devised for bringing us out from darkness into the precious light of His grace and truth. {EP 389.2} With those who lived at a distance from the tabernacle, more than a month of every year must have been occupied in attendance upon the annual feasts. This example of devotion should emphasize the importance of religious worship, the necessity of subordinating our selfish, worldly interests to those that are spiritual and eternal. We sustain a loss when we neglect associating together to encourage one another in the service of God. We are all children of one Father, dependent upon one another for happiness. It is the proper cultivation of the social elements of our nature that brings us into sympathy with our brethren and affords us happiness. {EP 389.3} The Feast of Tabernacles not only pointed back to the wilderness sojourn, but forward to the great day of final ingathering. The Lord shall send forth His reapers to gather the tares in bundles for the fire and to gather the wheat into His garner. At that time the wicked will be destroyed. They will become “as though they had not been.” Obadiah 16. And every voice in the whole universe will unite in joyful praise to God. {EP 389.4} When the ransomed of the Lord shall have been safely gathered into the heavenly Canaan, forever delivered from the bondage of the curse, they will “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 1 Peter 1:8. Christ’s great work of atonement will then have been completed and their sins forever blotted out. {EP 390.1} And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with songs And everlasting joy upon their heads: ... And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:10 {EP 390.2}
Chapter 53—The Judges, Deliverers of Israel This chapter is based on Judges 6 to 8; 10. Satisfied with the territory already gained, the tribes’ zeal flagged, and the war was discontinued. “When Israel was strong, they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.” Judges 1:28. {EP 391.1} The Lord had faithfully fulfilled, on His part, the promises made to Israel. It only remained for them to complete the work of dispossessing the inhabitants of the land. But this they failed to do. By entering into league with the Canaanites they transgressed the command of God and failed to fulfill the condition on which He had promised to place them in possession of Canaan. {EP 391.2} At Sinai they had been warned against idolatry. “Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.” So long as they remained obedient, God would subdue their enemies: “I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come... . And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit 219
