Exodus 29-33: Any god will do

Just imagine.  Moses is up on the mountain with God, receiving instructions for the purification of the priests, and instructions for how the priests are to sacrifice for the people with offerings and incense.  Then he gives Moses the tablets of stone, with the commandments inscribed by God's own finger, and as Moses stumbles down the mountain, bearing the instructions of the one Holy God, he hears a sound in the camp.  There is dancing and celebrating.  And what are they worshipping?  A lump of gold that came out of a fire in the shape of a calf.  And Aaron, the very high priest that was to be consecrated to God, is the one who was responsible.  If it had not been for Moses' pleas to God, they would have been destroyed.  But God knew that Moses, the one who had seen his glory, the one who knew he could not live without God's presence going before him, Moses could be trusted to lead a fickle people to the promised land.