Anger Management

While Moses (and Joshua) are up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, the natives at the foot of the mountain grow restless and long for an idol to lead them in their travels.  Aaron, Mr. High Priest, urges them to bring him their gold jewelery to melt into a idol of a golden calf, which will represent their god.  Once this was done, he set up an altar in front of the calf to take sacrificial offerings and said that everyone would sacrifice and feast the next day. 

Yahweh tells Moses to hightail it back down the mountain because the people have disobeyed Him and are out of control.  Yahweh says he plans to destroy them all and then make a great nation out of Moses, but Moses talks him out of it.  Yahweh sounds like an angry, retarded giant who needs to be guided into not harming people with his temper.  (Ex.32:9-13)

Joshua hears noises down the mountain and thinks the people are preparing for war.  Moses listens and says, no - they're partying.  When Moses see the golden calf, he goes apeshit, melts it down, grinds it into powder and makes the people drink it in water. (?!) When he chides his brother, Aaron, for letting it happen, Aaron tries to blame the people.  Ex. 32:13

"Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil."

To make matters much, much worse, when Moses sees that the people are out of control, he collects the priestly caste and tells them to go through the camp massacring people for Yahweh and that this will distinguish them as blessed for killing their own.  Just horrible.  Ex. 32:27-29

 ²⁷ Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” ²⁸ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. ²⁹ Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

Moses goes back up to Yahweh, and learns that Yahweh plans to punish the Israelites more later for their sin, and that he struck them with a plague for the golden calf.  Yahweh is so pissed that he tells Moses to take the people away to the land of milk and honey he promised to his ancestors, but that Yahweh himself will not accompany them because they are a "stiff-necked people" and he might get so pissed off at them that he will kill them.  Yikes.

The "tent of meeting" is set up in Ex. 33, where Moses allegedly meets with Yahweh in private to discuss things.  It turns out that his young friend, Joshua, lives in the tent too.  Weird.  Ex. 33:11

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

Yahweh is pretty schizoid.  He wants to be loved for being forgiving and all, but he has a tendency to be harshly punitive and to have real anger management issues. Ex. 34:

⁶ And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”