Living in the Meanwhile
We live in world and county filled with unprecedented violence, political upheaval, and uncertainty. These are coupled with an increase in natural disasters, and so we wonder if this is ever going to change, or are we in for more of the same as we approach this next year.
Last week we looked at living our lives in the in-between, and how much of this life God has given to us we have missed, because we’re so concerned with our goals 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 by looking at meanwhile living. And to do this I’d like to share with you a story from the Bible about a man called Joseph.
Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, and to say that he was spoiled is an understatement. 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 went so far as to make Joseph into his own little stool pigeon, along with giving him a special coat in the process, a coat of many colors. (Genesis 37:3-4)
Even while his brothers were out working in the field tending to 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 Joseph when I was going to school. We’d call them tattletales, or snitches.
But there’s more. Joseph was also a dreamer. Not a daydreamer, but a night dreamer. God had given Joseph a couple of dreams that really ticked off his brothers even more than before.
And to make matters worse, Joseph’s dreams had to do with his greatness over his own family. These dreams had his brothers, and even his father and mother bowing down to him. Well that’s the 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 once and for all without getting in trouble.
They were tending their father’s flock some distance from home, and had actually moved them from the place where Joseph and his father thought they would be. 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. They had enough of this dreamer and his dreams.
And so when Joseph arrived they stripped him of his coat and tossed him down a dry well. After dinner a company of Midianite traders were passing by, so the brothers sold him. Better to sell him and make a profit than kill him and get nothing. Besides, the life of a slave was usually a short one.
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.
Jacob believed the story and went into 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 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 had worked out. Their brat of a brother was gone, and 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 as they ever have been.
In the old western movies the caption would read, “Meanwhile back at the ranch.” In other words, nothing has changed. Everything remains the same. The word suggests summers in Mesquite where we can literally recite the weather by rote, and that is, “hot.” Hot when you wake up, and hot when you go back to sleep.
So for many, “meanwhile” means nothing is really happening. That everything is the same.
But that’s not the meaning here. Here, the word “meanwhile” serves an entirely different purpose. It leaves the door open for something more. It suggests there’s more to come.
It reminds us that God’s ways are not our own, and that He’s working something out that’s completely beyond our understanding and comprehension.
It suggests that no matter what we may see going on around us, God is still working out His plan and purpose in the midst of whatever we’re going through. Despite what the day’s events may bring, God is fulfilling His word, His purpose, and His promise.
That’s exactly what is going on with Joseph. His brothers believe that he’s as good as dead and his dreams silenced. But then comes this word, “meanwhile,” which hints at something more.
And so the story continues. Joseph, after he had risen in power in Potiphar’s house, Potiphar’s wife lays a trap for him, and then accuses him of trying to take advantage of her. Joseph is then thrown into prison. While in prison he’s given the responsibility to care for two of Pharaoh’s top cabinet members who had been imprisoned, and he successfully interprets their dreams.
He asked the cupbearer, who was vindicated and freed to go back to work in Pharaoh’s cabinet, to kindly remember him and to seek his release, the cupbearer, however, ignored his request and Joseph was left in prison.
You might say there was one setback after another in Joseph’s life. It seems like Joseph couldn’t catch a break or get ahead. You might say the “meanwhiles” of Joseph’s life were life shattering. His heart was broken and his dreams were gone.
Joseph’s despair reflects the agony of our time. Everywhere we turn we see similar stories, or we are one of those stories, where due to the circumstances and situations that have happened our hopes and dreams are lost and life gets overwhelming.
But then comes a word of hope, good news in tragic times. Who can tell me what this word is?
Meanwhile
After spending more time in prison, the cupbearer finally remembered his promise to Joseph when Pharaoh had a dream but no one could interpret it. So Joseph is called to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, and because God gave him the ability to do so, Joseph ascended in power to the second highest rank in all of Egypt. Literally, he became the second most powerful person in the world.
After seven years had gone by, years of plenty for Egypt, a famine began that ravaged the Mid-East, and Joseph is then confronted by his brothers who came to buy grain from Egypt to keep their family alive.
You know, those same guys that stripped Joseph and sold him as a slave and to a swift death. But Joseph understood the “Meanwhile” of God, and understood God’s plan and purpose for it. Forgiving his brothers of their transgression, Joseph brings his whole family to Egypt, lot, stock, and barrel, and gives them the best land in Egypt. And there he finally sees his dreams come to fruition, you know, the ones he had so long ago about his family bowing down before him?
And so, “meanwhile” is all about God’s hand in the affairs of man.
1. Meanwhile is God’s Hand in the Affairs of Man
And here’s the point. If we take this word, “meanwhile” seriously, and if we take God’s agenda for this world we live in, a world in the troughs of political upheaval, unprecedented natural disasters, and where wars and rumors of wars abound, we’ll be able to respond creatively and positively to our present and future situations.
