- 7/26/2025
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00:00You've heard Dr. David Jeremiah teach Bible prophecy.
00:04Now experience those truths in his first ever novel,
00:08Vanished, in Dr. Jeremiah's new end times thriller.
00:12John Haggerty is trained to stop global threats,
00:15but nothing could prepare him for what's coming.
00:18The end is near, and he's running out of time.
00:22Request your copy of Vanished for a gift of any amount
00:25in support of Turning Point.
00:27Contact us today.
00:30He had a dream.
00:44A dream that shook kingdoms.
00:48Favored above his brothers.
00:52But favor cast a dangerous shadow.
00:56Betrayal had a price.
00:59But so did survival.
01:03From a father's embrace, to a slave master's house.
01:09From the depths of a forgotten prison, to the heights of power.
01:15From the pit, to the prison, to the palace.
01:19His suffering would save nations.
01:23And his broken life, the very instrument of deliverance.
01:29Because while others meant it for evil, God meant it for good.
01:41Coming up on Turning Point.
01:43You know, the only thing that stands between you and the wholeness of your life,
01:47with regard to your relationships, is taking the courageous step of forgiving those who have hurt you.
01:55And don't just forgive it, but forget it.
01:57Put it behind you.
01:59And determine in your heart that you're not going to bring it up again.
02:03You're going to walk away from it and be free.
02:07Prayer.
02:13Keep it simple.
02:15Keep it specific.
02:17Go to God in prayer.
02:18Guided prayers for your deepest needs and biggest dreams, by Dr. David Jeremiah,
02:22provides you with 100 carefully crafted prayers to guide you through life's challenges and celebrations.
02:27When words fail you during times of grief.
02:30When your heart is filled with gratitude, but you can't express it.
02:33When you're facing decisions that seem impossible.
02:36Dr. Jeremiah helps you bring everything to God.
02:39The Bible tells us to go to God in prayer for all things.
02:42But sometimes we need guidance on how to pray effectively and specifically.
02:46Reading and praying these guided prayers by Dr. Jeremiah will help you learn to pray with confidence and clarity,
02:52and with a renewed passion and purpose.
02:55Request Everything to God in Prayer, new from Dr. Jeremiah,
02:59when you give a gift of any amount in support of Turning Point.
03:02Everything to God in Prayer, the perfect companion for your prayer life,
03:07and a thoughtful gift for anyone in your Bible study or prayer group.
03:10And you can request two copies for a gift of $60 or more.
03:13Your deepest needs and biggest dreams deserve the right words.
03:17Request Everything to God in Prayer by Dr. Jeremiah from Turning Point today.
03:23Thank you for watching Turning Point.
03:25Here is Dr. Jeremiah with his message, God's method for melting hard hearts.
03:32The story of Joseph's brothers in the book of Genesis gives us a prime example of hard-heartedness.
03:42Driven by jealousy and resentment over their father's favoritism,
03:47they showed a callous disregard for their younger brother.
03:51They plotted to kill him, settled on selling him into slavery instead.
03:57They even deceived their father about his fate,
04:00allowing their dad to believe that his beloved son was dead.
04:04Their hard-heartedness would take years to soften.
04:08But as we often see in Scripture,
04:11God has many ways to break through the most calloused hearts.
04:16We pick up Joseph's story in Genesis 42.
04:19He has risen to power in Egypt after having interpreted Pharaoh's dreams
04:24about a coming seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine.
04:30And the seven years of abundance have passed,
04:33and the prophesied famine has begun to grip the whole world.
04:38And what is about to unfold is one of the most amazing scenarios
04:42of God's dealing with long-past sin.
04:46For while Joseph was being dealt with by God in Egypt,
04:49the Lord was also setting the stage for the recovery of Joseph's family.
04:54So, in Genesis 42, we see the Lord's methods
04:58for bringing about change in people.
05:01He still uses those methods, by the way, so take note.
05:04He's still doing what he did in Joseph's family.
05:07He's doing it in families today.
05:09He may have done it in your family.
05:11Maybe you were walking away from the Lord,
05:15like one of the disciples who walked far off.
05:18But God has his methods of bringing you back,
05:21and watch how he works in the family of Joseph.
05:24The intrigue of all of this
05:26is the most interesting thing in the Bible.
05:28You cannot imagine the lengths to which God will go
05:33to make sure your heart doesn't stay hard,
05:36but gets softened and you come back to him.
05:38There are a number of steps the Lord takes
05:41to melt the hardened hearts of Jacob
05:43and bring them first to conviction
05:45and ultimately to fellowship with him.
05:48First thing I want you to note is the experience of difficulty.
