An Egyptian (probably a slave master) beat a fellow Hebrew (a brother
) of Moses. This makes Moses very angry. Moses looks around to see if there are witnesses. He sees no one, so he kills the Egyptian. It is his sense of justice to protect the slave. But this is no accident: Moses wants to help the Israelites and hopes they will recognize him as a helper. Read Acts 7:23–25: When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.
So Moses thought God used him to rescue the Israelites. But they did not accept him as leader (see Exodus 2:13–14).
12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.