God of the Meanwhile

In one paragraph

Brian walked the congregation through Genesis 37, the story of Joseph being thrown into a pit and sold by his brothers, and drew out a theme he called "the God of the meanwhile." The sermon was built around the idea that while different characters in the story were each living out their own version of events, God was quietly at work in a reality none of them could see. The sermon opened with...

Read together

1. Genesis 37 main passage read and discussed throughout the sermon, the story of Joseph and his brothers
2. Psalms 139:5-6 read from the Passion Translation to illustrate God going into the future to prepare the way
3. Genesis 39:21 quoted to show the Lord was with Joseph in prison and showed him faithful love

Talk about it

1. Brian described the brothers using their own wisdom to solve their problem, and said their best idea was to throw Joseph in a pit and eventually sell him. When have you tried to sort out a difficult situation entirely on your own, and how did that go?
2. Brian pointed out that Jacob looked at the bloody robe and jumped straight to the conclusion that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Connor suggested Jacob may have avoided the alternative conclusion because it would have implicated himself in singling Joseph out. Have you ever found yourself landing on an explanation for a painful situation because the real explanation was too hard to face?
3. The sermon kept coming back to the word 'meanwhile' as the key idea about how God works. What does it actually feel like, in the middle of a hard situation, to try to believe that God is working behind the scenes when you cannot see it?
4. Brian read from Psalms 139 in the Passion Translation, 'You have gone into my future to prepare the way.' He asked whether, when you are lying awake at night running through worst-case scenarios, you ever put God into that picture. What gets in the way of doing that?
5. Brian closed by saying God's faithful love, the Hebrew word Hesed, has endurance and will last longer than you will, and that unlike people or even family, we can assume the best about God. Do you find that easy or hard to believe right now, and why?