16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob appeared unto me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt;
17 and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and the Perizzites, and the Hivites and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.”’
18 And they shall hearken to thy voice; and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us; and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’
19 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.
20 And I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the midst thereof; and after that he will let you go.
21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come to pass that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty,
22 but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment; and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and ye shall despoil the Egyptians.”
Go and tell them. He is given his orders and told what to say, but to those of prepared hearts and open ears. They will hearken to the words of Moses as from God, and so he will become their prophet. These same words, Moses is forewarned, will fall upon hardened ears when he goes before the king of Egypt. He must sow in grounds both tilled and untouched, and God will display His glory to both Jew and Gentile alike. It must need be that the people ask for three days, for God is not in the business of wasting words. They shall see the intent of their captors when this is refused, and both sides will be tested. The pride of the king, the pride of dust, it will stand between the people and the promise, but how vane can a man be? Those who have worked under the whip, and not for honest wages, shall leave with the favor of the Egyptian people. They shall not go empty.
Acts 17:16-3421st Century King James Version (KJ21)
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
17 Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the marketplace daily with those who met with him.
18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, “What will this babbler say?” And some others said, “He seemeth to be a proclaimer of strange gods,” because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is whereof thou speakest?
20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, and we would know therefore what these things mean.”
21 (For all the Athenians and strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else than either telling or hearing some new thing.)
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ Hill and said, “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
23 For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: ‘To the Unknown God’. Whom therefore ye worship in ignorance, Him I declare unto you.
24 God who made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
25 Neither is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.
26 And He hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,
27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.
28 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as also certain of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
29 “For inasmuch, then, as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and of man’s devising.
30 The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent,
31 because He hath appointed a Day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained. Of this He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”
32 But when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked and others said, “We will hear thee again on this matter.”
33 So Paul departed from among them.
34 However, certain men cleaved unto him and believed, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
We are not always promised a great reception, but we are told to go and tell. It is a part of taking up the cross, and the arrogance of others should arouse our compassion. Do not take laughter or anger so personally. He said, if they hated Me, they would hate you also. I trust that God is Sovereign in all of it.
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