05:52In the first three verses of the 42nd chapter,
05:56we learn about the difficulty that's going on
05:59in the family of Jacob.
06:01When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt,
06:05he said to his sons,
06:07Why do you look at one another?
06:09And he said, Indeed, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.
06:12Go down to that place and buy for us there
06:15that we may live and not die.
06:17So Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
06:21All of a sudden, the family of Jacob finds themselves
06:25not the recipients of inflation,
06:30but on the edge of starvation.
06:33They have no food and no way of getting any food,
06:37and so he sends his boys to Egypt.
06:40Joseph prophesied this famine
06:42when he was interpreting Pharaoh's dream,
06:45but now the time of want has begun to settle
06:47upon his own family.
06:49And twice in the text we are told it was severe.
06:52The famine was over all the face of the earth,
06:56and Joseph opened all the storehouses
06:58and sold to the Egyptians,
07:00and the famine became severe in the land of Egypt.
07:03So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain
07:07because the famine was severe in all lands.
07:10It was a terrible famine.
07:12There was no food.
07:14When the grain was gone and the food was running low,
07:18Jacob realized something had to be done.
07:22So he looked at his sons,
07:24who were apparently indecisive about what to do,
07:26and he said,
07:27Don't just sit there.
07:28Go do something.
07:30That's a loose translation.
07:33And we have to understand that God is sometimes
07:37using unconventional methods to get our attention.
07:41C.S. Lewis once said that God shouts at us through pain
07:45and through problems to get our attention.
07:48He wrote,
07:49God whispers to us in our pleasures,
07:51speaks in our conscience,
07:53but shouts in our pain.
07:55It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
07:58Did you know that sometimes God sends difficulty in your life
08:01because you won't listen to his whisper,
08:03and he's got to shout?
08:05So when you're going through some tough things,
08:07that's God shouting at you trying to get your attention.
08:10Then notice the exclusion of trust.
08:15It says in verse 4 of chapter 42,
08:18But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers,
08:23for he said,
08:25Lest some calamity befall him.
08:29Jacob didn't trust his ten older sons to take care of Benjamin.
08:33Deep down in his heart,
08:35he suspected that they had something to do with the loss of Joseph.
08:39Jacob's fear of losing another son made him overprotective of Benjamin.
08:44And while the brothers felt constantly under suspicion for a crime
08:47they knew they had committed,
08:49things were not well in the family of Jacob.
08:52The exclusion of trust.
08:54Then we have thirdly the encounter with the past
08:58in verses 5 through 15,
09:00and I need to read this rather extended passage,
09:03but you won't have any problem following me.
09:06And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed,
09:10for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
09:13Now Joseph was governor over the land,
09:15and it was he who sold to all the people of the land.
09:18And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him
09:21with their faces to the earth.
09:23And Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them,
09:27but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them.
09:31Then he said to them,
09:33Where do you come from?
09:34And they said,
09:35From the land of Canaan to buy food.
09:37So Joseph recognized his brothers,
09:40but they did not recognize him.
09:42Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them,
09:46and he said to them,
09:47You are spies.
09:50You have come to see the nakedness of the land.
09:52And they said to him,
09:53No, my Lord, but your servants have come to buy food.
09:56We are one man's sons, and we are honest men.
10:00Your servants are not spies.
10:02But he said to them,
10:03No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.
10:06And they said,
10:07Your servants are twelve brothers,
10:10the sons of one man in the land of Canaan,
10:13and in fact the youngest is with our father today,
10:16and one is no more.
10:19Hmm.
10:22But Joseph said to them,
10:24It is as I spoke to you, saying,
10:26You are spies.
10:27In this manner you shall be tested.
10:29By the life of Pharaoh you shall not leave this place
10:32unless your youngest brother comes here first.
10:35Now what happens here is the gradual unfolding
10:38of the brother's own sin.
10:40How God does it is an amazing episode that ought to awaken
10:44in many of us responses to confession.
10:47As they come to Egypt with their father's mandate to buy grain,
10:51they are ushered through the crowded streets
10:53to a special place where grain is dispensed to non-Egyptians.
10:57And Joseph, who is in charge of all the land
11:00and food distribution, took special care
11:03to personally dispense grain to those outside of Egypt.
11:07So those boys stand before the very brother
11:10whom they sold into slavery 20 years earlier.
11:14They bowed down before him just as Joseph had dreamed
11:17they would back in the early part of the story.
11:21Some have been troubled when they read this part of the record
11:25that out of the ten brothers nobody recognized Joseph.
11:30How could that be?
11:32There are a number of factors contributing to their failure
11:35to recognize Joseph.
