Cleanliness Should Mark the Life of a Christian, April 16

And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. Exodus 19:10. Incorrect personal habits are among the most prolific causes of disease. Order and cleanliness are laws of heaven. The directions given to Moses when the Lord was about to declare His law upon Mount Sinai were very strict in this respect.... They were directed to do this, lest there should be impurity about them as they should come before God. He is a God of order, and He requires order and cleanliness in His people. On no occasion were the children of Israel to allow impurities to remain upon their clothing or their persons. Those who had any uncleanness were to be shut out of the camp until the evening and then were required to cleanse themselves and their clothing before they could return. They were also commanded to carry all their refuse to a distance from the camp.... The Lord requires no less of His people now than He did anciently. If cleanliness was so necessary to those journeying in the wilderness, who were in the open air nearly all the time, it is no less necessary to us, who live in close houses, where impurities are more observable and have a more unhealthful influence. The moral law, spoken from Sinai, cannot have a place in the hearts of persons of disorderly, filthy habits. If the children of Israel could not so much as listen to the proclamation of that holy law without cleanliness of person and clothing, how can its pure precepts be written upon the hearts of those who are untidy in their persons and their homes? ... Violent epidemics of fever have occurred in villages and cities that were considered perfectly healthful, and these have resulted in death or broken constitutions. In many instances the premises of the very ones who fell victims to these epidemics contained the agents of destruction, which sent forth deadly poison into the atmosphere to be inhaled by the family and the neighborhood.... When Lord Palmerston was premier of England, he was at one time petitioned by the Scottish clergy to appoint a day of fasting and prayer to avert the cholera. He replied, “Cleanse and disinfect your streets and houses, promote cleanliness and health among the poor, and see that they are plentifully supplied with good food and raiment, and employ right sanitary measures generally, and you will have no occasion to fast and pray. Nor will the Lord hear your prayers while these, His preventatives, remain unheeded.”—Manuscript 58, 1890.

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Christian Life Is Not Always Green Pastures, April 15

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. Exodus 17:6. Though the way may be rough, we must exercise implicit faith in the power of the Lord to guide us. The experience of the children of Israel when journeying through the wilderness is a lesson for us on this point. “All the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin ... according to the commandments of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.” ... He who was enshrouded in the pillar of cloud was leading them, and it was by His express command that they were encamped at this place. The General of the armies of heaven knew of the lack of water at Rephidim, and He brought His people hither to test their faith. But how poorly they proved themselves to be a people whom He could trust. Again and again He had manifested Himself to His chosen people. He had slain the first-born of all families of Egypt to accomplish their deliverance, and had brought them out of the land of their captivity with a high hand. He had fed them with angels’ food, and had covenanted to bring them into the Promised Land. But now, when brought into difficulty, they broke into rebellion, distrusted God, and complained that Moses had brought them and their children out of Egypt only that they might die of thirst in the wilderness. By their murmurings and lack of faith they dishonored God and placed themselves where they could not appreciate His mercies. Many today think that when they begin their Christian life they will find freedom from all want and difficulty. But all who take up their cross to follow Christ come to a Rephidim in their experience. Life is not all made up of green pastures and cooling streams. Disappointment overtakes us, privations come, circumstances occur that bring us into difficult places. As we follow in the narrow way, doing our best as we think, we find that grievous trials come to us. We think that we must have walked by our own wisdom far away from God. Conscience-stricken, we reason that if we had walked with God we would not have suffered so.... But of old the Lord led His people to Rephidim, and He may choose to bring us there also in order to test our faithfulness and loyalty to Him. In mercy to us He does not always place us in the easiest places, for if He did, in our self-sufficiency we would forget that the Lord is our helper in time of necessity.—Letter 24, 1896.

Warnings Against a Depraved Appetite, April 14

Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth ... to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Exodus 16:3. God designed to bestow great blessings upon His people. He purposed to bring them to a good land, which for its richness and fertility was called a land flowing with milk and honey. God designed to establish them there as a healthful, strong, and mighty people if they would submit to His requirements. The people of Israel had lived upon rich and luxurious food in Egypt, not the most healthful for them, and God would bring them through the wilderness to the good land He had promised them. In their travels [He] would remove from them flesh meats and give them a simple yet healthful quality of food and establish them in the good land of Canaan, a powerful people with not a feeble man, woman, or child in all their tribes.... Since the fall of Eve in Eden through intemperate desire to gratify the taste, this has been the prevailing sin of the human family. Eve, after her transgression, prevailed upon her husband to eat also. Adam was not deceived as was Eve, but he was influenced by her to do as she had done—eat and risk the consequences since no harm, she said, had come to her. Adam yielded to the temptations of his wife. He could not endure to be separated from her. He ate and fell from his integrity. Since this lamentable occurrence—which has introduced sin into our world—intemperate, lustful appetite, and the power of influence that one in the wrong exerts over another, have brought an accumulation of misery that it is not possible for language to describe. In no other way has Satan come with his temptations to fallen humankind as successfully as through the appetite. In their journeyings through the wilderness, rebellion and insurrection were continually arising in the armies of Israel because their depraved appetites would not be indulged. Moses was brought into the greatest perplexity and his heart made sad through the continual murmurings of the children of Israel because God, for their own good, withheld from them flesh meats. They were continually imagining trouble and anticipating evil. They were jealous of Moses, thinking that he might have selfish motives in leading them from Egypt, that it might be his desire to lead them into the wilderness so that they might perish there, and he enrich himself with their possessions.—Manuscript 32, 1885.

Israel's Experience Reminds Us of Sabbath Importance, April 13

See! The Lord has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you food for two days; each of you stay where you are; do not leave your place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. Exodus 16:29, 30, NRSV. Before the law was given from Sinai, God wrought a miracle each week to impress the people with the sanctity of the Sabbath. He rained manna from heaven for their food, and each day they gathered this manna, but on the sixth day they gathered twice as much as usual, according to the directions of Moses.... “And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.” Thus for forty years God worked a miracle before His people each week, to show them that His Sabbath was a sacred day. God directed that a tabernacle should be built where the Israelites, during their wilderness journeying, could worship Him. Orders from heaven were given that this tabernacle should be built without delay. Because of the sacredness of the work and the need for haste, some argued that the work on the tabernacle should be carried forward on the Sabbath, as well as on other days of the week. Christ heard these suggestions, and saw that the people were in great danger of being ensnared by concluding that they would be justified in working on the Sabbath so that the tabernacle might be completed as quickly as possible. The word came to them, “Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep.” Though the work on the tabernacle must be carried forward with expedition, the Sabbath must not be employed as a working day. Even the work on the Lord's house must give way to the sacred observance of the Lord's rest day. Thus God is jealous for the honor of His memorial of creation. The Sabbath is a token between God and His people. It is a holy day, given by the Creator to us as a day upon which to rest, and reflect upon sacred things. God designed it to be observed through every age as a perpetual covenant.... As we refrain from labor on the seventh day, we testify to the world that we are on God's side and are striving to live in perfect conformity to His commandments. Thus we recognize as our Sovereign the God who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh.... The true Sabbath is to be restored to its rightful position as God's rest day.—Manuscript 77, 1900 (The Review and Herald, October 28, 1902).

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