11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,[c] saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. Exodus 2: 11-25 NIV
Moses was now being raised as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but still identifies as and with the Hebrew people. This is from the trial of Stephen in Acts 7: 20-29.
29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
From Stephen's exposition of Exodus 2, one could surmise that Moses was at least somewhat conscious of a call upon his life, to lead his people. He is obviously concerned with justice, aware of his own story, and though concerned with who may be watching, he comes to the aid of the persecuted. Now supposing this act has qualified him or that none have seen, he comes back to his brethren and tries to correct a wrong between them. "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" It is a fare question that will take on a much larger context with those who later believe. Not everyone will be reproved and the man most in the wrong, like Cain of old, does not wish to be rebuked. His response is, "who made you ruler and judge over us?" By whose authority do you point out our wrong, as if one need such an office to tell another they are going down the wrong path. There is a gaping hole in front of you that you should easily recognize after it has been revealed, and thank the man that reveals it to you. Moses has put himself at odds with the king of Egypt, he has broken their law and sided with Israel. He cannot, in anonymity, be the masked vigilante. What he has done is known and it is not a hero's welcome he receives. Now he is afraid, and cut off from a life of ease. He did sit in the position of one who rules, but it was not in line with the promotions that he sought. Moses feared God, and would be called upon to lead God's people.
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Hebrews 11: 23-27
