A History of Hearing

 Deuteronomy 9:17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

As we begin to wind down our study on "The God Who Hears," we find some passages like this one, where Moses is recalling his experiences leading the people of Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness.  This account certainly stuck out in his mind and theirs: The Golden Calf.  When Moses had come down from Mt Sinai his reaction was extreme, but he was more concerned what the Lord's reaction might be. He was "afraid" God would destroy them all, especially his brother Aaron. But when he called out to God, God listened, just like He had every time they had messed up. He did not punish as they deserved. He is a God of Mercy.