What did Moses think the Hebrews would do when he first approached them?
Moses supposed his brethren would understand that God by his hand was going to deliver them. He expected the Hebrews to recognize him as their deliverer and be ready to leave slavery, but Stephen records that they did not understand.
Les explains from Stephen's account that Moses, in his place of power, prestige, and no doubt wealth, approached the Jews out in the sand and thought they would recognize him as the one who could get them out of slavery. Moses supposed his brethren would have understood that God, by his hand, would deliver them, and he was ready to do it. Les notes that Moses was a little ahead of God's timetable, but Moses thought surely he could deliver his people out of Egypt. Yet the next words are that they understood not.