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

March 10, 1881
God's Care for Israel
The time drew near when Moses was to leave to others the command of
Israel. In obedience to God's decree, he must soon go up to Mount Nebo to
die. But before he should leave the congregation, the Lord directed him to
rehearse to them the main facts of their deliverance from Egypt and their
journeyings in the wilderness. He was to present before them the wonderful
manifestations of God's power in bringing them forth from the iron furnace,
which figure well illustrated their cruel and degrading bondage in Egypt.
They would never have been delivered from their oppressors but for the
interposition of the God of Heaven.
Moses was not only to present before the people the merciful
manifestations of divine power in all their journeyings, but to recapitulate the
law of God spoken from Sinai. When the law was repeated by the mouth of
Jehovah to their fathers, the present congregation of Israel were too young to
comprehend the awful grandeur and solemnity of the occasion. Their fathers
heard the voice of God, and witnessed his power, and were made to feel the
sacred character of his holy law; but they had not kept that law, and for their
transgressions, they fell in the wilderness without seeing the goodly land.
The sins and mistakes which brought upon the fathers the wrath of God,
were to be rehearsed before their children, that they might see the awful
results of transgression of God's law. As they were soon to pass over Jordan
and take possession of the promised land, God would present before them in
a correct light the claims of his law, and enjoin upon them obedience as the
only condition of their prosperity. It was not enough for them to be God's
people in name only. Their love to him, their right to the name of the Israel
of God, would be manifested by their obedience.
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