When it looks like nothing is going to change, when everything is going to hell in a hand basket, when we work hard and have nothing to show for it, God is still working in the meanwhile.
Consider Joseph. A long time had passed since God had given Joseph those dreams. And for many years it looked as if they never would be fulfilled. But there’s something that’s interspersed throughout Joseph’s story while in Egypt. When all these things were happening it says,
“But the Lord was with Joseph.” (Genesis 39:3 NKJV)
Three times it says this about Joseph in every one of his trials.
In other words, even while it seemed like nothing was going on, God was doing something in Joseph’s life and situations.
Living in the in-between, can be fruitful as long as we learn to manage the meanwhiles by holding fast and believing that God is at work. When things look bleak, when the landscape of our lives is nothing more than a barren wasteland, we need to believe and move forward knowing God is at work and walking right beside us.
2. Meanwhile is the Detours of Life
Meanwhile refers to the detours in life that we all have to take from time to time. How many are familiar with the axiom, “The shortest distance between two point is a straight line?”
Most of us would want to make this our rallying cry when it comes to this journey of life we’re on. We want to get where we’re going in the shortest amount of time possible.
Proverbs gives us this piece of wisdom.
“A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9 NKJV)
What we also know from experience is that while the straight way is preferred, this rarely happens if ever. Usually we have to take a number of detours along the way before our dreams are fulfilled.
That’s the way it was for Joseph. If you chart the path of his life you would see that the line goes up and down, over and across before his dreams are fulfilled. But with every one of those detours, God made it possible for Joseph to move forward onto the next phase of his journey.
Our problem is that we see these detours as taking us away from our goals, when in reality they’re moving us forward into the next phase of our journey.
And that’s the way God works in our lives. The interruptions, the inconveniences, the intrusions into our lives may be occasions for God to do his best work in us and through us, and so we have to be open to these interruptions.
We are often frustrated when our plans don’t proceed as we think they should, and we look at these detours as delays when in fact they are our best opportunity to reach God’s goals.
The good news is that there is an alternative to despair during these times. When we encounter the detours of life, when our plans are frustrated, when we experience brokenness and loss, God continues to work with us as God did with Joseph.
In other words, God uses whatever life brings, the good, the bad, and even the really ugly, to accomplish His purposes, which brings me to one more thing this word “Meanwhile” speaks to, and that is the evil we see and experience in life.
3. Meanwhile Serves God’s Purposes
“Meanwhile” insists that the evil perpetrated upon us by others can be bent to serve God’s good purposes.
The Apostle Paul says it like this.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:18 NKJV)
This truth became evident in Joseph’s life, but paraphrased in another way. The verse has actually become one of my life verses. When his brothers confronted him after their father’s death, fearing that Joseph would now take vengeance on them for what they did, Joseph states,
“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” (Genesis 50:20 NKJV)
There is no better expression of the power of God than this. Whatever is evil in the hands of others becomes good in the hands of God. The ultimate illustration of this is Jesus’ death upon the cross. They thought they killed Him, but meanwhile, Jesus rose from the dead and is at the right hand of the Father, where all those who believe in Him will never perish but have everlasting life.
Meanwhile says that God can use whatever life brings our way in order to accomplish His purposes.
The faith God calls us to have challenges us to trust in His goodness even during times of great hardship. Encouraged by the promise of God’s help, we are called upon by faith to trust that God’s goodness and grace will ultimately prevail.
Maybe you imagine your dreams are dead. Your life has taken a sudden turn and you can’t figure out what’s next. For some, you feel like the door is shut for something that means a whole lot to you. Or perhaps nothing is happening at all…
Let me give you a word, “Meanwhile.”
Let’s see what we have learned about living life in the “Meanwhile.”
• Meanwhile means that God’s plans and purposes are being worked out in our lives even if we don’t see them at the present time.
• Meanwhile means that the side trips we take in life, the detours of life, are not wasted trips, but will accomplish what God has intended to further His goals and purposes.
• And finally, Meanwhile means that God can use the evil that is perpetrated upon us by others for our good to serve His purposes and goals in our lives.
In the end, God is present in the meanwhile of life.
Before we end our time together, I’d like to expand on this meaning of meanwhile, because we’ve looked at this word in relationship to God working out His plan and purpose in our lives, even though at moments we don’t see or sense God’s presence.
And this is where I’d like to expand on this meaning, and that is while our lives are changing continually, for God, it is meanwhile back at the ranch, that is, God never changes, and His plans and purposes for us always have been and always will be that of peace and not of evil to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).
As the Lord said, “For I am the Lord, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6a), and the writer of Hebrews said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
And so God’s plans for us are good, and that never changes, but He allows us to go through various trials and situations to work out His good and perfect plan, which is the story not only of Joseph, but all who are God's children, which are all those who love God, and who have made Jesus Christ their Savior and Lord.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
