Friday: Further Thought – Apostasy and Intercession
Daily Lesson for Friday 12th of September 2025
Further Thought:
Read Ellen G. White, “Idolatry at Sinai,” Pages 315–327, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
This week’s lesson presents a special focus on God’s work in believers. The Lord can do in us “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20, NIV). We should not focus on ourselves and gratify our personal desires, because this leads to idolatry. Instead, our attention should be on God and His power. He gives the strength, which leads to a new and victorious life (Philippians 4:13; Jude 1:24-25).
“Love no less than justice demanded that for this sin judgment should be inflicted. God is the guardian as well as the sovereign of His people. He cuts off those who are determined upon rebellion, that they may not lead others to ruin. In sparing the life of Cain, God had demonstrated to the universe what would be the result of permitting sin to go unpunished. The influence exerted upon his descendants by his life and teaching led to the state of corruption that demanded the destruction of the whole world by a flood. . . . The longer men lived, the more corrupt they became. So with the apostasy at Sinai. Unless punishment had been speedily visited upon transgression, the same results would again have been seen.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 325.
Discussion Questions
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I think those of us who have been Seventh-day Adventists often develop a sense of superiority to those who have left their faith and no longer meet with us. We have fought the good fight and remained faithful unto old age, if not death. In computer terms we have been persistent, weathering the theological and political storms both outside and within the church. We keep Sabbath, pay our tithe and study our Sabbath School Lessons. We are so much better than those who have followed false doctrine or fallen to the seduction of wine and “come-hither” women. (or whatever the male equivalent is). We have kept ourselves uncontaminated by earthly pleasures and at the same time have believed pure unadulterated doctrine. God must be well pleased with us.
And we can read this week’s lesson and pray: “God, I thank thee, that I am not like the Hebrews during the Exodus. You have taught us to be perfect, eating as vegetarians, paying an honest tithe of all I have possessed, and guarding carefully the edges of the Sabbath.”
The big takeaway from this lesson is not how bad the Hebrew calf-worshipers were. It was about intercession for those who have turned their back on God. If, we are pleading with God for our family and friends then God could work through us to restore their relationship with Him. God’s view of perfection is not clean saint-statues standing tall in the garden. He wants gardeners who are willing to get their hands dirty working in the dirt among the weeds, interceding for those among our friends who are lost.