Welcome to Turning Point. They say time heals all wounds. But if you've ever grown more callous towards someone you hurt in the past, You know time can also harden hearts. Today, Dr. David Jeremiah reveals this truth in the lives of Joseph's brothers, who had long forgotten about Joseph after selling him into slavery as a boy.
With His message, God's Method for Melting Hard Hearts. Here's David. And thank you so much for listening. This is Turning Point, and I'm David Jeremiah. We are studying the life of Joseph from the Old Testament book of Genesis.
We're in the 42nd chapter, in case you want to follow along. Today is an intriguing story about God's method for melting hard hearts. I don't want to tell you any more about it because I don't want to spoil the mystique of it. It's really a pretty cool story, and you want to stay tuned and listen to all the details and the principles that come from it. We are.
Moving toward the end of the story, we have a couple of weeks left in the life of Joseph, but we've learned a lot from this man. He is perhaps The best illustration of the Christian life from the Old Testament. In every aspect of it, because there's so many aspects that we can study and learn. And I know that I've been blessed by reading it and studying it and teaching it again because it's one of my favorite stories. You can get all this information in study guide format.
We also have C D's that have all the teaching on the life of Joseph. If you'd like to get the whole series, you can do that by going to DavidJeremiah.org. There you can find all this detail. Be ready to order it and Listen to it again. Teach it if you want to.
Be a facilitator for a discussion about it in a small group. All different ways you can use these resources, and they come with the blessing of the Bible because that's what it's all about. We don't want you to forget that during the month of September, when you send a gift of any size to Turning Point, we want to send you our calendar project. I've been telling you a lot about it. I won't take a lot of time today to rehearse all of that, but just remember: the calendar is for the month of September.
When you send a gift of any size, we'll send it to you. You'll have it in plenty of time to begin using it in November, and it will be yours for the whole new year. It's a wonderful, wonderful tool, and we'd love to make sure you have one in your house, in your hands.
So, ask for it when you send your gift today. Here we go with part one of God's method for melting hard hearts. Today, I want to talk to you about God's method. for melting hard hearts. Do you know anybody who's got a hard heart?
Yeah, you probably do. I hope you're not married to one. God has a method of dealing with people that have hard hearts, and we're going to see that played out in this story today. Alexander Solzhenitsyn. the renowned Russian novelist and historian.
grew up in the Soviet Union during a time of enforced atheism. As a young man, he embraced communist ideologies and even joined the Communist Party.
However, He experienced something during World War II. In his subsequent imprisonment in the Gulag labor camps, that led to an unexpected spiritual awakening. He tells the whole story in a book that he wrote called The Gulag Archipelago. And he wrote about how his heart was changed. Here's what he said.
In my most evil moments, I was convinced that I was doing good. And I was well supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw. that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good, Gradually, he said, it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states. or between classes.
nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart. The realization led Solzhenitsin to reject communist ideology, and he returned to the faith of his childhood. He became a vocal critic of the Soviet regime and used his writing to expose its injustices. eventually winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. The line between good and evil, he wrote.
runs through every person's heart. God cares about our hearts because they are the core of our being and the seat of our emotions and our thoughts and our intentions. It's why God is in the business of melting hard hearts. because he knows the heart is the source of who we are. The story of Joseph's brothers in the book of Genesis.
gives us a prime example of hard-heartedness. driven by jealousy and resentment over their father's favoritism, They showed a callous disregard for their younger brother. They plotted to kill him. settled on selling him into slavery instead. They even deceived their father about his fate, allowing their dad to believe that his beloved son was dead.
Their hard-heartedness would take years to soften. But as we often see in Scripture, God has many ways to break through the most calloused hearts. In the Bible, He startled some people with the appearance of angelic beings. He bewildered others with unexpected miracles. He sent storms and famines and fire from heaven.
He made donkeys talk. And winds cease. He raised up eccentric prophets, charismatic kings, and peculiar preachers. He ambushed Jacob with a wrestling stranger. He startled Moses with a burning bush.
