When Israel was assailed by the Amalekites, Moses gave Joshua directions to fight with their enemies while he would stand with the rod of God in his hand, with his hand raised toward heaven in the sight of the people, showing to rebellious, murmuring Israel that their strength and power was in God. He was their might and the source of their strength. There was no power in that rod; God wrought through Moses. Moses had to receive all his strength from above. When he held up his hands, Israel prevailed; when he let down his hands, Amalek prevailed. When Moses became weary, preparations were needful to keep his weary hands continually raised toward heaven. Aaron and Hur prepared a seat for Moses, and then both engaged in holding up his weary hands until the going down of the sun. These men thus showed to Israel their duty to sustain Moses in his arduous work while he should receive the word from God to speak to them. This act was also to show Israel that God alone held their destiny in His hands, that He was their acknowledged leader. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.... For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” Exodus 17:14~16. “Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.” Deuteronomy 25:17~19. (2T 107.1) MC VC

As the angel of God presented these facts in the travels and experience of the children of Israel, I was deeply impressed with the especial regard of God for His people. Notwithstanding their errors, their disobedience, and their rebellion, they were still God’s chosen people. He had especially honored them by coming down from His holy habitation upon Mount Sinai and, in majesty and glory and awful grandeur, speaking the Ten Commandments in the audience of all the people and writing them with His own finger on the tables of stone. The Lord says of His people Israel: “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers.” Deuteronomy 7:6~8. (2T 108.1) MC VC

I was shown that those who are trying to obey God and purify their souls through obedience to the truth are God’s chosen people, His modern Israel. God says of them, through Peter: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9. As it was a crime for Amalek to take advantage of the children of Israel in their weakness and weariness, to annoy, perplex, and discourage them, so it was no small sin for you to be closely watching to discover the weakness, the haltings, the errors and sins of God’s afflicted people, and expose the same to their enemies. You were doing Satan’s work, not the work of God. Many of the Sabbathkeeping Adventists in ----- have been very weak. They have been miserable representatives of the truth. They have not been an honor to the cause of present truth, and the cause would have been better off without them. You have taken the unconsecrated lives of Sabbathkeepers as an excuse for your occupying a position of doubt and unbelief. It has also strengthened your unbelief to see that some of these unconsecrated ones were professing strong faith in the visions, vindicating them when opposed, and defending them with warmth, while, at the same time that they professed so much zeal, they were disregarding the teachings given through vision and were going directly contrary to them. In this respect they were stumbling blocks to Brother U, and were bringing the visions into disrepute by their course of action. (2T 109.1) MC VC