If you're a parent, you know that giving children direct instructions isn't always the best way to teach. Often, you need to let them learn things over time. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah explains that God sometimes uses the same approach with his children. accomplishing his purposes in a roundabout way to help us learn.
Here's David with the conclusion of The Silver Cup. Joseph's final test. Added to the intrigue of the story of Joseph, we come to part two. of the silver cup. If you know the story, you know what I'm talking about.
We'll get to it in just a moment. But first of all, have you ever noticed how many different ways we describe Christians? Their followers, their believers, their. Christians, their saints. I think one of the best descriptions of a real Christian is he's a follower of Christ.
And uh we took that theme for our calendar this year, and I'm really excited about it. It's uh following in his footsteps, the twenty twenty six calendar for Turning Point, which is released every year in the month of September. because it's a 14-month calendar. The calendar begins in November and goes all the way through 2026, giving you an opportunity to take care of year-end events and get ready for the new year. In fact, this year, the calendar actually begins with the whole page on planning for Thanksgiving this year as you prepare for next year.
This beautiful calendar is filled with incredible photography. It's a beautiful calendar you would love hanging on the wall in any part of your home or office. And we'd like to make sure you get a copy of it. Here's how you can get your copy during the month of September. It's one of our primary premiums that we offer every year here in September.
And here's the way you get it. You send a gift of any size to Turning Point to help us with the cost of airtime and production. And uh we will Give you the opportunity to ask for the calendar. When you ask for it, we'll send it to you. And we have them all ready to go.
We have them ready to ship. And you'll get yours in plenty of time to begin your November planning for the end of the year and for the new year. You don't want to miss out on this, and so I hope you'll take advantage of this announcement and make a little note in your notebook to do it today. And you'll be glad you did. We are studying the life of Joseph.
We've called this God Meant It for Good, the story of Joseph, and we're coming down to the important part of this story, the climax of the story, and today some more of the intrigue that leads up to that, the silver cup, Joseph's final test from the 44th chapter of Genesis. Here's part two.
So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house. And he was still there, and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said to them, What deed is this you have done? Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination? In other words, Don't you know that I am the second most powerful man in Egypt.
And that I have the power that Egyptians have to know the future. Don't you think I could figure out what was going on? And he wants to know: will they stand with Benjamin or will they abandon him like they had abandoned Joseph years before? When Joseph had served Benjamin extra portions earlier, the brothers might have hidden their true feelings, but now there's no hiding. They could easily let Benjamin go if they didn't care about him, as Joseph Stewart had said: whoever has the cup becomes my slave.
Maybe the brothers will just walk away from Benjamin, protect their own safety, and go back home. away from Egypt. But notice the change that's taken place. As soon as the cup was found, They all accompanied Benjamin back to Egypt. for his trial.
They're now back in the house where they had just enjoyed a sweet banquet with their unknown brother Joseph, still playing his part to the hilt. What deed is this that you have done, he said. Don't you know that such a one as I can certainly divine, can certainly know what's going on? And when Joseph says divine, he's using a term for uncovering the secrets of a man's heart. He's saying, Don't you realize someone in my position can see right through you?
You can't hide anything from me. I know everything that's going on. Do you know how he knew it? Because he planned it all himself. And then we move from the plot and the pursuit.
to this special section of the story called The Plea. Verse 16 introduces us to an important moment in the story of Jacob's family. And it reveals a significant shift in leadership. In the beginning of the story, the oldest son, Reuben, has been in charge, but he's proven to be very unworthy of that assignment. His own father referred to him as unstable as water.
And he's now being kind of put to the side and Judah. Second oldest. has taken leadership. He's elevated to the forefront, and we now see Judah speaking on behalf of his entire family. As Judas steps before Joseph, we witness the first evidence of a public confession.
In verse 16, Judas says, What shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Here we are, my Lord's slaves, both we and He also with whom the cup was found. And this is what Joseph has been waiting for.
This is what he's been plotting for and striving for.
Now we must carefully consider the nature of this confession. There are two possible interpretations. If Judah is confessing That Benjamin has stolen the cup. It would mean he truly believes Benjamin is guilty, and he knows better than that. What is he confessing?
