Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

Israelites to pull back from idolatry and run for refuge to the God of
their fathers. But Satan darkened their minds, leading them to copy
the practices of their heathen masters.
When the time came for Israel's deliverance, Satan determined
to keep that great people, who were more than two million, in
ignorance, superstition, obscurity, and bondage, so that he could
completely erase the remembrance of God from their minds.
When Moses performed the miracles before the king, Satan
tried to counterfeit the work of God and resist His will. This only
prepared the way for greater displays of divine power and glory.
God "brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with
gladness ... that they might observe His statutes and keep His laws"
(Psalm 105:43-45).
During the bondage in Egypt, to a great extent many of the
Israelites had lost the knowledge of God's law and had mixed its
principles with heathen customs and traditions. God brought them to
Mt. Sinai, and there with His own voice He declared His law.
Even while God was proclaiming His law to His people, Satan
was plotting to tempt them to sin. By leading them into idolatry, he
would destroy the value of all worship, for how can anyone be
elevated by adoring what may be represented by the work of his
own hands? If people could so forget their own relationship to God
that they would bow down to these revolting and senseless objects,
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