Chapter 60—Consecration The people of God will be tested and proved. A close and searching work must go on among Sabbathkeepers. Like ancient Israel, how soon we forget God and His wondrous works, and rebel against Him. Some look to the world and desire to follow its fashions and participate in its pleasure, just as the children of Israel looked back to Egypt and lusted for the good things which they had enjoyed there, and which God chose to withhold from them to prove them and thereby test their fidelity to Him. He wished to see if His people valued His service, and the freedom He had so miraculously given them, more highly than the indulgences they enjoyed in Egypt while in servitude to a tyrannical, idolatrous people. {1T 287.2}

Guds folk vil blive forsøgt og prøvet. Et grundigt og undersøgende arbejde er nød til at gøres blandt sabbatsholdere. Ligesom det gamle Israel glemmer vi hurtigt Gud og hans vidunderlige gerninger og gør oprør mod ham. Nogle ser på verden og får lyst til at følge dets manérer og deltage i dets (288) fornøjelser, præcis som Israels børn så tilbage til Ægypten og tørstede efter de det gode ting, som de havde nydt der og hvem Gud valgte at holde tilbage for at afprøve dem og derved prøve deres troskab til ham. Han ønskede at se om hans folk værdsatte hans tjeneste og den frihed han så mirakuløst havde givet dem, højere end de fornøjelser de nød i Ægypten, selv om de var i trældom under et tyrannisk afguderisk folk.