Attribution: Owen Jones, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Do you dream? Perhaps a better question is, do you remember your dreams?
As a freshmen in college, we’re all forced to write that horrendous research paper on whatever topic we choose, right? For some reason, I chose the stages of sleep for my research and became fascinated by it!
I learned that dreaming is healthy! In fact, dreams are a necessary refreshing for a body, mind, and spirit.
Granted, dreams can be a little freaky. But God can use even wacky dreams to speak in the night when we won’t listen during the day.
Wacky vs. Wacko
Please don’t think I’ve gone off the deep end. I don’t plan to interpret every dream or declare every “dream-scapade” as a message from the Lord. Sometimes, it’s just bad pizza.
However, I recognize God speaks to His people in dreams. He did in the Old Testament, New Testament, AND to His Church. So, I think He can do the same in today’s wacky world!
Seeing Dreams Joseph’s Way
Joseph first experienced dreams as a teenager–a young man of seventeen. Both of Joseph’s dreams (which you can read about in Gen. 37:6-11) indicated his whole family would one day bow at his feet. Was it his youthful exuberance or maybe a little arrogance that caused him to share the dreams with his already jealous brothers? Even Jacob, who made it no secret that he loved Joseph more than his other sons, was grumpy about Joseph’s dreams…
“Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more…When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him.” Genesis 37:5, 10
It would take twenty-two years for these dreams to be fulfilled, and during that time Joseph would learn the skills of tact and wisdom with his words. How many times during those twenty-two years did Joseph question if the dreams had been a true revelation from Elohim or his own subconscious imaginings of grandeur?
When You Know That You Know
Yet there came a moment when Joseph KNEW–without anymore doubts–that his dreams had come from Elohim.
“Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. ‘Where do you come from?’ he asked. ‘From the land of Canaan,’ they replied, ‘to buy food.’…Then he remembered his dreams about them.” Genesis 42:6–7, 9
Joseph learned from his dreams in retrospect, which is the way I often learn from mine. The dreams seemed fairly clear that his family would one day bow. In the first dream, he and his brothers were binding grain when suddenly their sheaves bowed to Joseph’s. In the second dream, the sun, moon, and eleven stars also bowed. What other interpretation was there?
But then life happened. Circumstances changed into scenarios that made such a fulfillment seem utterly impossible. Surely, Joseph had misunderstood God’s plan or concocted the dreams through his own unconscious arrogance.
It was only after the fulfillment that the confirmation came–which is a common theme we see repeated in God’s Word.
Let’s take a deeper look at what God’s Word says about dreams, visions, and prophecy and how God’s messages are sometimes more fully understood AFTER they’re fulfilled.
The Fullness of Joseph’s Dreams
Dream #1: Brother’s Sheaves of Grain Bowing to Joseph
When Joseph told his brothers about this dream (Gen. 37:1-6), he’d been tending sheep with the sons of Jacob’s slaves wives and had just been given his famous coat-of-many-colors. We don’t know under what circumstances Joseph shared his dream with his family, but the moment of fulfillment was RIPE with unmistakeable meaning! His brothers were waiting in line to buy grain from Joseph–the 2nd most powerful ruler of Egypt and the sole provider of grain to the whole drought-stricken world!
Dream #2: Sun, Moon, & 11 Stars Bow to Joseph
Jacob mistook this dream to mean that Joseph’s “mother” and father as well as his eleven brothers would bow to his favorite son, but Joseph’s mother Rachel had died, and there’s no mention of any of Jacob’s wives making the long journey to Egypt with the family. Granted, it could have been assumed Jacob’s wives were with him, but when his family left Haran, his wives were specifically mentioned (Gen. 31:17-18):
“Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring.” Genesis 46:7
No wives mentioned. So what could the sun and moon in Joseph’s dream represent? I’ve never seen this anywhere in research or a commentary, so accept this as only my opinion. What if the “moon” was Jacob (his dark mood and general struggle with God and man). Perhaps the “sun” was Egypt itself. Egypt’s most revered god was always the sun god–called by various names at different points in their history: Amun, Ra, Re, Amun-Ra, etc.
Regardless, when the famine hit, everyone bowed to Joseph, and he recognized the fullness of both dreams’ meanings as Elohim’s miraculous fulfillment!
The Fullness of Messianic Prophecies
The first prophecy of Jesus in the Old Testament came in Genesis 3:15. He was Eve’s Seed whose heel was struck by the ancient serpent (Satan) but who victoriously crushed the serpent’s head (resurrection). Rather than talk more about the centuries of prophecies that followed or the myriad ways they’ve been understood–even up to today–check out the prophecies of Jesus’ birth and CLICK HERE for more great information.
- Genesis 22:18 – All the nations would be blessed through Abraham’s offspring
- Numbers 24:17 – Jesus would be from the line of Jacob
- Isaiah 11:1 – Jesus would be from the line of Jesse
- Jeremiah 23:5-6 – Jesus would be from the line of David
- Micah 5:2 – Jesus would be born in Bethlehem
- Isaiah 7:14 – Jesus would be born from a virgin
- Isaiah 9:6-7 – A child would be born and the government would be on his shoulders
- Psalm 72:10 – Jesus would be worshipped and given gifts at his birth
- Jeremiah 31:15 – King Herod would murder children in an attempt to kill Jesus
- Hosea 11:1 – Joseph would be warned to take Jesus to Egypt for a time to protect him
Realizing the Fulness of My Dreams
When I was a rebellious teenager, my mom began interceding for me. She followed the sage wisdom of talking more to God about me than she talked to me about God–well, maybe not, but she did pray A LOT. 😆
One of her prayers worked especially well and invaded my dreams. She reasoned that if I wouldn’t listen to the Holy Spirit’s conviction (and her spiritual counsel) during my waking hours, the Lord could instruct me in “the night seasons.”
“I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.” Psalm 16:7
I’ve had crazy–and meaningful–dreams ever since! At the first women’s conference I was invited to keynote, I shared one of my dreams. It illustrated the need in women’s friendships for balancing time and emotions. During that season of life, my speaking/teaching opportunities had increased to three times a week at our local church. I traveled for retreats, conferences, and misc events 2-3 times a month—as well as being a pastor’s wife and raising two elementary-aged girls.
Two years earlier I’d been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Three years later I would spend six months in bed with an unlabeled physical ailment. Finally, in November of 2003, Mayo Clinic confirmed fibromyalgia and added three more diagnoses: chronic fatigue, POTS, and chronic migraines (which I experienced 1-2 times a week). By 2005, the migraines came daily. My church involvement and speaking ministry became limited to Sunday morning attendance, and writing became my sole source of teaching God’s Word.
Nearly twenty-five years after I shared my dream as part of that first keynote event, I see how my Heavenly Father was warning me that I was doing too much. I didn’t listen. Maybe I didn’t understand the dream fully–or at least the severity of the consequences. CLICK HERE to read Mesu’s Wild Ride. Please laugh with me at the silliness of the dream while being sobered by its message.
Today’s Question:
- Have you had any interesting dreams lately that felt as if they might have more meaning than simple indigestion? Did you write them down? Can I suggest you write it out and keep it somewhere safe to look at in retrospect–for a future lesson God may be waiting to teach?
