Sabbath School 3rd Quarter 2025: Exodus

Eric Flickinger

Jiřί Moskala

It Is Written

11 Apostasy and Intercession

♪ Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

We're studying the book of Exodus and this week it is lesson 11, Apostasy and Intercession.

Father, we ask that you will bless us today as we once again open your Word and seek for guidance and instruction from you.

As we look at Moses and the trials and challenges that he went through with your people, we ask that you would bless us with an understanding of how we can face challenges and difficulties and temptations as well and come out as victors.

So we're glad that you are here, but we are also glad to have the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson with us.

Mascala, once again, thank you for being here with us.

Well, I am enjoying it to be with you and to study the Word of God.

We've seen the ebb and flow of the faithfulness of God's people during the course of the Exodus, and sometimes it ebbs more than it flows.

This week, we're looking at a major lapse that they had.

How was it possible for Aaron's leadership to fail so spectacularly with respect to this golden calf incident.

Well, it is really a very dark chapter in the history of Israel.

He is spending with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights, as we know from the context.

And now when he's away, Aaron is there in order to care for people.

He's like a high priest, you know, in that priesthood.

And now people are coming to him and asking him, well, you know, we don't know what this fellow Moses is doing.

And it's very interesting that they are like degrading him very much, you know, for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt.

So You see, first of all, they, in their mind, is that he brought them out of Egypt.

Suddenly, the picture of this beautiful, holy, powerful, loving, caring God is disappearing.

You know, when Moses is gone, like from the mind of people, of many of them also God is gone.

And in that situation, when they are thinking so widely, they are coming to Aaron and pushing him, even threatening him with death, that they want to have something visible, tangible.

These gods who brought them out of Egypt.

And we really are now crying because Aaron, instead of standing for God and against all these terrible demands, he's yielding down and he's saying, all right, so if you insist, so bring me the gold of your wives and your sons and daughters.

And he's putting there and molding it as we with the tools as the golden calf.

This was bad enough, but he even saw how people are happy with that.

So he made an altar in front of this idol and then he said, next day we will have a feast.

And then we are reading, you know, that people were sacrificing as we have it in verse 6 of chapter 32, the next day people rose early and sacrificed, burned offerings, and presented fellowship offerings.

Afterward, they sat down to eat and drink and got up, indulged in revelry.

And what is really striking is what they are saying actually.

They are saying these are your gods or Israel who brought you up out of Egypt.

So this is now a contrast between what God said, I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

And they said, no, no, no, no, God, we don't know who you are and where are you.

And your servant Moses is not now with us.

It's for long, you know, several weeks, it's gone, we don't know.

And you see by that action the thinking of people.

This is completely distortion of relationship with God.

And of course, when you are making your gods, you fabricate your idol.

So this idol is to your image, and you are degrading yourself.

And this is why morality is going down and then the revelry is there and we don't know what else was going on in the situation.

And in that time when Moses is up, God is telling him, it's time for you really to go down, to go down.

And chapter 32 is telling us how God is communicating with him and he's telling him Moses, but Moses sought the favor of the Lord.

He said, Oh Lord, he said, why should your anger burn against your people whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountain and to wipe them off the face of the earth?

Because before God, because He knows what is going on in the camp of Israel, is actually telling him, you know, go down Moses, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.

They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them, and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.

They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it, and have said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

I have seen these people, the Lord has said to Moses, and they are stiff-necked.

Now leave me alone, so that my anger may burn against them, so that I may destroy them.

Then I will make you into a great nation." So this is a great temptation now even for Moses.

And Moses saying, OK, you were fed with these people.

Now rebelling, of course, against me, the Lord is saying, so I will wipe them out.

And from you, because you obey me, I will bring a great nation." And Moses, This was like a test for Moses to help him to grow also.

He's associating and saying, no, it was not me who brought them, you brought them.

You brought them out, this is your people, so please go with us.

And then the story goes that Moses is really going down and we usually think that when Moses spent some time with the Lord on the Mount Sinai that his face was radiant.

No, on the contrary, when you look to verse 19, you read that Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and dancing with all this rivalry there.

His anger burned, so his face was not shining, it was burning of anger and he threw the tablets out of his hand breaking them into pieces at the feet of the mountain.

You know when Moses was for this 40 days and 40 nights with the Lord on Mount Sinai.

During that time, it was like the fifth time in my accounting with the Lord.

And for the first time, like 40 days and 40 nights.

When He was there for this period of time.

The first 1 was this blueprint, how to build the sanctuary.

And he showed him everything and gave him all these plans.

And second was the gift of the Decalogue with 2 stones, you know, 2 tablets, and God himself was writing these 10 promises.

