The calf they made while waiting

Moses is up the mountain for forty days and the people below get tired of waiting. They bring their gold to Aaron, who does not refuse, and he makes a calf — and they say, these are your gods, who brought you up out of Egypt. Six weeks after the sea. Aaron's excuse is one of the weakest sentences in the Bible: I threw the gold in the fire and out came this calf. Moses comes down, breaks the tablets, and then does something remarkable: he offers to be blotted out himself if God will forgive them. God renews the covenant — and when he passes by Moses he describes himself, and the description is not thunder but this: merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Israel learns who God is at their worst moment, not their best.