Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. Moses prays again, for the fourth time in the plague narrative, on behalf of the man who oppresses his people. Each prayer is more remarkable than the last because each comes after a greater demonstration of Pharaoh's bad faith. The faith required to pray for someone who keeps betraying you is a different and harder kind than the faith to pray for someone who seems genuinely open. Jesus in Luke 23:34 prays Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing — from the cross, for the people who put him there. Moses' intercessory pattern throughout the plagues is a shadow of this ultimate intercession: praying faithfully for those who are actively persisting in opposition.

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