11:36I've noted a couple of them.
11:38Joseph was now clean-shaven with a shaved head,
11:42long robe, a gold chain hanging around his neck,
11:45and a huge signet ring on his finger.
11:47They had never seen their brother like this.
11:50The last time they saw him,
11:52he was on his way to being a slave in Egypt.
11:56And then there's the second factor,
11:58and that's the factor of age, appearance and age.
12:01The last time they saw Joseph, he was 17 years old.
12:05Now he was a grown man, almost 40,
12:08with the usual physical changes that every man goes through.
12:12How many of you guys know you're not the same at 40
12:14as you were when you were 17?
12:17Then notice on top of his appearance and his age
12:20were his announcements.
12:21This is pretty neat.
12:23When Joseph spoke to his brothers,
12:25he did so in Egyptian using an interpreter.
12:28He didn't appear to understand their language,
12:31which would also have contributed to their failure
12:33to recognize him.
12:35In addition, Joseph's authority would have surprised his brothers.
12:40The last they knew, Joseph was on a camel train as a slave.
12:44Who would have thought that in a short period of time
12:46their brother would rise from slavery
12:49to the second most powerful position in Egypt?
12:52They never expected to see Joseph in such a position.
12:56It was unbelievable and thinkable to them.
12:59And the Scripture also tells us
13:01that Joseph was involved in a bit of acting.
13:04The original language tells us
13:06that Joseph made himself unrecognizable to his brothers.
13:12He play-acted.
13:13And finally, his attitude toward them was different.
13:17The text says he spoke roughly to them.
13:21Three times Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies.
13:25And in their response to his second accusation,
13:28they reveal that their sin against Joseph
13:30is still very much present with them.
13:34Genesis 42, 13,
13:36And they said,
13:37Your servants are twelve brothers,
13:40the sons of one man in the land of Canaan,
13:43and in fact the youngest is with our father,
13:45and one is no more.
13:48One is no more.
13:50This is still with them.
13:54This is still heavy on their hearts.
13:57They can't forget what had happened.
13:59Sometimes when we are victims
14:01of the same treatment we give to others,
14:03God allows it to create in us a sensitivity to our own sin.
14:08So there's the experience of difficulty
14:11and the exclusion of trust
14:13and the encounter with the past,
14:16and number four, the exile in prison.
14:20Beginning in verse 16 of chapter 42, we read,
14:23Joseph said,
14:24Send one of you and let him bring your brother,
14:27and you shall be kept in prison,
14:29that your words may be tested
14:31to see whether there is any truth in you,
14:34or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.
14:38So he put them all together in prison for three days.
14:41And Joseph said to them the third day,
14:43Do this and live, for I fear God if you are honest men.
14:47Let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house,
14:50but you go and carry grain for the famine in your houses,
14:54and bring your youngest brother to me,
14:56so your words will be verified and you shall not die.
14:59And they did so.
15:01First of all, God uses solitary confinement
15:04to break the hearts of these men.
15:06Here they are away from home,
15:08walking through a strange land,
15:09listening to a language they didn't understand,
15:12had to understand through an interpreter,
15:14and Joseph accuses them of being spies,
15:17and puts them in the very prison
15:19where he had been for more than two long years,
15:22the same prison.
15:24It's not hard to imagine the conversations
15:27that took place in that prison.
15:29Their treatment of Joseph was now in the forefront of their minds
15:32as they considered their situation.
15:35On the third day, when Joseph brought them all out of prison,
15:39he offered them a chance for redemption.
15:42Rather than insisting that they all stay,
15:45he made only one brother stay,
15:47while the rest went back to get Benjamin.
15:50Joseph must have been on the verge of breaking emotionally
15:54as he went through this.
15:56They did not know him, but he knew them.
15:59His compassion and his love for God are evident,
16:02but he didn't yet know if he could trust his brothers.
16:05So, he left one in prison.
16:08And then we have number five, the exposure of the heart,
16:12beginning in verse 21 of chapter 42.
16:15God is closing in.
16:16He's bringing about a sensitive heart.
16:19Every one of these things in this story
16:21is a part of the plot that came right from heaven.
16:24Here's what it says in verse 21,
16:27And they said to one another,
16:29We are truly guilty concerning our brother.
16:32Where has that been for 20 years?
16:35We are truly guilty concerning our brother,
16:38for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us,
16:42and we would not hear.
16:43Therefore, this distress has come upon us.
16:47And Reuben answered them, saying,
16:50Didn't I tell you?
16:51Remember, Reuben was the one who tried to talk him out of all
16:54of this way back in the beginning.
