Beginning of the End

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. BOE 161.6

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. BOE 162.1

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. BOE 162.2

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. BOE 162.3

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. BOE 162.4

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. BOE 162.5

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. BOE 162.6

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). BOE 162.7

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. BOE 162.8

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. BOE 163.1

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. BOE 163.2

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. BOE 163.3