The first effort of Satan to overthrow God’s law, which started among the sinless inhabitants of heaven, seemed to succeed for a while. A huge number of the angels were deceived. But Satan’s apparent triumph resulted in defeat and loss, separation from God, and banishment from heaven.1TC 217.2

When the conflict was renewed on earth, Satan again seemed to win an advantage. By disobedience, the human race became his captive. Now the way seemed open for Satan to establish an independent kingdom and to defy the authority of God and His Son. But the plan of salvation made it possible for sinners to be brought back into harmony with God.1TC 217.3

Again Satan was defeated, and again he resorted to deception in the hope of changing defeat into victory. He now portrayed God as unfair in having permitted our first parents to transgress His law. The tempter said, “When God knew what would be the result, why did He allow His creatures to be given a test and bring in misery and death?” The children of Adam willingly listened to the tempter and complained against the only Being who could save them from Satan’s destructive power.1TC 218.1

Thousands of people today are echoing the same rebellious complaint against God. They do not see that to not give human beings freedom of choice would make them mere robots. Like the inhabitants of all other worlds, we must undergo the test of obedience; but we are never brought into a position where yielding to evil becomes necessary. No temptation or trial is permitted that we are unable to resist.1TC 218.2

As the population increased, almost the whole world joined the rebellion. Once more Satan seemed to have gained the victory, but the earth was cleansed by the Flood from its moral pollution.1TC 218.3

Why God Chose Israel

The prophet says, “Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness ... and will not behold the majesty of the Lord” (Isaiah 26:10). This is how it was after the Flood. The inhabitants of the earth again rebelled against the Lord. The world had twice rejected God’s covenant—both the people before the Flood and the descendants of Noah threw off the divine authority. Then God entered into a covenant with Abraham and took to Himself a people to become the guardians of His law.1TC 218.4

Satan immediately began to lay his snares in order to entice and destroy these people. The children of Jacob were tempted to marry the heathen and worship their idols, but Joseph’s faithfulness was a testimony to the true faith. In order to shut out this light Satan worked through Joseph’s brothers to cause him to be sold as a slave, but God overruled. Both in the house of Potiphar and in the prison, Joseph received an education that, with the fear of God, prepared him for his position as prime minister of the nation. His influence was felt throughout the land, and the knowledge of God was spread far and wide. The idolatrous priests were filled with alarm. Inspired by Satan’s hostility toward the God of heaven, they set themselves to quench the light.1TC 218.5

After Moses fled from Egypt, idolatry seemed to conquer. Year by year the hopes of the Israelites grew fainter. Both king and people mocked the God of Israel. This spirit grew until it was fully developed in the Pharaoh whom Moses confronted. When the Hebrew leader came before the king with a message from “the Lord God of Israel,” it was not ignorance of the true God, but defiance of His power, that prompted the answer, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice ...? I do not know the Lord.” From first to last, Pharaoh’s opposition resulted from hatred and defiance.1TC 219.1

In the days of Joseph, Egypt had been a safe place for Israel. God had been honored in the kindness shown His people, and now the long-suffering One, full of compassion, gave each judgment time to do its work. The Egyptians had evidence of the power of Jehovah, and all who were willing could submit to God and escape His judgments. The stubbornness of the king resulted in spreading the knowledge of God and bringing many Egyptians to give themselves to His service.1TC 219.2

The extreme idolatry of the Egyptians and their cruelty during the later part of the Hebrew stay there should have inspired the 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.1TC 219.3

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.1TC 219.4

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.1TC 219.5

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).1TC 220.1

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.1TC 220.2

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, then the evil passions of the heart would be unlimited, and Satan would have full control.1TC 220.3

At the very foot of Sinai, Satan began to plan for overthrowing the law of God, and so continue the same work he had begun in heaven. During the forty days Moses was on the mountain with God, Satan was stirring up doubt, apostasy, and rebellion. When Moses came from the presence of divine glory with the law they had pledged to obey, he found God’s covenant people bowing in worship in front of a golden idol.1TC 220.4

Satan had planned to cause their ruin. Since they had proved themselves so completely degraded, Satan believed that the Lord would divorce them from Himself. In this way the seed (descendants) of Abraham that was to preserve the knowledge of the living God, and through whom the true Seed was to come to conquer Satan would become extinct. But the great rebel was again defeated. While those who stubbornly placed themselves on the side of Satan were cut off, the rest of the people, humbled and repentant, were mercifully pardoned. The whole universe had watched the scenes at Mt. Sinai—all had seen the contrast between the government of God and that of Satan.1TC 220.5

The True Sign of Loyalty to God—The Sabbath

God’s claim to reverence and worship above the gods of the heathen is based on the fact that He is the Creator. The prophet Jeremiah ways, “The living God ... has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion. ... Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; for his molded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are futile, a work of errors; in the time of their punishment they shall perish” (Jeremiah 10:10-12, 14, 15). The Sabbath, as a memorial of God’s creative power, points to Him as the maker of the heavens and the earth. It is a constant witness to His greatness, wisdom, and love. If the Sabbath had always been sacredly observed, there could never have been an atheist or an idolater.1TC 221.1

