Chapter 29—Satan’s Hatred of God’s Law
The first effort of Satan to overthrow God’s law—undertaken among the sinless inhabitants of heaven—seemed for a time to be crowned with success. A vast number of the angels were seduced. But Satan’s apparent triumph resulted in defeat and loss, separation from God, and banishment from heaven. {EP 231.1}
When the conflict was renewed on earth, Satan again won a seeming advantage. By transgression, man 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 man again to be brought into harmony with God. {EP 231.2}
Again Satan was defeated, and again he resorted to deception in the hope of converting defeat into victory. He now represented God as unjust in having permitted man to transgress His law. “Why,” said the tempter, “when God knew what would be the result, did He permit man to be placed on trial and bring in misery and death?” The children of Adam gave ear to the tempter and murmured against the only Being who could save them from the destructive power of Satan. {EP 231.3}
Thousands today are echoing the same rebellious complaint against God. They do not see that to deprive man of freedom of choice would make him a mere automaton. Like the inhabitants of all other worlds, he must be subject to the test of obedience; but he is never brought into such a position that yielding to evil becomes a matter of necessity. No temptation or trial is permitted which he is unable to resist. {EP 231.4}
As men increased, almost the whole world joined the ranks of rebellion. Once more Satan seemed to have gained the victory, but the earth was cleansed by the Flood from its moral pollution. {EP 232.1}
Why God Chose Israel
Says the prophet, “Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: ... and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.” Isaiah 26:10. Thus it was after the Flood. The inhabitants of the earth again rebelled against the Lord. Twice God’s covenant had been rejected by the world. Both the people before the Flood and the descendants of Noah cast off the divine authority. Then God entered into covenant with Abraham and took to Himself a people to become the depositaries of His law. {EP 232.2}
To seduce and destroy this people, Satan began at once to lay his snares. The children of Jacob were tempted to contract marriage with the heathen and worship their idols. But Joseph’s fidelity was a testimony to the true faith. To quench 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 enmity toward the God of heaven, they set themselves to quench the light. {EP 232.3}
After the flight of Moses 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 culminated in the Pharaoh who was confronted by Moses. When the Hebrew leader came before the king with a message from “Jehovah, God of Israel,” it was not ignorance of the true God, but defiance of His power, that prompted the answer, “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice? ... I know not Jehovah.” From first to last, Pharaoh’s opposition was the result of hatred and defiance. {EP 232.4}
In the days of Joseph, Egypt had been an asylum 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 would might 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. {EP 233.1}
The gross idolatry of the Egyptians and their cruelty during the latter part of the Hebrew sojourn should have inspired in the Israelites an abhorrence of idolatry and led them to flee for refuge to the God of their fathers. But Satan darkened their minds, leading them to imitate the practices of their heathen masters. {EP 233.2}
When the time came for Israel’s deliverance, it was Satan’s determination that that great people, numbering more than two million, should be held in ignorance, superstition, obscurity, and bondage that he might obliterate from their minds the remembrance of God. {EP 233.3}
When the miracles were wrought before the king, Satan wrought to counterfeit the work of God and resist His will. The only result was to prepare the way for greater exhibitions of divine power and glory. {EP 233.4}
God “brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen with gladness ... that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws.” Psalm 105:43-45. {EP 233.5}
During the bondage in Egypt many of the Israelites had, to a great extent, lost the knowledge of God’s law and had mingled its precepts with heathen customs and traditions. God brought them to Sinai, and there with His own voice declared His law. {EP 233.6}
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 efficacy of all worship, for how can man be elevated by adoring what may be symbolized by his own handiwork? If men could so forget their own divine relationship as to bow down to these revolting and senseless objects, then the evil passions of the heart would be unrestrained, and Satan would have full sway. {EP 233.7}
At the very foot of Sinai, Satan began to plan for overthrowing the law of God, thus carrying forward the same work he had begun in heaven. During the forty days Moses was in the mount with God, Satan was exciting 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 adoration before a golden image. {EP 234.1}
Satan had planned to cause their ruin. Since they had proved themselves so utterly degraded, the Lord would, he believed, divorce them from Himself. Thus would be secured the extinction of the seed of Abraham that was to preserve the knowledge of the living God, and through whom the true Seed was to come to conquer Satan. But the great rebel again was defeated. While those who stubbornly ranged themselves on the side of Satan were cut off, the people, humbled and repentant, were mercifully pardoned. The whole universe had been witness to the scenes at Sinai; all had seen the contrast between the government of God and that of Satan. {EP 234.2}
The True Sign of Loyalty to God—The Sabbath
