Acts 7:25

For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

For, [ de (G1161)] - 'But' or 'Now,' explaining the view under which he acted. For, [ de (G1161)] - 'But' or 'Now,' explaining the view under which he acted.

He supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them.

Though this is Stephen's own comment it is one naturally suggested by the narrative in Exodus. He probably imagined this a suitable occasion for rousing and rallying them under him as their leader; thus anticipating his work, and so running unsent. Calvin thinks Moses was divinely directed not only in interfering in the quarrel, but in slaying the Egyptian. But as the narrative certainly does not say this, so to us-especially when viewed in the light of the forty years' exile in Midian-it seems to imply the reverse.

But they understood not. Reckoning on a spirit in them congenial with his own, he had the mortification to find it far otherwise. This furnishes to Stephen another example of Israel's slowness to apprehend and fall in with the divine purposes of love.