Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

given themselves up to terrible idolatry were blotted from the earth.
Israel's Fatal Mistake
Many remembered the events that nearly forty years before had
doomed Israel to long desert wandering. The report of the spies
concerning the Promised Land was correct in many respects. The
cities were walled and very great and inhabited by giants. But now
they could see the fatal mistake of the previous generation in
distrusting the power of God. This had prevented them from
entering the beautiful land at once.
God had promised His people that if they would obey His voice
He would go ahead of them and fight for them. He would drive out
the inhabitants of the land. But now Israel must go forward against
alert and powerful foes and do battle with well-trained armies that
had been preparing to resist.
The earlier generation had failed dramatically. But the test was
more severe now than when God had commanded Israel to go
forward. The difficulties had greatly increased since they refused to
go forward when told to do so.
God still tests His people, and if they fail He brings them again
to the same point, and the second time the test will be more severe
than the first.
The mighty God of Israel is our God. In Him we may trust, and
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