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.”
I remember seeing this in some of the silent western films where the captions would read, “Meanwhile back at the ranch.” In other words, nothing has changed. Everything remains the same. The word suggests what it is like here in the summer. We can literally recite the weather by memory, “hot.” Hot when you wake up, and hot when you go back to sleep.
So, for many, “meanwhile” has come to mean nothing’s really happening. That everything is the same.
But that’s not the meaning here. The word in our passage means something entirely different, and has another 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’s going on around us, God is still working out His plan and purpose, even though we may be oblivious to it. Despite what the day’s events may bring, meanwhile means that God is fulfilling His word, His purpose, and His promise.
And that’s exactly what is going on with Joseph. His brothers believe that he’s as good as gone and his dreams silenced. But this word, “meanwhile,” hints otherwise.
And so, the story continues. Joseph, after he had been promoted in Potiphar’s house, Potiphar’s wife lays a trap for him, and when he didn’t fall for her sexual advances, she accused him of trying to take advantage of her. Joseph is then thrown into prison. While in prison he’s given the responsibility to take care of two of Pharaoh’s top officials, and he successfully interprets their dreams, but afterwards the cupbearer or butler forgot his promise and left Joseph in prison.
You might say there was one setback after another in Joseph’s life. It seems like Joseph couldn’t catch a break. 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 in our lives our hopes and dreams are lost, and life gets overwhelming.
But then comes this word of hope, the good news in tragic times.
Meanwhile
Look at what happened, one day Joseph is called upon to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, and because God gave him the ability to do so, he ascended in power to the second highest rank in all of Egypt. He became the second most powerful person in the world. Talk about a rags to riches story.
Then came the time when Joseph would confront his brothers. You know, those guys that stripped him and sold him to be a slave and to a swift death. But Joseph understood the “Meanwhiles” of life, the “Meanwhiles” of God, and understood God’s plan and purpose for it. Forgiving his brothers their transgression, Joseph brings his whole family to Egypt, lot, stock, and barrel. And there he finally sees his dreams come to fruition, you know, the ones he had so long ago about his family bowing before him?
And so, this word, “Meanwhile” is talking about God’s hand in the affairs of humanity.
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 recession, along with unprecedented natural disasters, with wars and rumors of wars abounding, then 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 a different direction than what we expected, when we work hard and have nothing to show for it, that is when we see God working in the “Meanwhiles” of our lives.
Meanwhile Means
God’s Plans are Being Worked Out Even if We Don’t See Them
Let’s get back to Joseph. A long time had passed since God had given Joseph those dreams. And for many years it looked as if nothing would happen. But there’s something that’s interspersed throughout Joseph’s story while in Egypt. When all these things were happening.
“But the Lord was with Joseph.” (Genesis 39:3 NKJV)
Several times it says this about Joseph and the trials that he faced.
And so, even while it seemed like nothing was going on, God was working behind the scenes in Joseph’s life and situations. And in the same way, God is working behind the scenes in our lives and in our situations.
Living in the in-between, keeping on when the landscape of our lives is nothing but a barren wasteland, it can be fruitful as long as we learn to hold fast and believe that God is at work in our meanwhiles. In other words, when things look bleak, we need to believe and move forward by faith knowing God is at work and walking right alongside of us.
“Meanwhile” also refers to the detours in life that we have to take.
Detours Will Accomplish God’s Plan
Many are familiar with what Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician, said. He said, “The shortest distance between two points is a straight line?” (Archimedes)
Most of us would make this our rallying cry when it comes to the journey of life. We want to get where we want to go in the shortest amount of time possible.
But we also know from experience that this rarely if ever happens. Usually, we have to take a number of detours along the way before our dreams are fulfilled.
“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9 NKJV)
That’s the way it was for Joseph. If you chart the path of his life, you’d see that the line goes up and down, over and across before his dream is 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 goal when in reality they are moving us forward into the next phase of our journeys, the next phase of reaching God’s goal.
Consider the route God chose for Israel when Pharaoh let them leave Egypt.
“Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17-18)
And that’s the way God works in our lives. The interruptions, inconveniences, and intrusions of our lives may be occasions for God to do his best work in and through us, and we have to be open to that.
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 the goals God has given.
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 He 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 that this word “Meanwhile” speaks to, and that’s to the evil we see and experience in life.
The Evil Perpetrated on Us Can Serve God’s Purposes
“Meanwhile” insists that the evil perpetrated on 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.
After I lost everything, and as God was now restoring back to me what was taken because of what a family member did, God gave me the exact verse Joseph said to his brothers. This actually became one of my life verses, which even sees me here today.
When Joseph’s 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’s death upon the cross. The Jewish leaders and the Romans thought they killed Him, but meanwhile, Jesus rose from the dead and all those who believe in Him will never perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
“Meanwhile” says that God can use whatever life brings our way to accomplish His purpose.
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 believe that 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?
But God gives us this word, “Meanwhile.”
Conclusion
So, what have we learned about living 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 perpetrated upon us by others for our good in order to serve His purposes and goals for our lives.
In the end God is present in our in-betweens through the “Meanwhiles” of life.
