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Biblical Overview of Dreams

To many people dreams seem like some sort of strange nighttime happenstance.  If you were to tell these people that God communicates with us in dreams, they'd probably doubt you.  Dreams, oftentimes, seem so illogical, fragmented, and even foolish.  Weird things happen in dreams, and they happen in ways that wouldn't occur in normal everyday life.

Nevertheless, God does use dreams (in all of their apparent foolishness) to communicate with us.  The Bible gives some excellent examples of this.  In fact at the time of Jesus' birth many dreams were given to certain people.  Let's take a look at these:

                       Matthew 1:20-21 (NIV)

"But after he [Joseph] had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

 A couple of things are going on here.  First of all, God is concerned about saving a marriage.  He has the angel explain to Joseph that Mary's pregnancy is not due to her infidelity.  As a result, Joseph is willing to take her in as his wife.  Some times we think all God is interested in are the big things (nations, people going to hell, repentance, etc.).  But we see that He is just as concerned about saving relationships.  This dream from the Lord saved a marriage!

Secondly, we see that God has the angel declare to Joseph what the boy's name would be: Jesus.  The word "Jesus" is the Greek form of the Hebrew word "Joshua".  And the word Joshua means, "the LORD saves".  In essence the angel was telling Joseph that the son that Mary would give birth to would bring the Lord's salvation to the earth!  And every time that the name "Jesus" was spoken, it would be a reminder that God's salvation had come to the earth. 

So in this dream God saved a marriage and declared that His salvation had now come to the earth.  Dreams are important!
 



Now let's take a look at the next dream.  Magi (traditionally the Wise Men) came to find the young boy Jesus.  They knew that he would be the king of the Jews.  In Jerusalem King Herod points them to Bethlehem, and instructs them to bring him back news about Jesus' whereabouts.  Upon finding Jesus, they worship him and give him gifts.  Matthew 2:12 then says,
 
        "And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route."

In this case, the dream from God appears to have possibly saved the Magi's lives as well as Jesus' life.  Once again, God could have chosen any number of ways to communicate this information to the Magi, but He chose a dream in which to do it.

As the story unfolds, the Bible immediately records another dream.  Matthew 2:13-15a says,

     "When they [Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.  'Get up,' he said, 'take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.  Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.'  So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.

The impact of this dream is obvious: it saved Jesus' life.  Now, at least, they would be able to live in safety in Egypt until King Herod died.  So far we've seen God using dreams to save a marriage; declare to the earth that His salvation had now come; save Jesus' life several times; and direct Joseph, Mary, and Jesus to a safe place of residence in another country.  Dreams are important.

Next, God gives additional directives through a dream.  Matthew 2:19-23a says,

        "After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead.'  So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.  But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.  Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth."

In these verses we have two dreams.  The first one directs Joseph to take his family back to Israel, and the second one warns them again to avoid living in a certain place because of the threat upon Jesus' life that it would bring.  If God spent this much effort saving Jesus' life by warning people in dreams, then dreams must take on a new significance for us.  We can no longer treat them as some nighttime oddity that we pay no attention to.  We must treat dreams as a very important channel that God uses to communicate with us....Who knows--He may even use them to try to save our lives!

 

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