Scripture Daily

Context No. 1120 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 9:27-35: in context

27Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 28Pray to the LORD; for there has been enough of mighty thunderings and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.” 29Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD. The thunders shall cease, and there will not be any more hail; that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s. 30But as for you and your servants, I know that you don’t yet fear the LORD God.” 31The flax and the barley were struck, for the barley had ripened and the flax was blooming. 32But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they had not grown up. 33Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread out his hands to the LORD; and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth. 34When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders had ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35The heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he didn’t let the children of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

In the middle of the plague of hail, Pharaoh summons Moses and says the right words: I have sinned this time; the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Pray for the thunder and hail to stop, and I will let you go. Moses, though he knows better, agrees to pray, spreads out his hands, and the storm ceases. But the moment the pressure is off, Pharaoh does exactly what Moses had predicted: seeing that the rain and hail had stopped, he sinned again, hardened his heart, and refused to let the people go.

Pharaoh's confession is a textbook case of the wrong kind of repentance. He says all the right things, I have sinned, the LORD is righteous, I am wicked, but Moses sees through it immediately, telling him plainly, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD. The words were real, but the heart was not; Pharaoh was sorry the hail was falling on him, not sorry for his sin, and the difference showed the instant the hail stopped. His repentance lasted exactly as long as the pressure, and evaporated when the consequences lifted. This is the counterfeit that scripture warns against, sorrow driven by the pain of consequences rather than by a changed heart, a repentance that reverses itself the moment the pain is gone. The test of real repentance is whether it survives the removal of the pressure. Pharaoh's did not; when the storm cleared, the old resolve came right back, harder than before. It is worth examining our own turnings to God in trouble: are they a genuine change of heart, or only a wish for the storm to stop, that will not outlast the relief.

When I turn to God under the pressure of consequences, is it a real change of heart, or only Pharaoh's wish for the storm to stop, that will vanish the moment the pain lifts?

Sources