And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
And when he was full forty years old. Here, and in Acts 7:30; Acts 7:36, the life of Moses is represented as embracing three periods of forty years each. The Jewish writers affirm the same; and though in the Old Testament this is not expressly stated, it says he was 120 years old when he died (Deuteronomy 34:7), which tallies with this exactly.
It came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. By this time he had, in the exercise of faith, deliberately "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward" (Hebrews 11:24-26). His heart, now yearning with love to his people as God's chosen family, and heaving, no doubt, with the consciousness of a divine vocation to set them free, he goes forth to look them in the face, and see if some occasion will not present itself for coming to some understanding with them on this subject.