Nehemiah 9:19
Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
In Nehemiah 9 the verse belongs to a rehearsal of what the Lord had done for His people, joined with a pointing out of the people's sins, ingratitude, and turning from God. It is part of Israel's history of God's goodness set against the people's ingratitude, showing that God's mercy did not fail them in the wilderness. Even when the people dealt proudly and hardened their necks and rebelled, and made a molten calf and said it had brought them up out of Egypt and wrought great provocations, God in His manifold mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.
That same mercy continued through the nearly forty years in the desert after the rebellion at Kadesh, when the people were under divine rebuke for rejecting God, rejected for the time, banished and lost to view in the obscurity of the wilderness, yet though unfaithful they were not utterly forsaken. Not forsaking them meant the pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to lead them in the way, and the pillar of fire did not depart by night to give light and show them the way they should go. The cloud guided them by day and the fire gave light and showed the way by night. The One who led Israel in those signs was Christ Himself, enshrouded in the cloud by day and the fire by night, as their Redeemer and Protector and wonder-working God.
With the pillar He continued other mercies: His good Spirit to instruct them, manna not withheld, water for their thirst, and sustaining them for forty years so that their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell and they lacked nothing. The continuance of the tabernacle service testified that He had not utterly forsaken them. Yet His miracles and continued guidance did not save them, because they were not willing to walk in obedience to His will. The verse also shows how much God had done for them in mercy, yet He would not serve with their sins; their sins separated them from God, and He permitted them to be brought under the control of heathen nations.
God's mercy and continued care for Israel is a pattern for His gracious treatment of Seventh-day Adventists: though they have not valued His favors, He has not forsaken them altogether. This record is to be presented to the people as occasion requires in bold defense of the truth. That truth will be perverted more and more into strong representations of evil unless there is decided reformation among those in positions of influence.