"As my husband has stood by my side to sustain me in my work and has borne a plain testimony in unison with the work of the Spirit of God, many have felt that it was he personally who was injuring them, when it was the Lord who laid upon him the burden and who was, through His servant, reproving them and seeking to bring them where they would repent of their wrongs and have the favor of God. 3T 261.1"
"For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building."
The EGW passage describes her husband's role in supporting her work and bearing testimony, suggesting they are working together in a divine mission. This aligns with the idea of being 'laborers together with God' as expressed in 1 Corinthians 3:9. The connection is thematic, focusing on the concept of co-laboring with God in His work.
"Those whom God has chosen for an important work have ever been received with distrust and suspicion. Anciently, when Elijah was sent with a message from God to the people, they did not heed the warning. They thought him unnecessarily severe. They even thought that he must have lost his senses because he denounced them, the favored people of God, as sinners and their crimes as so aggravated that the judgments of God would awaken against them. Satan and his host have ever been arrayed against those who bear the message of warning and who reprove sins. The unconsecrated will also be united with the adversary of souls to make the work of God's faithful servants as hard as possible. 3T 261.2"
"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."
Both passages discuss the hatred and rejection faced by those who follow God or deliver His message. The EGW passage provides a specific example (Elijah) while John 15:18 offers a general principle.
"It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?"
Both passages highlight the persecution faced by those who serve God, drawing a parallel between the treatment of Jesus and the treatment of his followers. The EGW passage illustrates this with Elijah, while Matthew 10:25 presents it as a general expectation.
"If my husband has been pressed beyond measure and has become discouraged and desponding, if we have at times seen nothing desirable in life that we should choose it, this is nothing strange or new. Elijah, one of God's great and mighty prophets, as he fled for his life from the rage of the infuriated Jezebel, a fugitive, weary and travel-worn, desired to die rather than to live. His bitter disappointment in regard to Israel's faithfulness had crushed his spirits, and he felt that he could no longer put confidence in man. In the day of Job's affliction and darkness, he utters these words: “Let the day perish wherein I was born.” 3T 261.3"
"But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers."
The EGW passage directly references Elijah's desire to die while fleeing Jezebel, which is described in 1 Kings 19:4. The context and sentiment are clearly aligned.
"Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?"
The EGW passage directly quotes Job's lament about his birth from Job 3, indicating a clear and intentional connection.
"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:"
Both passages describe being "pressed out of measure" and despairing of life. While the EGW passage focuses on the discouragement of her husband and alludes to Elijah and Job, 2 Corinthians 1:8 speaks of Paul's own overwhelming troubles. The shared theme of extreme pressure and despair justifies the connection.