In Numbers, God sent a temporary plague of leprosy on Moses' sister, Miriam. And that got her attention. He used thunder and rain to humble the people in Samuel's time. He sent Nathan with a convicting story for David. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah suddenly saw the Lord sitting on his throne, high and lifted up, and that moment changed his life forever.
Read through the history of the Bible and the history after the Bible, and you will realize. That the God of the Bible is the God who melts hard hearts. And in some ways, that is the theme of the Bible from the beginning to the end. And it certainly is the theme of the study of the life of Joseph. We pick up Joseph's story in Genesis 42.
He has risen to power in Egypt after having interpreted Pharaoh's Dreams about a coming seven years of plenty. followed by seven years of famine. And the seven years of abundance have passed. and the prophesied famine has begun to grip the whole world. It has also been 20 years since Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt.
During that time, Jacob's family had settled into a routine, still living in Canaan. Jacob and his eleven sons carried on their shepherding trade. and continued interacting with the Canaanites. Once in a while, We can imagine Jacob. would cry when he thought of Joseph, his teenage son, He loved that boy.
Like a father can love a son. But time had passed and some of the sting of his loss was gone. Jacob still had Benjamin. by Rachel and the boy had turned into a fine young man. The other ten boys had almost been able to bury their memories of Joseph.
though I'm sure sometimes the evil they had done would come to mind. But with the passing of twenty years that had erased most of the awful details and settled into a forgetfulness. Born of the calendar. But 20 years is not too long for God. How many of you know that?
And what is about to unfold is one of the most amazing scenarios of God's dealing with long-past sin. For while Joseph was being dealt with by God in Egypt, the Lord was also setting the stage for the recovery of Joseph's family. They were his chosen people too, and no pain would be spared in bringing the family. And Joseph back together. Even a worldwide famine could be employed to bring a small tribe of 70 souls to Egypt.
where they would grow into a large nation. Of course, more important than getting the family back to Joseph. was getting the family back to God. The Lord had to melt their hearts and bring to realization the guilt and sin of their evil treatment of their brother.
So in Genesis 42, we see the Lord's methods for bringing about change in people. He still uses those methods, by the way, so take note. He still works according to the principles of his sovereignty to bring his children in line with his will. And if you've ever been far outside the will of God, If you've ever walked away from the Lord, even for a while, You know That God can bring you back. And remember how God dealt with you, and marvel at the grace and love of your Heavenly Father.
He's still doing what he did in Joseph's family. He's doing it in families today. He may have done it in your family. Maybe you were walking away from the Lord. like one of the disciples who walked afar off.
But God has His methods of bringing you back. And watch how He works in the family of Joseph. The intrigue of all of this is the most interesting thing in the Bible. You cannot imagine. the lengths to which God will go.
To make sure your heart doesn't stay hard but gets softened and you come back to Him. There are a number of steps the Lord takes to melt the hardened hearts of Jacob. and bring them first to conviction and ultimately to fellowship with Him. First thing I want you to note is the experience of difficulty. In the first three verses of the 42nd chapter, We learn about the difficulty that's going on in the family of Jacob.
When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? And he said, Indeed, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down to that place and buy for us there that we may live and not die.
So Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. All of a sudden, the family of Jacob finds themselves not the recipients of inflation. but on the edge of starvation. They have no food. and no way of getting any food, and so he sends his boys to Egypt.
Joseph prophesied this famine when he was interpreting Pharaoh's dream. But now the time of want has begun to settle upon his own family. And twice in the text we are told it was severe. Genesis 41, 56 and 57. The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, and the famine became severe in the land of Egypt.
So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe in all lands. It was a terrible famine. There was no food. When the grain was gone and the food was running low, Jacob realized something had to be done.