16:56Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us.
17:00Now, here's the part that's intriguing.
17:02But they did not know that Joseph understood them,
17:05for he spoke to them through an interpreter,
17:07and he turned himself away from them and wept.
17:10Then he returned to them again and talked with them,
17:13and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.
17:17The brothers were haunted by the memories of what they had done,
17:21no longer trying to excuse themselves.
17:24They've come to grips with what they've done.
17:26And, you know, that's what God wants to happen in our lives.
17:29Till we come to grips with what we've done that's sinful,
17:32we can't deal with it, because confession is saying
17:35the same thing about your sin that God says.
17:38And you can't confess your sin unless you recognize it.
17:41God isn't interested in your excuses,
17:43and he doesn't listen to any of them.
17:45He wants you to say about what you've done,
17:48what you've really done.
17:50Joseph was in the room where they were having this conversation
17:53in Hebrew, admitting their own guilt.
17:56And they thought that Joseph was an Egyptian
17:59and would not understand a word they were saying.
18:02But Joseph knew Hebrew as well as they did.
18:07And as they talked with one another,
18:09Joseph took it all in and he heard everything they said.
18:14And the Bible says that he turned himself away from them
18:17and he wept.
18:19And after he regained his composure,
18:21Joseph came back, he chose Simeon,
18:24tied him in the front of her brothers,
18:26and sent the rest back to Canaan.
18:28Isn't it terrible to carry unresolved guilt?
18:32Maybe some of you have that today.
18:35To have it buried in your heart, never addressed,
18:38constantly nagging at your soul.
18:41That's the situation these brothers found themselves in.
18:44They had never confronted this issue.
18:47They had allowed it to grow in their hearts
18:49even though it had been pushed back from the front of their heart.
18:52And after two decades, two decades,
18:56it became just as real as if it had happened the day before.
19:00Now, the next thing that happens is kind of hard to understand
19:04in our culture today, but it's really biblical.
19:07And I want you to notice it's the expression of kindness.
19:11Verses 25 to 28 we read,
19:13Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain,
19:17to restore every man's money to his sack,
19:21and to give them provisions for the journey.
19:23And thus he did for them.
19:25And so they loaded their donkeys with the grain
19:27and departed from there.
19:29But as one of them opened his sack
19:31to give his donkey feed at the encampment,
19:34he saw his money, and there it was in the mouth of his sack.
19:37So he said to his brothers,
19:39My money has been restored, and there it is in my sack.
19:44And then their hearts failed them,
19:46and they were afraid, saying to one another,
19:48What is this that God has done to us?
19:52When you're out of the will of God,
19:54even the good things seem bad.
19:57Free money feels like a curse.
20:00When you're not walking with God,
20:02every circumstance is filtered through the lens of your guilt.
20:06Ultimately, this fear served a greater purpose.
20:10It began to soften their hearts,
20:12leading them to recognize their past sins,
20:14and that's how God deals with us too.
20:16And the Bible actually says that.
20:19Did you know that?
20:20In Romans 2, 4, listen to these words,
20:23But you show contempt for the richness of his kindness,
20:27forbearance, and patience,
20:29not realizing that God's kindness
20:31is intended to lead you to repentance.
20:35It is God heaping coals of fire upon their head,
20:39and they don't understand it.
20:41Did you know there's a difference between regret and repentance?
20:46Regret is feeling sorrow for something that has happened
20:49because of the consequences,
20:51or primarily because you got caught.
20:54Repentance goes deeper.
20:57It involves a genuine change of heart
20:59and a commitment to turn away from past wrongs.
21:03Joseph understood this difference.
21:05He wanted his brothers to go beyond regret
21:07for their treacherous deeds
21:09to a place of genuine repentance.
21:11Through events he orchestrated,
21:13he aimed to bring them to conviction.
21:15You see, regret is just being sorry for what happened.
21:19We run into that a lot when you run a school.
21:22Did you know that?
21:23Kids get in trouble, and they come to the office,
21:26and you talk to them about what they did,
21:28and they're so sorry that they did it.
21:31But as you sit there and listen to them,
21:32you know they're not sorry for what they did.
21:34They're sorry they got caught.
21:36That's regret.
21:38There's nothing wrong with regret,
21:40but that's only the first step.
21:41You got to get beyond that.
21:43Because you see, repentance is a 180.
21:47Repentance is turning away from your sin
21:49and walking in the other direction.
21:51Repentance is walking this way,
21:54realizing that you've done wrong,
21:56and turning clear around and walk the other way.
21:58That's what it means to repent.
22:00So, remember always,
22:02there's a difference between regret and repentance.
