Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

the result of their evil course rather than from a sense of their
unthankfulness and disobedience. When they found that the Lord
did not change His decision, their self-will came back and they
declared that they would not return into the wilderness. In telling
them to go back, God tested their outward submission and proved it
was not real. Their hearts were unchanged, and they only needed an
excuse to start a similar outbreak. If they had been sorry for their sin
when it was faithfully pointed out to them, this sentence would not
have been pronounced; but they were only sorry about the judgment.
Their sorrow was not repentance and could not give them a change
of their sentence.
The people spent that night sorrowing, but in the morning they
decided to redeem their lack of bravery. When God had told them to
go up and take the land, they had refused; and now when He
directed them to retreat, they were equally rebellious.
God had made it their privilege and duty to enter the land at the
time He had appointed, but through their willful refusal that
permission had been withdrawn. Now, in the face of God's
forbidding, Satan urged them on to do the very thing that they had
refused to do when God required it, leading them to rebel the second
time. "We have sinned against the Lord," they cried. "We will go up
and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us" (Deuteronomy
1:41). They had become so terribly blinded! The Lord had never
commanded them to "go up and fight." He did not intend them to
gain the land by warfare, but by strict obedience to His commands.
338