Gods Sabbath

F AITH W ITHOUT W ORKS IS D EAT

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path with the blood of the slain. Those who reached the summit, exhausted with their ascent, were fiercely repulsed, and driven back with great loss. The field of carnage was strewn with the bodies of the dead. The army of Israel was utterly defeated. De struction and death was the result of that rebellious experiment. “Forced to submission at last, the survivors ‘returned, and wept before the Lord;’ but ‘the Lord would not hearken’ to their voice. Deuteronomy 1:45. By their signal victory the enemies of Israel, who had before awaited with trembling the approach of that mighty host, were inspired with confidence to resist them. All the reports they had heard concerning the marvelous things that God had wrought for His people, they now regarded as false, and they felt that there was no cause for fear. That first defeat of Israel, by inspiring the Canaanites with courage and resolution, had greatly increased the difficulties of the conquest. Nothing remained for Israel but to fall back from the face of their victorious foes, into the wilderness, knowing that here must be the grave of a whole generation.” Patriarchs and Pro phets , 393.2–394.3. This is the tragic story of a people who did not enter into God’s rest because they did not know His ways, even though there was so much about them which would lead an observer to believe that they were very familiar with Jehovah and His procedures. He had called them to be the light of the world, had led them from Egypt to Kadesh Barnea, provided them with abundant protection from their enemies, given them the beautiful gospel symbols of the sanctuary and its sacrificial system, and prom ised them a marvelous inheritance. On their part, they seemed to love the cause of God and manifested a desire to see it pros per. In many ways they had obeyed Jehovah implicitly as they journeyed to Kadesh Barnea. But it required more than this for them to be classified as a people who knew God’s ways sufficiently to enter into His rest. Within them was the persistent disposition to assume the posi tion of plan maker—a position the Lord had never given them. This led from one failed plan to another and destroyed their faith. They needed to cease planning God’s work for Him and instead learn to trust in His plans and carry them out in His way. It is no wonder the True Witness sadly declared of that