He sinned yet the more

And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the LORD, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." … as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the LORD God." … And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants. – Exodus 9v27-34

Have you ever heard, or made, a crisis confession? ‘If God will do this one thing for me I will be good and stop doing whatever.’ We are all aware of them, and we know what usually happens after the crisis.

Pharaoh was in a panic over the hailstorms. Everything was wrecked and getting worse. We have all seen this during weather disasters. People get desperate when the weather gets desperate. As I write this Ireland is dealing with severe flooding and it is raining again today. People will do anything to stop sever weather.

Pharaoh called for Moses. ‘If you will just get God to stop the storms I will let you and your people go.’ He sounded sincere, and maybe he was sincere at the moment. But what do you think happened as soon as the thunder stopped?

‘When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder stopped he kept on sinning; He hardened his heart along with everyone else.’

Unless there is a change of heart crisis confessions are useless. Sometimes people think that they can use God like a genie to get them through a bad time then put Him back in His bottle when things are okay again. They cheapen God and barter with Him when all the while they are their own god pulling Him out to use when convenient.

Sadly Christians can treat Him the same way. We think that we can go along our happy way doing whatever we want. Then when things get bad we throw up a prayer and tell Him we are forsaking our sin. But when things get back to normal we run back to our carnal lifestyle again.

How sad it is when Christians, after watching God deliver them, ‘sin yet the more.’