‘But when he was almost forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, smiting the Egyptian, and he supposed that his brethren understood that God by his hand was giving them deliverance, but they did not understand.'
Once he had reached full age Moses had gone to visit his people, and seeing them suffer wrong, had revealed himself as the deliverer sent by God. He had expected them to recognise him for what he was. In Genesis ‘forty years old' signified the age of maturity. For Jesus it was ‘about thirty' (Luke 3:23). He too on reaching maturity had ‘visited his brethren' and sought to deliver them from ‘oppression', from evil spirits and diseases, hoping that they would understand.