Guilt
67
right hand as his adversary. He is accusing the children of God and
making their case appear as desperate as possible. He presents before
the Lord their evil doings and their defects. He shows their faults and
failures, hoping they will appear of such a character in the eyes of
Christ that He will render them no help in their great need. Joshua,
as the representative of God’s people, stands under condemnation,
clothed with filthy garments. Aware of the sins of his people, he is
weighed down with discouragement. Satan is pressing upon his soul
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a sense of guiltiness that makes him feel almost hopeless. Yet there
he stands as a suppliant, with Satan arrayed against him.—
Christ’s
Object Lessons, 166, 167
(1900).
Failed to Claim God’s Promises—I have since thought that many
inmates of insane asylums were brought there by experiences similar
to my own. Their consciences were stricken with a sense of sin, and
their trembling faith dared not claim the promised pardon of God.
They listened to descriptions of the orthodox hell until it seemed to
curdle the very blood in their veins, and burned an impression upon
the tablets of their memory. Waking or sleeping, the frightful picture
was ever before them until reality became lost in imagination, and they
saw only the wreathing flames of a fabulous hell and heard only the
shrieking of the doomed. Reason became dethroned, and the brain
was filled with the wild fantasy of a terrible dream. Those who teach
the doctrine of an eternal hell would do well to look more closely after
their authority for so cruel a belief.—
Testimonies for the Church 1:25,
26
(1855).
Crisis Often Points to Source of Strength—God often brings
men to a crisis to show them their own weakness and to point them
to the source of strength. If they pray and watch unto prayer, fighting
bravely, their weak points will become their strong points. Jacob’s
experience contains many valuable lessons for us. God taught Jacob
that in his own strength he could never gain the victory, that he must
wrestle with God for strength from above.—MS 2, 1903.
Remember Christ’s Grace—When, after his sin in deceiving
Esau, Jacob fled from his father’s home, he was weighed down with a
sense of guilt. Lonely and outcast as he was, separated from all that
had made life dear, the one thought that above all others pressed upon
his soul was the fear that his sin had cut him off from God, that he was
forsaken of Heaven.
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