As his back gets further and further against the wall, Pharaoh’s actions become more and more desperate. Not only has his country been devastated by the plagues, but his own advisors have turned against him, begging Pharaoh to send Moses and the Israelites away.
At this point, it’s basically Pharaoh’s obstinance against God’s omnipotence.
You can see Pharaoh’s desperation in how he talks to Moses. After the locusts arrive and “darken the land” — a nice contrast to the next plague, which darkens the sky — he begs Moses to remove the scourge from his people.
But notice the language he uses. It’s not a simple request from someone in power to one under authority, but distinctly spiritual language that someone may use in a state of extreme humility. Pharaoh acknowledges his sin, against both God and Moses, then asks for Moses’ forgiveness and intercession in his sins against God.
It’s not the first time that Pharaoh will acknowledge his sin (he did it earlier in Exodus 9:7), but it will be the last. Pharaoh is angry and bitter during the ninth plague, the plague of darkness, and the last plague will drive Israel out the door for good.
Pharaoh’s words here represent a complete shift in his mindset, even if only for a moment. In his post as chief religious authority, he’s not used to asking anyone for their help intervening with a god, since he is, by their own reasoning, the embodiment of a god himself. For him to ask Moses, a subordinate, for help in receiving forgiveness from a God he doesn’t recognize shows either the height of his hypocrisy or the limits of his desperation.
I tend to fall into the latter. There’s no indication that Pharaoh exhibits any real change in this process; on the contrary, he seems to get more and more agitated as time goes on. As the reality of his sin confronts him, all he really wants is momentary relief, not wholesale change.
That’s remarkably similar to how I can sometimes approach sin in my own life. When I’m confronted by my own sin, what I really what in those moments is not forgiveness, but comfort. After all, I engaged in the sin in the first place because of what it gave me. Why would I want that taken away? It’s much easier to simply ask for the pain of the sin to be removed instead.
Moses does intercede on behalf of Pharaoh and the scourge of the locusts is removed by the western wind. Unfortunately for Pharaoh and the land of Egypt, as quickly as the locusts are gone, Pharaoh reverts back to his old, stubborn ways again.
