means sent him far away, and thought that he had vanished completely from the world. He puts meat in their mouths—the very ones who had thrown him into a pit and deprived him of air and common breath. Finally, he nourishes and preserves the lives of those who were not afraid to take his life.

Meanwhile, Stephen reminds the Jews of this: that the patriarchs were forced to depart from that land which was given to them as an inheritance, and that they died in another place. Therefore, since they were sojourners in it, they are eventually banished from it.