Kiti Sa tells of one of the most shocking moments of the 40 years in the wilderness,

when less than six weeks after the greatest revelation in history, Israel's encounter with God

at Mount Sinai, they made a golden calf. Either this was idolatry or perilously close to it,

and it caused God to say to Moses who was with

him on the mountain, now do not try to stop me when I unleash my wrath against them to destroy

them.

What I want to look at here is the role played by Aaron, for it was he who is the de facto leader

of the people in the absence of Moses and whom the Israelites approached with their proposal.

The people began to realize that Moses was taking a long time to come down from the mountain.

They gathered around Aaron and said to him,

Make us a god or an oracle to lead us. We have no idea what happened to Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt.

It was Aaron who should have seen the danger, Aaron who should have stopped them, Aaron who should have

told them to wait, have patience and trust, but instead this is what happened.

Aaron answered them, take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters

are wearing and bring them to me.

So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.

He took what they'd handed him and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molden

calf.

Then they said, this Israel is your God who brought you out of Egypt.

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced,

Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord. So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented peace offerings.

Afterward, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge

...