Most biblical scholars believe that. The impact of what they had done to Joseph, their brother, has finally hit them through this experience, and he is confessing a sin that was committed some 20 years ago. The betrayal of selling Joseph into slavery. Judah has come to recognize the recent distressing events as God's judgment. for their past transgression.
And he says, God has found us out. We are guilty.
Well, they may be innocent of Theft. they are guilty of a far greater offence, the betrayal of their own brother. And that is what is happening in this moment. When Judah said, God has found out the guilt of your servants. He wasn't just talking about the stolen cup.
Which only Benjamin could have been accused of taking. Instead, he was acknowledging their early sin of stealing Joseph. Judah sensed a kind of cosmic justice at play, realizing that their hidden wrongdoing had come back to confront them.
However, he understood that this wasn't just random fate. It was the judgment of a personal God. Judah understood. He said, God has found us out.
Meanwhile, Joseph Who's at the other end of this? pretends not to understand Judah. and insists that only Benjamin was guilty. And rather than sentencing the guilty one to death, he declares that Benjamin would stay as a slave in Egypt. while the rest could go home in peace.
And what follows is a remarkable kind of plea or prayer. From Judah. An intercession. a crying out to Joseph on behalf of his brother. In verse 18, On Genesis 44, we witness a display of reverence in Judah's intercession.
Watch these principles. Of Judah's prayer, and notice how they fit into The way we pray. Here's what happened. First of all, he reverences Joseph. Then Judah came near to Joseph and said, O my Lord, Please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's hearing.
And do not let your anger burn against your servant. For you are even like Pharaoh. Judah standing before the second most powerful man in Egypt. shows great honor and reverence and a sense of awe for Joseph. He's about ready to ask Joseph for the most important thing he's ever requested of anyone.
But he shows reverence. for Joseph. I think this is a great lesson for all of us when it comes to prayer. Regardless of contemporary trends, God is worthy of our utmost honor. He's worthy of our praise and our reverence.
and we should approach him. with a sense of His majesty.
Something within me cringes. When I hear fellow Christians address God with excessive familiarity, as if trying to bring God down to their level. Phrases like the man upstairs. or the big guy in the sky. or other frivolous statements that are sometimes used by people who are trying to show that they are cool.
God doesn't want Uh To bring him down to where we are, he wants to lift us up to where he is. And the scripture tells us that in this way, it says, we're to lift up holy hands to God when we pray. And God tells us we're to be holy as He is holy. God wants us to be like him. He's not interested in being like us.
And Judah understood that when he addressed the most powerful man in Egypt. He addressed him with reverence and awe and honor. giving us an example to follow when we pray. I don't mean you have to get all formal. And use what some people refer to as Christianese, which is the language only Christians know, and most people don't want to know.
But it means We shouldn't lose the dignity of our faith. Can I get a witness? God is worthy. of honor and majesty. Speak to him.
as you would. if he were to appear before you in person. I don't think you'd say, well, hello, men from upstairs. How are you? You wouldn't do that.
you would be overwhelmed with his presence and his majesty. And so we should be. Then Judah reviewed Joseph's proposal. And Judah's intercession we see not only reverence for Joseph's position, But a detailed review of Joseph's proposals. Listen to this from Genesis 44.
He said, My lord asked his servant, saying, Have you a father or a brother? And we said to my Lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age who is young. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him. And you said to your servants, Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him. And we said to my Lord, The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.
But you said to your servants, Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.
So it was that we went up to your servant, my father, that we told him the words of my Lord. What is Judah doing here. As he speaks, to Joseph. He's telling Joseph Before I ask you for what I want, I want you to know. We've done what you've asked us to do already.
We've been obedient. We have been sensitive to what you've told us to do, even something that was hard, like bringing Benjamin back, realizing we were jeopardizing our father's health by bringing him back. But you told us to do it, and we did it. And that's a reminder to us, isn't it, that obedience is a great asset when you're praying. When you've been doing what God tells you to do, You seem to have a great deal more confidence that God's going to hear what you're asking Him for.
