Acts 7:26
And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
Acts 7:26 is part of Stephen's defense, his final testimony before the council, in which he traced Israel's history. That address explained Israel's history through Christ, preaching Christ from the Old Testament beginning with Moses and the prophets and giving inspired proof of His mission, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension to prove His identity as the Messiah, showing that His voice spoke through the prophets and patriarchs from the days of Adam onward. It was delivered amid growing resistance as his testimony was about to be silenced, so its full significance depends on the occasion, time, and place in which he spoke. It was spoken under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The testimony ended in his stoning with Saul standing by consenting, after which Saul continued persecuting the disciples with threatenings and slaughter and seeking authority to bind believers until he was stopped on the way to Damascus.
In the verse Moses, about forty years old with his lifework planned out after his own devising and judgment, acted in his own strength on the belief that his thorough education in the wisdom of Egypt and training as a general of armies qualified him to deliver Israel, trying to gain their favor by redressing their wrongs and setting them at one again. God had other plans for him to bear the responsibility of leading and emancipating His people on the wilderness journey, and he was not yet fitted for that work. That first attempt to deliver Israel by force was rash and a miserable failure that proved him unfit to represent the God of mercy, love, and tenderness, for in killing the oppressing Egyptian he manifested the spirit of him who was a murderer from the beginning. The passage gives no further detail about the event in the verse itself.
Afterward Moses lost confidence in God, turned his back on his appointed work, fled from the wrath of Pharaoh into exile as a fugitive, and concluded that his great sin in taking life barred him from any part in delivering his people from cruel bondage. God allowed this to teach him, and he needed forty years in Midian doing the work of a shepherd to obtain experience. There with the divine Teacher with him to help and instruct he learned deep and severe lessons in gentleness, goodness, long-suffering, and humility to follow God's plan rather than his own. Only after he had learned those lessons could God entrust him with leading and emancipating His people on the wilderness journey and place him where he should be, showing that every laborer for the Master must possess those qualities to be a successful worker.