22:06And then secondly,
22:08the difference between forgetting and forgiving.
22:12Have you ever had somebody come to you and say,
22:14well, I'll forgive you,
22:15but I'm never gonna forget what you did?
22:19I guess that's possible,
22:20but probably not a very good kind of forgiveness.
22:24The story of Joseph is really a story
22:26of the temptations that come to a man
22:29in the course of life.
22:30Just think of this.
22:32Joseph has overcome the temptation to despair
22:35when his brothers sell him as a slave.
22:39He's overcome the temptation to impurity,
22:43which came to him by way of Potiphar's wife.
22:46He's overcome the temptation to become discouraged
22:49when he was forgotten by the butler.
22:52But perhaps the greatest temptation he would ever face
22:55was the temptation that was his because of his position
22:59and his power to retaliate and get even with his brothers
23:04for the awful thing they had done to him.
23:07He was in a catbird position to pull that off.
23:11Would he truly restore and forgive them?
23:14Here's a little insight into what really happened.
23:17In Genesis 41,
23:20we learned that Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh.
23:26And the word Manasseh means God has caused me to forget.
23:33That's what the word Manasseh means.
23:35So, Joseph didn't just forgive.
23:38He forgot.
23:39He put it behind him.
23:40You know, when you forget something,
23:42that just means you choose not to remember it.
23:45It doesn't mean it goes out of your memory bank.
23:47I mean, it's always gonna be there.
23:49You just choose not to dwell on it,
23:50and you put space between you and what happened.
23:53You don't remember it because you choose not to remember it.
23:57It is forgiveness that leads to genuine restoration
24:00and reconciliation.
24:02So, as we think about this and the evidence that we have
24:06of God's concern for his children,
24:10working so diligently to bring them to a place of repentance,
24:14if we are harboring unforgiveness in our hearts,
24:18we must deal with it.
24:21Not tomorrow, not next week, but today.
24:25We must do what we must do.
24:27I was preaching at a conference not long after I came here,
24:31and a man told me that he had not talked to his father
24:35in over 30 years,
24:37and that he had terrible resentment against his father.
24:40And he became convinced that he needed to forgive his father,
24:44and he left the meeting and went to what was then a pay phone,
24:47called his dad,
24:49asked him to forgive him for being so unforgiving.
24:52They had a glorious renaissance, a great reunion,
24:56and remained friends until his father's death.
24:59You know, the only thing that stands between you
25:01and the wholeness of your life with regard to your relationships
25:04is taking the courageous step of forgiving those who have hurt you.
25:11And don't just forget it.
25:13Forgive it, but forget it.
25:14Put it behind you.
25:15And determine in your heart that you're not going to bring it up again.
25:19You're going to walk away from it and be free.
25:49a good purpose, as Dr. Jeremiah helps you bring everything to God.
25:52Request everything to God in prayer,
25:54new from Dr. Jeremiah,
25:56with your gift of any amount to Turning Point,
25:58or receive two copies for a gift of $60 or more,
26:00perfect for your prayer life
26:02and a thoughtful gift for loved ones.
26:05Your deepest needs and biggest dreams deserve the right words.
26:09Request everything to God in prayer,
26:12by Dr. Jeremiah, from Turning Point today.
26:19If you have never taken the step to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can do that today.
26:26If you will allow us, Dr. Jeremiah would like to send you two resources that will help you.
26:32The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you as you begin your relationship with Christ.
26:38And the second is our monthly devotional magazine, Turning Points, to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
26:45These resources are yours, completely free, when you contact Turning Point today.
26:53If you enjoyed today's message, watch the entire God Meant It For Good series on Turning Point Plus.
27:00Start streaming this series today, along with more than 1,200 messages from Dr. Jeremiah's four decades of broadcast ministry.
27:07On Turning Point Plus, you'll find Dr. Jeremiah's Bible-strong teaching, original programming, plus special collections and playlists.
27:14All on demand and on any screen.
27:17Visit turningpointplus.org to get started today.
27:23Next time on Turning Point.
27:25When you accept Jesus into your life, He comes to dwell within you.
27:30He becomes your constant companion.
27:33He's always there, just a prayer away.
27:36And the more you know about Him, the more you learn to love Him, the more excited you are about the adventure that is yours because you're a child of God.
27:46Thank you for being with us today.
27:48Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for his message,
27:51Joseph Reveals His Identity, here on Turning Point.
27:54Enjoy a Bible conference on the water when you set sail with David and Donna Jeremiah to New England and Canada.
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28:11as you refresh your faith with a week of uplifting Bible teaching from Dr. Jeremiah.
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