The Bible says, lift up holy hands when you pray. That doesn't mean you're going to be perfect. None of us are, none of us are perfect. But if you're living in open sin, if you're not walking with the Lord, the Bible says: if I regard sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. If you are living out of fellowship with God, And you say, I don't know why God doesn't answer my prayer.
Maybe you should examine your own life first. That doesn't mean you have to be perfect. It means that your heart is right with God and you're wanting to serve Him. And if God tells you to do something, you do it. It's a wonderful thing to know that you've been walking in fellowship with the Lord, even if you've gone through some hard things, and then lift up your voice to the Lord and say, Lord.
With all my heart, I've been serving you. With everything I know how to do, I've been trying to honor you, and now I need something.
So we move now from Joseph's position. to his proposal. And now, in verse 25, near the chapter's end, Judah restates the problem, and this part of the prayer resonates with most of us because it's what we do most and what we do best when we pray. Judah just tells Joseph everything. He says, and our father said, go back and buy us a little food, but we said we cannot go down, for we may not see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.
And then your servant, my father, said to us, you know that my wife bore me two sons? And the one went out from me and I said, surely he is torn to pieces. and I have not seen him since. But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. Judas says, Joseph, Our father was married to a woman named Rachel.
whom he loved. More than any person on the earth. And she died in childbirth and She left him two boys. Joseph and Benjamin And Joseph was mysteriously taking away He thinks he's been torn up by the beasts. Doesn't know he's still living.
And Benjamin, the youngest of all, is all he has left in his memory of Rachel, and all he has left in his family, and he says, please. Please don't put Benjamin in jeopardy. And so, what I love about this story is. Judah doesn't leave anything out. He puts the whole deal before Joseph.
And that's the way God wants us to pray. I remember in my life going to bed with problems on my mind. only to wake up with those same problems on my mind. And there was a time when my morning fellowship with God was so overwhelmed by these concerns.
So I began By praying, Lord, before I can talk to you about anything else, I need to hand over these burdens. and get them off of my list. And didn't make those burdens vanish, but it helped me feel a little better. In fact, the way I used to do that is. I would type them into my journal which I journaled in my computer.
Good morning, Lord. Thank you for a night's rest. Before we talk about anything else, I want you to understand some of these things that are really bothering me. and I would type them out in my journal. And there was a sense in which, when I did that, I was releasing them to the Lord.
I don't know how to explain it. But that's one of the reasons why before I die I'm going to destroy my journal. Because I don't want you guys reading about all my problems. I'm okay with God doing it. I'm not okay with you doing it.
There's a wonderful thing about laying it all out before the Lord. I know some people that think we shouldn't do that, that we should never tell God about our problems, and certainly not be descriptive in telling Him. If you feel that way... I have an assignment for you. Go home and start reading the Psalms.
Because when you get to David's Psalms, almost every psalm that he wrote begins with some problem in his life. Oh Lord, how long before you're going to help me? in one of his psalms. He starts out by telling God his problems. And then he works himself through that problem, and by the end of the psalm.
He resolves it, and usually it ends up in a time of praise and worship.
Someone said David's psalms begin with a sigh and they end with a song. And I think that's how we're supposed to pray, too. You should never be bashful about telling the Lord.
Somebody said, Well, the Bible says God already knows what's going on, so why should I tell him if he already knows? God already knows, but he wants you to know that you know. Because sometimes we talk about our problems very generally, but when you write them out, you become very specific. You don't say, dear God, I'm having a bad week. You say, Dear God, Let me tell you what happened to me on Monday, and let me tell you what happened to me on Tuesday, and I'm not sure yet whether I want to face Wednesday.
Lord, what am I going to do? And I think when we become honest like that, Our prayers take a whole new sense. of perspective and reality. God wants to hear our heart. He tells us to pour out our problems before him.
And then Judah Request pity. from Joseph. He finally gets to the request. Verse 32 of chapter 44, he says, Your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.
Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad. as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father if the Lod is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father? Judas says, Joseph, Listen. You can't keep Benjamin, it'll kill my dad.
Just keep me. Let Benjamin go and I'll stay in his place. After coming reverently before him, carefully explaining the situation. Judy gets to the heart of the matter. And that's important in prayer too.
