Elevate To The Next Level: "Living In The Meanwhile”

Elevate to the Next Level

“Living in the Meanwhile”

Genesis 37:36

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As we continue in our series of taking discipleship, our discipleship, our becoming more like Jesus Christ, taking it to the next level, I’d like to introduce a new word that is rarely heard in theological circles, but it’s a word that will help us understand God’s purpose in the in-betweens of life that we looked at last week.

But let me begin by saying that we live in world and county filled with upheaval and uncertainty, and we wonder, “What’s waiting for us, more of the same?”

Now, like I said a minute ago, last week we looked at living in the in-between and how much of this life we miss out on just because we’re so concentrated upon the goal that we forget that life is what happens in the in-between.

Today I’d like to expand on this idea of how we are to live our lives as Christians in looking at living life in the, and here’s our word, “meanwhile.” And to do this I’d like us to look at the life and times of Joseph.

Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, and he was spoiled rotten. He was his father’s favorite son, and his brothers hated him for it. But even worse Joseph didn’t do anything to help his cause, and Jacob made no effort to hide his favoritism. Jacob also made Joseph into a stool pigeon and giving him a special coat in the process, a coat of many colors (Genesis 37:3-4).

Even while his brothers were out in the field tending the family’s flocks, Joseph hung out in his father’s tent. The only time Joseph was out with his brothers was to let his father know what they were doing.

We had a word for someone like Joseph when I was growing up. We called them tattletales, snitches, or stoolies.

But if that wasn’t bad enough, Joseph was a dreamer. Not a day dreamer, mind you, but a night dreamer. God had given Joseph a couple of dreams that really ticked off his brothers even worse than before, and these dreams also got him into a little bit of trouble with his dad. But not for long, because Joseph was his favorite.

Joseph’s dreams had to do with his future greatness. These dreams had his brothers, and even his father and mother bowing down to him. Well, that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. His brother’s had enough.

So, a day came when they saw their chance to get rid of this spoiled little brat of a brother once and for all without getting in trouble.

They were tending their father’s flock some distance from home, but had moved them from the place where Joseph and his father thought they were. So, Joseph went out looking for them. When the brothers saw Joseph coming in the distance, they recognized his coat of many colors and conspired to kill him. They had enough of daddy’s little pet, and dreamer of dreams.

And so, when Joseph arrived, they stripped him of his coat and tossed him down a dry well. After dinner some Midianite traders were passing by, so they sold him into slavery thinking it was better to sell him and make a profit than kill him and get nothing for their effort. Besides, the life of a slave was usually short lived.

?But now they faced the problem of telling their father. So, they concocted a story that a wild beast attacked Joseph. To add validity to their claim, they dipped Joseph’s coat of many colors in goat’s blood.

And Jacob believed their story. You could say he fell for it hook, line and sinker and went into an extended period of mourning, mourning so bitter and so prolonged that nobody could console him. So bitter was his mourning that Jacob said that he would go down into the grave still mourning.

With the exception of their father’s intense grief, the brother’s plan came off without a hitch. You could just see them congratulating themselves on how well everything worked out. Their brat of a brother was gone, never to be seen or heard of again. No more would their dad play favorites. No more tattletales. No more crazy dreams of dominance. Joseph was gone. End of story.

But not quite! Tacked on to the end of this chapter is a verse and a word that would seem to indicate otherwise.

“Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.” (Genesis 37:36 NIV)

Take a moment and think about that word, “Meanwhile.” What does it suggest? For some, “meanwhile” means that things are the same, or “The same old same old.”