THIRD QUARTER 2025
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #11
SEPTEMBER 13, 2025
"APOSTASY AND INTERCESSION."

 

The lesson this week provides lessons and instructions for God’s remnant church today, awaiting the exodus to the heavenly Canaan. Our focus is Exodus Chapter 32, which introduces one of the most unfortunate but instructive experiences in the children of Israel’s journey to the earthly Canaan. Moses is in the mountain with God. It’s been about forty days, and the Israelites believe that Moses return is delayed. “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, ‘Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And Aaron said to them, 'Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ So, all the people broke off the golden earrings which werein their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ So, when Aaron saw it,he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.' Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play” (Exodus 32:1-6, NKJV).

The Israelites lacked the faith of Moses and their fathers who “endured seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). “The mighty miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea were designed to establish faith in Him as the invisible, all-powerful Helper of Israel, the only true God. And the desire for some visible manifestation of His presence had been granted in the pillar of cloud and of fire that guided their hosts, and in the revealing of His glory upon Mount Sinai. But with the cloud of the Presence still before them, they turned back in their hearts to the idolatry of Egypt and represented the glory of the invisible God by the similitude of an ox!” —Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 315. God responded. “And the LORD said to Moses, 'Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”’ And the LORD said to Moses, 'I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation’” (Exodus 32:7-10).

Before we go further, we learn some lessons. 

1. Leadership matters. In the absence of Moses, Aaron was the authority figure. The crowd gathered around his tent making unreasonable demands. What was needed at this time was leadership of God’s order. “Such a crisis demanded a man of firmness, decision, and unflinching courage; one who held the honor of God above popular favor, personal safety, or life itself. But the present leader of Israel was not of this character. Aaron feebly remonstrated with the people, but his wavering and timidity at the critical moment only rendered them the more determined.” ^—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 316. “Aaron feared for his own safety; and instead of nobly standing up for the honor of God, he yielded to the demands of the multitude.” —ibid, p. 317.
2. Experiential worship, a worship that is based on feelings rather than sound doctrine is a trap. The text says that they rose up early the next morning, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. They sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play! Ellen White comments on this. “Under the pretense of holding 'a feast to the Lord,’ they gave themselves up to gluttony and licentious reveling. How often, in our own day, is the love of pleasure disguised by a ‘form of godliness’! A religion that permits men, while observing the rites of worship, to devote themselves to selfish or sensual gratification, is as pleasing to the multitudes now as in the days of Israel. And there are still pliant Aarons, who, while holding positions of authority in the church, will yield to the desires of the unconsecrated, and thus encourage them in sin.” —ibid..  An appeal to the senses and feelings was masquerading as worship! Does this happen today?
3. Beware of growing weary in waiting. The backsliding amongst the people of God occurred when they thought that Moses delayed his coming. Likewise, we have the same temptation to say, “My Master delays His coming.” Luke says, “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:35-40).
4. Idolatry still occurs today. “I was pointed back to ancient Israel. But two of the adults of the vast army that left Egypt entered the land of Canaan. Their dead bodies were strewn in the wilderness because of their transgressions. Modern Israel is in greater danger of forgetting God and being led into idolatry than were His ancient people. Many idols are worshiped, even by professed Sabbath keepers. God especially charged His ancient people to guard against idolatry, for if they should be led away from serving the living God, His curse would rest upon them, while if they would love Him with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their might, He would abundantly bless them in basket and in store, and would remove sickness from the midst of them.” ^—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Volume 1, p. 609. “The apostle’s words of warning to the Corinthian church are applicable to all time and are especially adapted to our day. By idolatry he meant not only the worship of idols, but self-serving, love of ease, the gratification of appetite and passion. A mere profession of faith in Christ, a boastful knowledge of the truth, does not make a man a Christian. A religion that seeks only to gratify the eye, the ear, and the taste, or that sanctions self-indulgence, is not the religion of Christ.” ^—Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 317. Let us remember that the pillar or cloud was still before them, when they turned back in their hearts to the idolatry of Egypt.

As Moses considered God’s remedy in Exodus 32:10 for rebellious Israel, he drew on his deep knowledge, understanding, and previous communion with his God. After all, he had conversations with God, face to face as a man speaks to his friend, so much so that after his death it was said of him, “But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10). “‘Let Me alone, ... that I may consume them,’ were the words of God. If God had purposed to destroy Israel, who could plead for them? How few but would have left the sinners to their fate! How few but would have gladly exchanged a lot of toil and burden and sacrifice, repaid with ingratitude and murmuring, for a position of ease and honor, when it was God Himself that offered the release.” ^—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 318.

