“Pharaoh urgently sent for Moses and Aaron and said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Please forgive my sin once more and make an appeal to the Lord your God, so that he will just take this death away from me.’ Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the Lord. Then the Lord changed the wind to a strong west wind, and it carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust was left in all the territory of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the Israelites go.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the more fascinating stories in the Scriptures that reveals a great deal about God’s character, and which (ironically, considering its historical reception) gives us confidence the whole thing is true, is the story of Jonah. Setting aside the giant fish part that everybody simultaneously knows and doubts, the story is about God’s granting forgiveness from judgment and destruction to a people who would later conquer and destroy Israel. Why would God do that? Because they repented. God always responds to repentance. The ending of the story of the plague of locusts shows us the same thing about Him. Let’s talk about God’s incredible forgiveness.

When you spend much time really thinking about it, the nature and extent of God’s forgiveness is stunning almost beyond words. Just try to wrap your mind around it for a minute. No matter what it is you have done, there’s forgiveness for that. Period. You literally cannot conceive of a circumstance in which you or someone you know or someone you’ve never met has done something of a sufficiently grievous nature that forgiveness is somehow off the table for you. No matter who you are or what lies in your background, you can be made right with God through Christ. Every fleeting (or abiding) thought to the contrary is a lie from the Father of Lies.

But this incredible truth is not something rooted solely or originally in Christ. Yes, it is made most supremely available in Him, but this graciousness and willingness to respond to repentance with forgiveness is a fundamental part of God’s character. We see this throughout the Old Testament. It features prominently in the story of Jonah as I mentioned a second ago, but it also features right here in this story.

God has been slowly increasing the pressure on Pharoah to release the people of Israel from their enslavement. For his part, Pharaoh has been intractably incorrigible on the point. He’s finally gotten close in the last couple of plagues, but has backed off from the edge as soon as relief arrived. When the plague of boils started to let up and when the hail stopped falling, he went right back to being dead set against complying with God’s command. Now, when his nation was facing economic destruction and all the ensuing social chaos that would accompany it, a plague of locusts had arrived threatening to completely the slowly unfolding destruction.

Moses had given Pharaoh the chance to avoid it, and, feeling the political pressure from his court officials, Pharaoh had at least considered the matter, but when he couldn’t have things continue on his terms, he refused to play ball and the locusts started blowing in the next day. Now that they were here and he was getting reports of just how bad was the devastation they had brought with them, Pharaoh came running back to the bargaining table, hat in hand, and ready to do whatever was necessary to make it stop.

So he begged. He begged for forgiveness. He begged for relief. He begged for Moses to intercede with his God to let us on the destruction. He knew his people weren’t going to survive the chaos.

Now, by what rational measure would anyone imagine his repentance to be genuine at this point? He had outright refused and turned back on his word and promised one thing only to deliver another over and over and over again. The only reason anyone would have imagined he was begging for relief now was to get out from under the weight of the destruction being unleashed on his nation. There could not possibly have been anything genuine about his mindset at this point. This was the same thing he had done before. Let the locusts do their worst, and make him suffer for his abject refusal to let the people of Israel go.

And yet, in His often inscrutable grace and mercy, God responded with forgiveness. He apparently forgave Pharaoh’s sins just as he requested and literally blew all the locusts away. God’s forgiveness was so complete that “not a single locust was left in all the territory of Egypt.” Why would God do this? Because he repented. Even though He knew that Pharaoh was going to retreat to his hard-heartedness as soon as his situation changed again, and even though He was going to allow it to happen, God received his repentance as genuine and responded with forgiveness.

That’s simply what God does. It’s who He is. He was then. He still is now. If you have something sitting between you and God – even if it’s something you’ve kept going back to over and over and over again – go to Him again. Go to Him with a heart of genuine repentance (and He’ll know whether or not its genuine), and He will forgive you. In fact, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice, His forgiveness is even more guaranteed than it was before (if that’s a thing). The God revealed in the pages of the Scriptures is gracious and compassionate and kind. He is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will forgive all those who come to Him in Christ from whatever it is they have done. No matter what. That’s some awfully good news.