period of the day of the Lord where the the heathen are going to be judged, and I'm focusing on the heathen for a specific purpose here. We're going to find that Gideon has a direct relationship to the punishment and the final chastisement of the heathen. So this passage in Joel is directly related to that, but this multitude is the heathen, the Gentiles, those that are going to stand to oppose God at the end of the world, and this is illustrated within the first 10 verses of the story of Gideon. Due to their backsliding, the children of Israel were in confrontation with this multitude pointing forward to the end. Now in Bible prophecy, and we're going to take this next point up in depth in a further study, the hand symbolizes being brought into subjection to a power, and in Judges 6 through 8 where we look at the story of Gideon, there are 16 different times that the hand is used to describe either Israel being in bondage to Midian or the Lord bringing someone into subjection to himself by using the term the hand. This is a significant symbol to understand, particularly when you get into the book of Daniel, and we're going to touch on that later, but Seventh-day Adventists generally understand this clearly, and I just want to make sure that we recognize this hand for what it is in this passage. It is important understanding in Adventism as far as our prophetic recognition of truth. Testimonies, volume 5, page 712 says this, When our nations shall so abjure the principles of its government as to an act of Sunday law, Protestantism will in this act join hands with potpourri. One of the things that takes place at the end of the world prophetically is that those that are going to come into alliance with Rome are going to join hands with them, and we know from a broader study of what takes place in the Sunday law that at the Sunday law we see the mark of Rome's authority recognized by the United States, and then the other countries of the world will follow after, but this joining hands here is an acknowledgement of the spiritual authority of Rome. It's coming into spiritual subjection, spiritual bondage to Catholicism. Great Controversy 588 says, The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism. They will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power, and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling upon the rights of conscience. We need to recognize that in the story of Gideon, this hand is very, as a prophetic symbol, is very strongly confirmed. Sixteen times in three different, in three chapters alone, the hand is used to