We have to tell God what we want him to do. Judas said, Joseph, Let me be the man. You send Benjamin home and let me be Benjamin. Let me be the man. I'll stand in his place.
He didn't leave any doubt in Joseph's mind what he wanted. Do we do the same when we pray? You know, some of us have grown up in Christian homes. We've been going to church all our lives, and we've learned all the prayer languages, and we know how to say nice things to God, and we try to.
Sometimes I think we pray more on the basis of what we hope others will think of us than we do about what God will think of us. And it's really important when you pray. To ask God for what you want. I've had people come up to me after church and say, Dr. Jeremiah, this and this and this, will you pray for me?
And I usually say something like this. Let me ask you something first. Have you asked God about this?
Well, no, that's why I'm coming to ask you to ask God about this. And I want to say to them, and I say to all of you, I have no more efficacy before God than you do. You have as much of a standing before Almighty God as your pastor. You don't need me to stand in your place. I'm happy to pray with you, but I'm not happy to pray in your place because nobody can pray in your place.
Judah didn't push this off on someone else. He took the responsibility himself. And he asked Joseph, for what he wanted. That's one of the reasons why having a prayer list is a good thing. It makes us really specific for what we want.
You know, most of us pray for our families. When you get to be where I am with Four children. twelve grandchildren and now a great-grandchild. That's a pretty long list before you even get out of the door. For your family?
Extended family. Do you have their names in your prayer list? And who else do you pray for and intercede for? How important is get a little notebook? Maybe pray for some of them on Monday.
Pray for some of the rest of them. You don't have to pray for all of them every day. But if you don't have a list, and if it's not specific, your prayers will descend into generalities. And though God will hear your prayers, they won't have the same impact and the same. Ask God for what you want.
Tell him what you need, as this story teaches us. Tell him what's on your heart. Tell them what the problem is. Tell them what the issue is, and then say, and Lord. What I need you to do for me right now is this.
It'll make a difference. And I do recommend journaling as a way to get started with that. I remember when I was going through cancer. Everybody said you should journal, Dr. Jeremiah, you should journal.
I never journaled. I didn't even know for sure what it was. I actually read some articles on it to try to find out what a journal was. And what I remember telling everybody was that Journals Our Mostly for women. I actually said that many times.
Only women journal. I don't know any men that journal. And then one day somebody gave me a book by Gordon MacDonald. who is a wonderful preacher friend of mine from years ago. And this book was called The Life That God Blesses.
And there was a whole chapter in that book on how Gordon McDonald journaled in his computer. And I thought, if you journal in your computer, that's pretty manly, so I can do this. And I started to journal in my computer, and I probably have. three or four hundred pages. of journaling.
from my computer. And I look back at those times and realize How I asked God for things specifically, and then six or seven months later in my journal, I saw that He answered. And I remembered that back there I had written in my journal: Lord, I really am praying for this. And over here God answered. Because when you ask for something specific, You know when the answer comes.
What a difference that is. If you just pray general prayers, You're going to get general answers, and those are good, but not near as good as specific ones. And Judah illustrates this. in his prayer. before Joseph.
What a wonderful lesson the Bible gives us. for our lives today. You know, sometimes, friends, I um Think about the Bible not only as a book of success for the Christian life, but just as a book for success. and the principles that you find in the Bible. They're really important for everyday life.
I think you should have a little notebook that you put alongside your Bible and Maybe just title it: My Notebook for Success: Lessons I've Learned from the Bible. Certainly, it would be filled with notes from this part. Of the scripture as we've studied the life of Joseph together. He was a successful man in the eyes of God and. Just successful, period.
And we can learn a lot from him. We still have a few more lessons, and I hope you'll stay with us. Tomorrow is the Dramatic moment when Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers. 45th chapter of Genesis, you don't want to miss tomorrow. The drama continues right here on Turning Point.
I'm David Jeremiah, and it's my privilege to be with you every day to open the scripture together. Thank you for being here. And be sure to join us tomorrow on this good station for the next edition of Turning Point. Today's message originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor.
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Join us tomorrow as we continue the series God Meant It for Good: The Story of Joseph on Turning Point.
