"The judgments visited upon Israel for their sin at Shittim, destroyed the survivors of that vast company, who, nearly forty years before, had incurred the sentence, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” The numbering of the people by divine direction, during their encampment on the plains of Jordan, showed that “of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, ... there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.” Numbers 26:64, 65 . PP 456.1"
"But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai."
EGW directly quotes Numbers 26:64 and references Numbers 26:65, accurately attributing the words to the numbering of the Israelites.
"Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,"
Both passages discuss the consequence of the Israelites dying in the wilderness due to their disobedience. EGW connects the judgment at Shittim to the earlier sentence pronounced in Numbers 14:29.
God had sent judgments upon Israel for yielding to the enticements of the Midianites; but the tempters were not to escape the wrath of divine justice. The Amalekites, who had attacked Israel at Rephidim, falling upon those who were faint and weary behind the host, were not punished till long after; but the Midianites who seduced them into sin were speedily made to feel God's judgments, as being the more dangerous enemies. “Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites” ( Numbers 31:2 ), was the command of God to Moses; “afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.” This mandate was immediately obeyed. One thousand men were chosen from each of the tribes and sent out under the leadership of Phinehas. “And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses.... And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; ... five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.” Verses 7, 8 . The women also, who had been made captiv…
"Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people."
Ellen White directly references Numbers 31:2 in this passage.