Dreams and Meanings

I don’t think I’ve had a spiritually meaningful dream in my life.

Well, let me qualify that just a little. I’m sure I’ve had dreams psychiatrists would call meaningful in that they revealed truths about my subconscious preoccupations, some of which are surely spiritual. I wouldn’t argue with the experts about the contents of my cranium either; it seems logical to me that when you have the same dream dozens of times, surely something is consistently on your mind that you haven’t resolved to your own satisfaction.

But personal messages from God in my sleep? Not a one.

Happy to Wake Up

When you’re really happy to wake up from a dream, it’s also an indication that whatever it signifies is probably not wonderful. So the “going to school in my underwear” dream I used to have all the time in my youth probably had something to do with lack of teenage confidence. The “stuck in the back seat of a speeding car with no driver” dream surely speaks to ongoing anxiety of some sort — financial, maybe. The “falling off a cliff” dream may be something similar.

None of these repeat dreams is specific enough to constitute an understandable message from my subconscious other than maybe “You’re a bit stressed about something today.” Moreover, they are all dream-types that large numbers of people experience regularly. Accordingly, I don’t worry about them. I certainly don’t attribute their origin to God.

Solomon wrote, “A dream comes with much business” or, as the NIV puts it, “when there are many cares”. I think the translators got the sense of it. We dream when our minds are overloaded. We probably need to in order to process our emotions.

Many Times, Many Ways

Prior to the coming of Christ, dreams served another purpose. God communicated with individuals in dreams at various pivot points in history, both believers and unbelievers. The first one I can find in scripture is Abimelech, then Jacob, Laban, Joseph, Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, then Pharaoh himself. There is the unnamed Midianite that Gideon overheard, also Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, Joseph and Pilate’s wife.

Additionally, the scripture refers to “visions” or “night visions”, which seem to be dreams with a distinctly prophetic aspect. Abraham had these, as did Balaam, Samuel, Nathan, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, John the Baptist’s father, Ananias, Peter, Paul and John. It’s likely all the prophets had visions of one sort or another.

Prior to Christ, God spoke “at many times and in many ways”, dreams included.

The End of Prophetic Dreams

Roughly sixty years after the return of the Lord Jesus to glory, God stopped speaking through dreams in any way that we can document or confirm. Well, of course there will always be people who claim God spoke to them in dreams, but I don’t have much time for mysticism. Peter writes that God has granted to us “all things pertaining to life and godliness” through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. Since we have the Holy Scripture that testifies to Christ, why would God continue to speak to men in inferior ways that might be misinterpreted and cannot be authenticated? We have limitless access to the complete written testimony of his Holy Spirit concerning his Son.

It seems to me the completion of the Canon constitutes a more-than-satisfactory explanation for the absence of authoritative personal messages from God in our present age, at least in the West.

Or Is It?

The Muslim world is something else, I think, especially in countries where the Bible is banned and converting to Christianity can get you murdered in your bed, usually by relatives. Recently, my brother mentioned asking a Christian worker in the Arab world how frequently he encounters Muslims whose journey to faith in Christ began in their dreams. To his surprise, the answer was “All of them. Every one.”

Anecdotes are not data, but that’s interesting. You can take away the word of God from the public square, but apparently you can’t stop the grace of God reaching out to the lost.

Whatever form it may take.