“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
23. When the time was fulfilled. Many gather by this that Moses was never estranged in mind from his nation; but the words of Stephen incline rather toward the contrary, to wit, that the Spirit of God did at length awake his mind, as it were out of sleep, that he might at length go visit his brethren, whom he had long time neglected.
Israel swelled from seventy souls to six hundred thousand warriors not in haste but in God's time, and mark this: their fastest growth came when Egypt made their lives bitter. Suffering times have often been growing times with the church. Never lose heart at slowness; when the year of redemption draws near, God can do a double work in a single day.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 7:17-29
And when he was full forty years old,.... This Stephen had from tradition, and not from Scripture, which is silent about the age of Moses at this time, and only says, "it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown", Exo 2:11 but that he was at this time at such an age, is the general sense of the Jews.