Aaron the fallible high priest

been reading Exodus about Moses's brother, Aaron. Moses was the prophet, his brother got the high priest job. while Moses is up on the mountain getting the good word from God himself, Aaron is placating the wandering tribes by making them the golden calf as a worship aid.!? God knows what's going on and tells Moses, "they've already turned from me and have started worshipping an idol. i'm gonna wipe them out." Moses pleads for God's mercy on the people he has redeemed, Jesus is now our mediator, and God sends him down the mountain to straighten them out. Moses asks Aaron, "what's going on?" and Aaron makes one of history's lamest excuses, "the people gave me some gold, i threw it in the furnace, and, what do you know, this idol popped out!" Moses goes nuts and performs some iconoclasm. there isn't much of a record of him chewing Aaron out. the absolute lameness of his excuse pretty much says it all, and its on permanent record.
by the end of the book of Exodus, Aaron and his boys are being anointed as high priests for the people before God. God had mercy on Aaron. he deserved death. he led the people astray. he didn't keep them on the straight and narrow. yet he was still anointed. but i'm sure he was humbled. his sons took his example to the next level though. since dad bent the rules and got away with it, they decided to offer strange fire, (Leviticus 10), whatever that was. immediately, God fried them. and Aaron wasn't allowed to take time off from work to mourn for them. if he didn't grasp the gravity of his sin before their deaths, he got it now.
mercy is so messy. justice is so clean. mercy slows things down. justice brings things to a complete halt. mercy enables life to resume. justice doesn't.
God gives mercy before justice. when the mercy is trampled on, eventually the justice will follow. i want to be merciful. i'll let our Father handle the justice. this means i need to forgive.
and forgive.
and forgive.