Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said: I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. The second confession — and the fastest. The locusts have stripped the land and Pharaoh calls immediately. The addition of against you to the confession is new; in 9:27 he confessed sin against God's righteousness, here he acknowledges sin against the human messengers he has dismissed, driven out, and treated contemptuously. The expanded confession sounds more genuine. Luke 15:18–19 records the prodigal son practicing his confession: I have sinned against heaven and against you. The form is right. But Luke's prodigal got up and went to the father; Pharaoh will ask for prayer and then return to hardness when the locusts are gone. The words of repentance and the movement of repentance are two different things.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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