And now Moses, when he sees what is going on, he took this gift and smashed it at the bottom of the mountain.

God did not tell him that he should do it, but it was like a visible sign of what people are doing, that they really broke the covenant, broke these promises and what God told them.

You know, later on we can hear like a Slight rebuke.

But there was like slight 1 when later on we read that God is telling him, you know, Moses, you will come up again to me and you will chisel up this 2 tablets of stone.

And of course, he's going there later on.

But here We have this drama, big drama, when people like a nation is now not going with the living God who really brought them out of Egypt and did so many miraculous, loving, kindness acts for them, showing their, his mighty hand, the things which no 1 can do happened for them.

And then you have the story that there is even death in the camp.

And in that situation also Moses is demanding good answer from his brother.

And he is asking him, what did these people do to you that you led them into such great sin?

I want to unpack that when we come back from our break.

Mark Finley

HopeLives365

10 The Covenant and the Blueprint

We're moving through the book of Exodus quite rapidly.

Are you learning some new things this quarter?

Every lesson that I study this quarter seems to speak to my heart and reveal new divine truths.

But isn't that the purpose of studying the Bible?

The lesson 10 is entitled The Covenant and the Blueprint.

Now when we speak about the covenant, we're speaking about God's eternal relationship with his people.

We're speaking about the covenant of grace that leads obedience to God's law.

When we speak about the blueprint in this lesson, we're speaking about the ancient sanctuary where God said to Moses, let them make me a sanctuary that I might dwell among them.

Both God's covenant, his law, the relationship he has with his people through grace, and the sanctuary have a purpose.

And that purpose is to draw us closer to God.

So let's pray and then we'll dive right into our lesson.

Father in heaven, I thank you for the opportunity of studying your word.

I'm thankful that we can study the lesson on the covenant and the blueprint.

Make these eternal truths clear to us, we pray in Jesus' name.

You know, as God, our creator and redeemer, as the 1 who loves us with an immense, everlasting, eternal love.

This God wants to draw us into relationship with him.

And that's what this lesson is all about.

It's about the fact that God created us to be in close fellowship with him.

Now, here in the first paragraph of Sabbath afternoon's lesson I read, yet if meaningful relationship with other people can be built only with time and effort.

The same is true with our vertical relationship with God.

It can be an uplifting and growth-filled experience, but only, now get this, only if we spend time with him.

In practical terms, this means studying His Word, letting God speak to us, of course, through His Word.

Praying, that means opening our hearts to God, and witnessing to others about Christ's death, resurrection, and return, that's engaging in God's mission.

As God's blesses us, we're going to be a channel of blessing to others.

So God wants to draw us close to him through the study of his word.

He wants to draw us close to him through the times of quietness and prayer and meditation that we have, meditating on his love, his grace, his goodness, his word.

And he wants to draw us close to him as we share his love with others in witness.

In Sunday's lesson, it's called The Book and the blood.

What is this all about, the book and the blood?

It has to do with the conditions of the relationship that we have with God.

If you go to Exodus 24, verse 1 to 8, Exodus 24, verse 1 to 8, God's speaking to Moses and he says, starting with verse 1, now he said to Moses, come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel and worship from afar.

And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.

So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments.

Now, when you get down to verse 6, Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

Then he took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people, and they said all that the Lord had said we will do.

So here is a covenant, and what's a covenant?

It's an arrangement that establishes a relationship.

On this, they're saying, all the Lord said we'll do.

In other words, they're saying, God, you said to obey, we're going to obey, and that'll establish a relationship.

The problem was their ability to carry out that desire.

And Moses, now notice what it says, verse 6, the last part.

All that the Lord has said will do, and be obedient.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Isaiah put his finger on it, all my righteousness is as filthy rags.

So they were too weak to carry out what they desired because of the fallen nature of their hearts.

And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.

In other words, you have made a declaration that all the Lord has said will do.

But the blood of the eternal everlasting covenant is the mercy of Christ, the grace of Christ, the goodness of Christ.

It is only through the blood of Christ that your sins can be forgiven.

It's only through the blood of Christ and understanding the cleansing that comes from Christ that you can overcome.

In our Sunday's lesson we read in the third paragraph down under the note, they meant to do it but they did not know their brokenness, their fragility, and their lack of power.

The blood of the covenant was sprinkled on the people indicating, watch this, that only by Christ's merits was Israel able to follow God's instructions.

We don't want to accept that our human nature is fragile, it's weak and thoroughly sinful.

We have an inherent tendency because of our fallen nature towards sin to be able to do good.

We need help not from inside ourself, but from outside ourselves.

We need the power of the living God in our lives.

The power from God's grace, the power from his word, the power from the Holy Spirit.

That's why A close relationship with God is as essential for us today as it was for them at Mount Sinai.