So he looked at his sons, who were apparently indecisive about what to do, and he said, Don't just sit there. Go do something. That's a loose translation. And we have to understand that God is.
sometimes using unconventional methods to get our attention. C.S. Lewis once said that God shouts at us through pain and through problems to get our attention. He wrote, God whispers to us in our pleasures. speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain.
It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Did you know that sometimes God sends difficulty in your life because you won't listen to his whisper and he's got to shout?
So when you're going through some tough things, it's God shouting at you trying to get your attention. Most of us can probably point to a time when we began to stray from the Lord and the Lord had to shout.
So, what happens first of all in this story is Difficulty comes, a famine sweeps the land. It encompasses the nation and it touches the life of Jacob and his family. Then notice the exclusion of trust. It says in verse 4 of chapter 42, But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers. For he said, lest some calamity befall him.
Jacob didn't trust his ten older sons to take care of Benjamin. Deep down in his heart, he suspected that they had something to do with the loss of Joseph. Jacob couldn't shake off this feeling of doubt about what really happened to his son. And the ten brothers weren't kids anymore. They could sense their father's suspicion.
They knew Jacob didn't trust them and believed they were hiding something about Joseph's disappearance. This lack of trust created a tense atmosphere in the family. Jacob's fear of losing another son made him overprotective of Benjamin. And while the brothers felt constantly under suspicion for a crime, They knew they had committed. Things were not well in the family of Jacob.
the exclusion of trust. We have thirdly the encounter with the past in verses 5 through 15, and I need to read this rather extended passage, but you won't have any problem following me. And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed. for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
Now Joseph was governor over the land, and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them. but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, Where do you come from?
And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.
So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said to him, No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. We are one man's sons, and we are honest men.
Your servants are not spies. But he said to them, No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said, Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and in fact, the youngest is with our father today. and one is no more. Hmm.
But Joseph said to them, It is as I spoke to you, saying, You are spies, in this manner you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here first.
Now, what happens here is the gradual unfolding of the brother's own sin. How God does it is an amazing episode that ought to awaken in many of us responses to confession. As they come to Egypt with their father's mandate to buy grain, they are ushered through the crowded streets to a special place where grain is dispensed to non-Egyptians. And Joseph, who was in charge of all the land and food distribution, took special care to personally dispense grain to those outside of Egypt.
So those boys stand before the very brother whom they sold into slavery 20 years earlier. They bow down before him just as Joseph had dreamed they would back in the early part of the story.
Some have been troubled when they read this part of the record. that out of the ten brothers nobody recognized Joseph. How could that be? There are a number of factors contributing to their failure to recognize Joseph. Watch this.
First of all, his appearance. Joseph was now clean-shaven with a shaved head, long robe, a gold chain hanging around his neck, and a huge signet ring on his finger. They had never seen their brother like this. The last time they saw him, He was on his way to being a slave in Egypt. And then there's the second factor, and that's the factor of age, appearance, and age.
The last time they saw Joseph, he was seventeen years old.
Now he was a grown man, almost forty. With the usual physical changes that every man goes through, how many of you guys know you're not the same at 40 as you were when you were 17? Then notice on top of his appearance and his age were his announcements. This is pretty neat. When Joseph spoke to his brothers, he did so in Egyptian.
using an interpreter. He didn't appear to understand their language, which would also have contributed to their failure to recognize him. In addition, Joseph's authority would have surprised his brothers. The last they knew, Joseph was on a camel train as a slave. Who would have thought that in a short period of time their brother would rise from slavery to the second most powerful position in Egypt?
They never expected to see Joseph in such a position. It was unbelievable, unthinkable to them. And the scripture also tells us that Joseph was involved in a bit of acting. The original language tells us that Joseph made himself unrecognizable. To his brothers.
He play acted. And finally, His attitude toward them was different. The text says he spoke roughly to them. Why did he disguise himself? Why keep his identity from them and hold off a grand reunion?
