And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

People's New Testament

7:23-29 And when he was full forty years old, etc. For the accounts here given, see Ex 2:11-15. Compare Heb 11:24. Observe the point of Stephen, that Israel rejected Moses as a ruler and judge over them (Ac 7:35), as they had rejected Joseph and Jesus. Yet God chose both Joseph and Moses to be their saviors and rulers.

Wesley's Notes

7:23 It came into his heart - Probably by an impulse from God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23-27. In Ac 7:23, 30, 36, the life of Moses is represented as embracing three periods, of forty years each; the Jewish writers say the same; and though this is not expressly stated in the Old Testament, his age at death, one hundred twenty years (De 34:7), agrees with it.

it came into his heart to visit his brethren-his heart yearning with love to them as God's chosen people, and heaving with the consciousness of a divine vocation to set them free.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:17-29 Let us not be discouraged at the slowness of the fulfilling of God's promises. Suffering times often are growing times with the church. God is preparing for his people's deliverance, when their day is darkest, and their distress deepest. Moses was exceeding fair, fair toward God; it is the beauty of holiness which is in God's sight of great price. He was wonderfully preserved in his infancy; for God will take special care of those of whom he designs to make special use. And did he thus protect the child Moses? Much more will he secure the interests of his holy child Jesus, from the enemies who are gathered together against him. They persecuted Stephen for disputing in defence of Christ and his gospel: in opposition to these they set up Moses and his law. They may understand, if they do not wilfully shut their eyes against the light, that God will, by this Jesus, deliver them out of a worse slavery than that of Egypt. Although men prolong their own miseries, yet the Lord will take care of his servants, and effect his own designs of mercy.