Exodus 9:27-35: a reflection

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 midst of the plague of hail, Pharaoh seems, at last, to break. He summons Moses and confesses: I have sinned this time; the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. He begs Moses to pray for the hail to stop, promising to let the people go. It sounds like repentance. But the moment Moses prays and the hail ceases, Pharaoh sees that the pressure is off, and he hardens his heart again and refuses to let them go, just as before.

Notice the difference between what Pharaoh said and what he did. Under the pressure of the plague, he confessed his sin and promised to change; but his confession was only a wish to escape the trouble, not a real turning of his heart. As soon as the pressure lifted, so did his resolve, and he returned to his old refusal. His was not true repentance, which changes the heart and outlasts the crisis, but a temporary regret that lasted only as long as the pain.

That is a warning to examine our own repentance. Under the pressure of consequences, in the middle of trouble we brought on ourselves, it is easy to say the words of repentance, to promise God we will change, to mean it in the moment; but the test is whether the change outlasts the crisis. A repentance that is only a wish to escape the trouble, and evaporates once relief comes, is like Pharaoh's, not the real thing. Ask whether your turning to God is a genuine change of heart or only a desire to escape consequences. True repentance is not abandoned when the pressure lifts; it holds when the crisis has passed. Seek that real change, not merely Pharaoh's regret that fades with the pain.

Lord, under the pressure of the hail, Pharaoh confessed his sin and promised to let your people go; but as soon as the plague stopped, he hardened his heart again. His was not true repentance, but a wish to escape the trouble, lasting only as long as the pain. Search my own repentance by this. Under the pressure of consequences, it is easy for me to say the words of repentance, to promise you I will change, to mean it in the moment; but the test is whether the change outlasts the crisis. Keep me from a repentance that is only a desire to escape trouble and evaporates when relief comes. Show me where my turning to you is genuine and where it is merely Pharaoh's regret. Give me true repentance, a real change of heart that holds when the pressure lifts and the crisis has passed. Let my turning to you be genuine, not fading with the pain.