God’s claim to reverence and worship, above the gods of the heathen, is based upon the fact that He is the Creator. Says the prophet Jeremiah: “The living God ... hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion.” “Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation 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. Had the Sabbath always been sacredly observed, there could never have been an atheist or an idolater. {EP 234.3}
The Sabbath, which originated in Eden, is as old as the world itself. It was observed by all the patriarchs, from creation down. 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 then instituted. We are pointed back for its origin to creation. Satan aimed to tear down this great memorial. If men could be led to forget their Creator, they would make no effort to resist the power of evil, and Satan would be sure of his prey. {EP 235.1}
Satan’s enmity against God’s law had impelled him to war against every precept of the Decalogue. Contempt for parental authority will soon lead to contempt for the authority of God, hence Satan’s efforts to lessen the obligation of the fifth commandment. In many heathen nations parents were abandoned or put to death as soon as age had rendered them incapable of providing for themselves. The mother was treated with little respect, and, upon the death of her husband, was required to submit to the authority of her eldest son. Filial obedience was enjoined by Moses; but as the Israelites departed from the Lord, the fifth commandment, with others, came to be disregarded. {EP 235.2}
Satan was “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44); and as soon as he obtained power over the human race, he not only prompted them to hate and slay one another, but made the violation of the sixth commandment a part of their religion. {EP 235.3}
Heathen nations were led to believe that human sacrifices were necessary to secure the favor of their deities; and the most horrible cruelties have been perpetrated 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. The one thus delivered was regarded as specially favored by the gods, was loaded with benefits, and ever afterward held in high esteem. However aggravated his crimes, he was never punished. But should one be burned in passing through the fire, his fate was sealed; the anger of the gods could be appeased only by taking the life of the victim. In times of great apostasy these abominations prevailed, to some extent, among the Israelites. {EP 235.4}
The violation of the seventh commandment also was early practiced in the name of religion. Licentious and abominable rites were made a part of the heathen worship. The gods themselves were impure, and their worshipers gave rein to the baser passions. Religious festivals were characterized by universal, open impurity. {EP 236.1}
Polygamy was one of the sins that brought the wrath of God upon the antediluvian 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. In no surer way could he deface the image of God in man and open the door to misery and vice. {EP 236.2}
God Will Win the Battle
Multitudes give ear to Satan’s deceptions and set themselves against God. But amid the working of evil, God’s purposes move steadily forward to their accomplishment. To all created intelligences He is making manifest His justice and benevolence. 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 render obedience to the Father’s law. In every age God gathers out a people “in whose heart is His law.” Isaiah 51:7. {EP 236.3}
God’s dealings with rebellion will result in fully unmasking the work so long carried on under cover. The fruits of setting aside the divine statutes will be laid open to the view of all created intelligences. The law of God will stand fully vindicated. Satan himself, in the presence of the witnessing universe, will confess the justice of God’s government and the righteousness of His law. {EP 237.1}
The terrors of Sinai were to represent to the people the scenes of the judgment. The sound of a trumpet summoned Israel to meet with God. The voice of the Archangel and the trump of God shall summon, from the whole earth, both the living and the dead 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. Before Him shall be gathered all nations. {EP 237.2}
When Christ shall come in glory with His holy angels, the whole earth shall be ablaze with the terrible light of His presence. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about 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 shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8. {EP 237.3}
When Moses came from the divine Presence in the mount, guilty Israel could not endure the light that glorified his countenance. How much less can transgressors look upon the Son of God when He shall appear in the glory of His Father, surrounded by all the heavenly host, to execute judgment upon the transgressors of His law and the rejecters of His atonement. “The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men” shall hide themselves “in the dens 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 that sitteth on the throne, ... for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Revelation 6:15-17. {EP 237.4}
Satan has represented 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 cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Malachi 4:1. {EP 238.1}
But amid the tempest of divine judgment, the children of God will have no cause for fear. “The Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” Joel 3:16. {EP 238.2}
The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God’s favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient. Now God’s original purpose in its creation is accomplished. “The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.” Daniel 7:18. {EP 238.3}
The sacred statutes which Satan has hated and sought 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. {EP 238.4}