Now in Monday's lesson, we were seeing God.

We see God as we're committed to a deep, abiding, lasting relationship with him.

We see God through our prayer life as we meditate upon him.

We see his goodness, his graciousness, His kindness, His compassion, His mercy, His love.

Notice in Exodus 24, verse 9 to 18, God gives Moses instructions.

We'll start with verse 9, Exodus chapter 24.

Then Moses went up and also Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel.

So Moses took 73 people with him, 70 of the elders of Israel, and he took Aaron, Nadab and Abihu.

And there was under his feet, as it were, paved work of sapphire stone.

And it was like the very heavens in its clarity.

But on the nobles of the children of Israel he did not lay his hands.

They don't see him in all his glory or else they'd be struck dead, right?

And there in that mountain place as they see God.

They eat and they drink, feasting on God's love, feasting on God's goodness, feasting on God's grace.

In the Middle East during biblical times and to a certain extent today, eating together was a high experience.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2025: He Must Increase

Come Home - Transforming Your Family in Christ

Don MacLafferty

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

06 Keeping Sabbath Happy

You're about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2025 Michigan Conference Camp, held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

This seminar is about keeping Sabbath happy.

Do you ever say happy Sabbath but then it's not so happy?

This is about having a happy Sabbath in the deepest, deepest way.

Do you mind being active in this learning process?

Because you probably know if you've been here during the week that that's what we do here.

Okay, now, I would like to go outside in just a moment for just a brief moment.

In fact, outside could even be into that room.

I will invite you to do this just for a moment is turn to someone next to you.

Now everybody's gonna need a buddy by the way.

Some of you know that's what happens here, some of you don't.

But everybody needs somebody to team up with to be in the Word with, okay?

Now, the opening exercise is this, turn to that person or 2 around you and please make sure everyone on your row is with somebody, okay?

Of all the Sabbath experiences you've had in a lifetime, for some of us it's very short because maybe we just came into this faith, right?

Is there anybody that's been keeping Sabbath only 10 years or less?

Now, this is actually a learning time right now.

Is you turn to that person or persons on your pew and you ask them of all the Sabbaths you've kept so far, which 1?

I want you to think of 1 that is especially memorable and really filled you with the peace and the joy that Jesus, the creator of God, gives us for the Sabbath.

Some Sabbaths are awesome, but they're like this.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

We get to the end of it, and we're like, oh, we need a Sunday.

I'm talking about a Sabbath where you really, you came out of it restored and blessed because of something that happened extra special on that day.

When you ask each other this question, listen well, because I always learn about Sabbath from seeing how the Holy Spirit's blessed other brothers and sisters around me.

I always learn something that I hadn't thought about before to make this day special.

So I'm gonna give you just a brief moment.

It'll be about 2 minutes, so keep your story short.

I try to do this the last couple of times.

Does anybody have a quick testimony of trying, putting something to practice that you've learned in this series this week.

If the Holy Spirit's helped you put into practice, I'll come to you in just a second, then I invite you to give a brief testimony, very, very brief, like as in 30 seconds kind of testimony of something specific that God's helped you to practice from this series starting right back here.

So what God wants us to do on the outside, that's all fine and dandy, But if you're not right at home first, what does it even matter?

So that's what I've learned and I'm very grateful for that.

So I've been using Kings, 1 Kings 18 and 19 in regards to Elijah and how Elijah became afraid and fearful, and your suggestions that went along with that.

In regards to, I'm only texting with him, I'm not talking to him, but...

Anybody else that's practiced something this week from something you've learned during this series?

You have to use your voice all the way back.

I have a hard time communicating to my 3 and 4 year olds, so your inspiration in asking questions about different topics in the Bible, that really imprinted upon my mind.

I asked her some questions last night, and she actually responded.

This mother was practicing questions, asking good questions to get in the Word together.

I ask because by the way, seminars are not just to gather information, they should call us to live.

I thought it was boring, but I was more intentional with each word.

And then, yesterday, I got some advice from my son, the same way, advice, and I was like, wow, that came from what I was reading in the character of God.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

11 Apostasy and Intercession

28m

10 The Covenant and the Blueprint

27m

06 Keeping Sabbath Happy

36m

05 How Did Books Get into the Bible?

1h 2m

Church and Faith, Not Church and State

53m

05 Home: The Disciple Center

43m

04 Which Variant is Original?

1h 1m

3 Beasts 1 Remnant

1h

04 Building Family Worship

54m

03 What Variants Do Our Manuscripts Have? Part 02

1h 2m

What Difference Does it Make When Healing and Restoration is a Way of Life?

36m

02 Marriage: “I Do” or “I Did”?

52m

Sound Doctrine