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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
the special sacredness of the ark and all that appertained thereunto,
lest they should look upon these things without realizing their holiness
and should be cut off from Israel. All things pertaining to the most
holy place were to be looked upon with reverence.
The travels of the children of Israel are faithfully described; the
deliverance which the Lord wrought for them, their perfect organiza-
tion and special order, their sin in murmuring against Moses and thus
against God, their transgressions, their rebellions, their punishments,
their carcasses strewn in the wilderness because of their unwillingness
to submit to God’s wise arrangements—this faithful picture is hung up
before us as a warning lest we follow their example of disobedience
and fall like them.
“But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were
overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples,
to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The
people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us
commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day
three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them
also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as
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some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they
are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are
come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall.” Has God changed from a God of order? No; He is the same in
the present dispensation as in the former. Paul says: “God is not the
author of confusion, but of peace.” He is as particular now as then.
And He designs that we should learn lessons of order and organization
from the perfect order instituted in the days of Moses for the benefit
of the children of Israel.