Signs of the Times, Book 1 - Ellen G. White

God leads the way.
Moses not only encouraged the people to trust in God, but to do all that
human power could do in preparing for war. Their enemies were violent and
blood-thirsty, ready and eager for the excitement of conflict, and confident
that with their superior skill and numbers they would wipe out the
unprepared Israelites from the land. But the mandate had come from the
Possessor of all lands, in view of the refusal of these nations to let Israel pass
through their borders, "Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river
Arnon. Behold, I have given unto thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of
Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.
This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the
nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and
shall tremble, and be in anguish, because of thee."
These nations on the borders of Canaan God would have spared, had
they not stood in defiance of his word, to oppose the progress of Israel. The
Lord had shown himself to be long-suffering, of great kindness, and tender
pity, even to these idolatrous nations. Abraham was shown in vision that his
seed, the children of Israel, after his death should be strangers in a strange
land, and should be afflicted four hundred years. But the Lord gave him the
promise, "In the fourth generation, shall they come hither again, for the
iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full." At the appointed time, the
descendants of Abraham were to receive the land of Canaan for a possession,
from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
Although the Amorites were an idolatrous people, violent and cruel, God
spared them four hundred years to give them unmistakable evidence that he
was the only true and living God, the maker of the heavens and the earth. All
his wonders in bringing Israel from Egypt, the judgments visited upon the
Egyptians because they refused to let his people go, his mighty miracle in
opening a passage through the Red Sea, and destroying Pharaoh's host; his
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