But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.
Moses gave this verdict even as he consented to plead for the thunder and hail to be stopped, that the king might learn that the earth belongs to the Lord. The warning before the hail had put the pride of Egypt to the test, for those who took the divine word to heart brought their servants and cattle under shelter, while Pharaoh and his servants kept their hearts hardened.
The declaration is that he and his servants did not yet truly fear the Lord, since their fear was not genuine reverence issuing in obedience and submission to God. Pharaoh's admission in the midst of the hail that he and his people had sinned, with his request for intercession, sprang from terror and anguish rather than a lasting change of heart, and it proved only temporary. As soon as the storm ceased and his fright passed, he fell back into stubbornness and again refused to release Israel, and that renewed refusal confirmed his rebellion.
His continual resistance to the divine will had hardened him until his whole being rose in rebellion against divine power, for rebellion produces rebellion, and the hearts of his servants were hardened after the same pattern as his own.
Moses gave this verdict even as he consented to plead for the thunder and hail to be stopped, that the king might learn that the earth belongs to the Lord. The warning before the hail had put the pride of Egypt to the test, for those who took the divine word to heart brought their servants and cattle under shelter, while Pharaoh and his servants kept their hearts hardened.
The declaration is that he and his servants did not yet truly fear the Lord, since their fear was not genuine reverence issuing in obedience and submission to God. Pharaoh's admission in the midst of the hail that he and his people had sinned, with his request for intercession, sprang from terror and anguish rather than a lasting change of heart, and it proved only temporary. As soon as the storm ceased and his fright passed, he fell back into stubbornness and again refused to release Israel, and that renewed refusal confirmed his rebellion.
His continual resistance to the divine will had hardened him until his whole being rose in rebellion against divine power, for rebellion produces rebellion, and the hearts of his servants were hardened after the same pattern as his own.