I think there are a number of explanations. First of all, Some have suggested that Joseph used a rough treatment. in order to keep his own emotions under control. Perhaps he hid behind a gruff exterior to keep his own heart from breaking at the sight of his own flesh and blood appearing before him. That day.
Others have proposed that Joseph was acting by inspiration. remembering his dreams about his brothers bowing before him. Perhaps the Lord restrained Joseph from revealing himself to his family. Still, others have put forth the idea that Joseph wanted to subject his brothers. to the same opportunity to grow.
as he had had.
So he put them through a bitter experience to purge them from their wickedness. I've studied this passage more than once. And I think the reason Joseph disguised himself was to repeat for his brothers. the last experience they had together. Joseph had been sent to check up on his brothers, and his brothers accused him of spying, remember?
So he accused them of spying. And Joseph watched his brothers come and kneel down before him, and he accuses them of being spies. And they had thrown him into a pit.
So Joseph throws them into jail. Three times, Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies. And in their response to his second accusation, they reveal that their sin against Joseph is still very much. present with them. Genesis 42, 13, and they said, Your servants are twelve brothers.
The sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and in fact, the youngest is with our father. And one is no more. One is no more. This is still with them. This is still heavy on their hearts.
They can't forget what had happened.
Sometimes, when we are victims of the same treatment we give to others, God allows it to create in us a sensitivity to our own sin. Little by little, the brothers have a growing consciousness of their own sin. when they first came. They had basically forgotten their actions towards Joseph. but being accused of spying causes them to remember they had another brother.
one who was with them no more. and their evil actions toward Joseph creep back into their minds.
So there's the experience of difficulty. and the exclusion of trust. and the encounter with the past. And number four. The exile in prison.
Beginning in verse 16 of chapter 42, we read: Joseph said, Send one of you and let him bring your brother. and you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you. or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.
So he put them all together in prison for three days. Joseph said to them the third day, do this and live. For I fear God, if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house, but you go and carry grain for the famine in your houses, and bring your youngest brother to me, so your words will be verified, and you shall not die. And they did so. First of all, God uses solitary confinement to break the hearts of these men.
Here they are away from home, walking through a strange land, listening to a language they didn't understand, had to understand through an interpreter. And Joseph accuses them of being spies. and puts them in the very prison where he had been for more than two long years. The same prison. It's not hard to imagine the conversations that took place in that prison.
Because those men must have talked through everything they had done. Their treatment of Joseph was now in the forefront of their minds as they considered their situation. On the third day, When Joseph brought them all out of prison, he offered them a chance for redemption. rather than insisting that they all stay, He made only one brother stay, while the rest went back to get Benjamin. Joseph must have been on the verge of breaking.
emotionally as he went through this. They did not know him, but he knew them. His compassion and his love for God are evident, but he didn't yet know if he could trust his brothers.
So he left. One in prison. I told you this was filled with intrigue. You say, who wrote this story? It was written by God.
God orchestrated this. God made this happen the way it did. For our learning and for our benefit, we're deriving great, great blessings from this story of Joseph. Part two, tomorrow, here on Turning Point of God's Method for Melting Hard Hearts. Then on Wednesday and Thursday, from a famine to a feast.
And Friday, the Silver Cup. Oh, you don't want to miss that one. This is an ongoing. It's like a It's like a story that keeps going. We finish one section of the scripture, but the next section opens the next chapter.
and it's all about Joseph and how God used him and how he wants us to learn from Joseph.
so that we can live our lives in a better way. Thank you so much for being with us today. Don't forget to join us tomorrow right here on this good station for the next edition of Turning Point. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's series, God Meant It for Good.
Please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected. our monthly Turning Points magazine and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call us at 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of our beautiful new 14-month calendar, following in his footsteps and deepen your faith daily throughout 2026.
It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International and New King James Versions. Available in your choice of durable and attractive cover options. Get all the details when you visit our website davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Join us tomorrow as we continue the series God Meant It for Good: The Story of Joseph on Turning Point.