The Sabbath originated in the Garden of Eden—it is as old as the world itself. It was observed by all the patriarchs, from creation onward. When the law was proclaimed at Sinai, the first words of the fourth commandment were, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” showing that the Sabbath was not just then instituted. We are pointed back to creation for its origin. Satan aimed to tear down this great memorial. If people could be led to forget their Creator, they would make no effort to resist the power of evil, and Satan would take them captive.1TC 221.2

Satan’s hatred against God’s law had driven him to war against every principle of the Ten Commandments. Disrespect for the authority of parents will soon lead to disrespect for the authority of God, so Satan has worked to lessen the responsibility of the fifth commandment. In many heathen nations parents were abandoned or put to death as soon as they were too old to provide for themselves. The mother was treated with little respect, and when her husband died, she was required to submit to the authority of her eldest son. Moses commanded that sons and daughters obey their parents, but as the Israelites strayed from the Lord, the fifth commandment, with others, came to be ignored.1TC 221.3

Satan was “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), and as soon as he got power over the human race, he not only prompted them to hate and kill one another, but made killing, a violation of the sixth commandment, a part of their religion.1TC 222.1

Heathen nations were led to believe that human sacrifices were necessary in order to earn the favor of their gods, and the most horrible cruelties have been committed under various forms of idolatry. Among these was the practice of causing their children to pass through the fire before their idols. When one came through unharmed, the people believed their offerings were accepted. They regarded the child who survived as specially favored by the gods. They heaped benefits on that child and held it in high esteem from then on. However terrible the favored one’s crimes, no punishment ever followed. But if a child were burned in passing through the fire, his fate was sealed; the anger of the gods could only be satisfied by taking the life of the victim. In times of great apostasy these horrible practices existed to some extent among the Israelites.1TC 222.2

The violation of the seventh commandment was also practiced early in history in the name of religion. Terrible sexual rites became a part of the heathen worship. The gods themselves were impure, and their worshipers unleashed their baser passions. Religious festivals were characterized by universal, open impurity.1TC 222.3

Polygamy was one of the sins that brought the wrath of God upon the pre-Flood world, yet after the Flood it again became widespread. It was Satan’s studied effort to pervert marriage, to weaken its obligations and lessen its sacredness. This was the most certain way he could deface the image of God in humanity and open the door to misery and evil.1TC 222.4

God Will Win the Battle

A large number of people welcome Satan’s deceptions and set themselves against God, but amid the working of evil, God’s plans move steadily forward to their accomplishment. He is unveiling His justice and unselfish kindness to all created beings. The whole human race have become transgressors of God’s law, but by the sacrifice of His Son they may return to God. Through the grace of Christ they may be enabled to obey the Father’s law. In every age God gathers out a people “in whose heart is My law” (Isaiah 51:7).1TC 222.5

God’s dealings with rebellion will result in fully unmasking the work that has been carried on under cover for so long. The results of setting aside the divine laws will be laid open to the view of all created beings. All will admit that the law of God is completely good and right. In the presence of the witnessing universe, Satan himself will confess the justice of God’s government and the righteousness of His law.1TC 223.1

The terrors of Sinai were to represent the scenes of the judgment to the people. The sound of a trumpet summoned Israel to meet with God—the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God shall summon both the living and the dead from the whole earth to the presence of their Judge. At the great judgment day, Christ will come “in the glory of His Father with His angels” (Matthew 16:27). All nations will be gathered in His presence.1TC 223.2

When Christ comes in glory with His holy angels, the whole earth will be ablaze with the terrible light of His presence. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people” (Psalm 50:3, 4). “The Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8).1TC 223.3

When Moses came from the divine Presence on the mountain, guilty Israel could not endure the light that glorified his face. How much less can sinners look on the Son of God when He will appear in the glory of His Father, surrounded by all the holy angels, to carry out judgment on the transgressors of His law and those who reject His atonement. “The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men” shall hide themselves “in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,” and they shall say to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne ... . For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17).1TC 223.4

Satan has claimed that good would result from transgression, but it will be seen that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘that will leave them neither root nor branch’” (Malachi 4:1).1TC 224.1

But amid the tempest of divine judgment, the children of God will not be afraid. “The Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3:16).1TC 224.2

The result of the great plan of redemption is to fully bring the world back into God’s favor. Everything that was lost by sin is restored. Both the human race and the earth are redeemed, to be the eternal home of the obedient. Now God has accomplished His original purpose in its creation. “The saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever” (Daniel 7:18).1TC 224.3

The sacred laws of God, which Satan has hated and tried to destroy, will be honored throughout a sinless universe. “The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations” (Isaiah 61:11).1TC 224.4

Israel Worships a Golden Calf

The Sanctuary: God’s Dwelling Place in Israel