Based on his deep understanding of the character of God, Moses interceded. “Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: 'LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, “He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from Your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever”’” (Exodus 32:11-13).

“Moses discerned ground for hope where there appeared only discouragement and wrath. The words of God, 'Let Me alone,' he understood not to forbid but to encourage intercession, implying that nothing but the prayers of Moses could save Israel, but that if thus entreated, God would spare His people. He ‘besought the Lord his God.’” ^—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 318. 

Moses had something more he wanted to discuss with God. It is important to note that when God told Moses of the sin of the people, He identified the people as Moses’ people, and that Moses was the one who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. Moses pleaded with God and told Him that His wrath burned hot against His people and that He in fact was the One who had brought them out with “great power and with a mighty hand.” Only someone who knows God can enter confidently into this conversation with God. “As Moses interceded for Israel, his timidity was lost in his deep interest and love for those for whom he had, in the hands of God, been the means of doing so much. The Lord listened to his pleadings and granted his unselfish prayer. God had proved His servant; He had tested his faithfulness and his love for that erring, ungrateful people, and nobly had Moses endured the trial. His interest in Israel sprang from no selfish motive. The prosperity of God’s chosen people was dearer to him than personal honor, dearer than the privilege of becoming the father of a mighty nation.” —ibid., p. 319.

Secondly, Moses was more interested in saving God’s reputation than being the leader of a great nation. Moses knew of the reports circulating in the surrounding nations that the Lord, the God of Israel had delivered His people whom He loved out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. All the surrounding nations had heard of this, and all were watching to see what God would do. Moses knew that should Israel be destroyed now, the Egyptians would triumph in their accusations that God had led them into the wilderness to be sacrificed. God’s plan was that His name would be praised in all the earth through His people. In the same way today, this is God’s desire.

The Lord, hearing Moses request, “relented from the harm which He said He would do,” but this would not be without consequences, including death of the guilty. The last few verses lead us to the high point of the story. “Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, ‘You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.’ Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, ‘Oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a god of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.’” (Exodus 32:31,32).

Final lessons:

1. Intercession works. The Book of Ezekiel in Chapter 22, tells a story of the terrible apostasy of the house of Israel. The Lord said that Israel had become dross to Him and that He would gather them in His anger and His fury and melt them. The Chapter goes on to describe the importance of intercession. “‘So, I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore, I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,’ says the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 22:30,31). Scripture tells us in many places that Jesus intercedes for us before the Father. “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It isChrist who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:33.34). “Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Romans 7:25). Intercession works.
2. God’s reputation matters. “But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,’” says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes”’” (Ezekiel 36:21-23). Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, to manifest the glory, character of God before all the nations. God told Moses, “truly as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Isaiah described a glorious work to be done by Israel. “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:1-3). As a nation Israel failed. The glorious triumph of the gospel belongs to God’s people today. The Apostle Peter says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
3. Moses was a type of Christ. He was Israel’s intercessor. So great was Moses’ love for his people that if God could not save them, he was willing to be blotted out. He was willing to give his life for his people if it would atone for them, he was willing to carry their guilt. Jesus Christ lay down His life willingly for us. “For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people, He was stricken” (Isaiah 53:8). 
4. God is love. Nehemiah chapter nine provides a powerful prayer of corporate repentance.  “They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of  Your wonders that You did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion, they appointed a leader to return to bondage. But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and did not forsake them. Even when they made a golden calf for themselves” (Nehemiah 9:17,18). We notice two significant words: merciful and abundant in kindness. In the Hebrew, the first word, merciful is “raham” and abundant in kindness in Hebrew is “hesed.” It is no accident that these two words are used. “Raham” means-to love deeply, tender affection, compassion. “Hesed” is the covenant term par excellence. It is steadfast covenant love. It is best summed up in the Hymn “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.” So, in the verse in Nehemiah, we have a love that we cannot describe adequately. It is a deep love, tender affection, full of compassion, a love that will not let us go.

What wondrous love is this!

May God touch our hearts with a lavish response.

 

~ Lyndi Schwartz