What does the Bible say about nightmares?
Answered from the commentary of Morrish Bible Dictionary, C. H. Mackintosh, William Kelly and 19 others
Scripture treats a frightening dream as one of the ways God may speak to a person: "in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men… that He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man" (Job 33:14-17). Its purpose is not to flatter but to warn and to humble, so a dream that warns against what one is inclined to do, or that humbles, should be taken to heart. In pure grace God has sometimes so shaken an unsaved soul by a dream that it was driven to turn from its sins, though not everyone responds. The examples are many. Nebuchadnezzar's dreams troubled his spirit and drove sleep from him, and they came as God's warnings into the middle of his prosperity (Daniel 2:1, Daniel 4:5). Pilate's wife "suffered many things… in a dream," a warning God in mercy sent to Pilate, which he did not heed (Matthew 27:19). Yet most dreams are simply natural, for "a dream cometh through the multitude of business" (Ecclesiastes 5:3), and are often the fruit of an anxious mind. Most of these writers add that God now speaks through His completed Word, so dreams must give way to it and only rarely can be recognised as from Him. One holds that God still whispers to the conscience in sleep, while agreeing that this is altogether inferior to the Word. Believers are therefore warned not to readily put faith in dreams, lest the enemy use them to unsettle souls. A dream that leaves a believer afraid may also show that the soul lacks settled peace, and the Spirit may be using that fear to shake it down upon the Rock.
Job's case shows how such dreams can be wrongly read. He cried that God scared him with dreams and terrified him through visions (Job 7:14). Yet he was attributing them to his best Friend. The terrors that seemed to come from God were really Satan's arrows, and God was for him. Even Eliphaz's trembling at his night vision (Job 4:12-16) is said to show a spirit of judgment rather than grace, for grace does not make people fear in that way. The comfort the authors draw is that the heart which knows God in Christ need never be afraid. David, surrounded by enemies, could say, "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me" (Psalm 3:5). His circumstances were unchanged, but he had the Lord between him and them, and so he could sleep. "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep" (Psalm 4:8) describes the sleep of confiding faith. Those who walk in wisdom are promised that their sleep shall be sweet and the night shall bring no fear (Proverbs 3:24). The one who trusts in the Lord "shalt not be afraid for the terror by night" (Psalm 91:5). This is not a promise of immunity from sorrow, but the assurance that God is behind it and in it. When dark thoughts of the night come as an attack of the enemy, they are met not by reasoning but by the Word and the shield of faith. One young believer, assailed at midnight, found calm in the words "Ye are complete in him" (Colossians 2:10). A frightened child is quieted when a parent sits beside him and explains the sources of his terror, and the same lesson points to Him who is the hiding-place from the storm.
Verses: Job 33:14, Job 33:15, Job 33:16, Job 33:17, Job 4:12, Job 4:16, Colossians 2:10, Psalms 4:8, Proverbs 3:24, Proverbs 3:25, Proverbs 3:26, Job 7:13, Job 7:14, Psalms 3:5, Psalms 3:6, Psalms 91:5, Psalms 91:6, Psalms 127:2, Job 4:13, Job 4:14, Job 4:15, Daniel 2:1, Daniel 4:5, Genesis 41:8, Matthew 27:19, Isaiah 26:3, Philippians 4:6, Philippians 4:7, 2 Timothy 1:7, John 14:27, 1 Peter 5:7, Psalms 56:3, Psalms 121:3, Psalms 121:4, Leviticus 26:6, Psalms 34:4, Ecclesiastes 5:3, Psalms 16:7, Psalms 42:8, Psalms 63:6, Psalms 63:7, Psalms 139:11, Psalms 139:12, Isaiah 41:10, Matthew 11:28, Romans 8:15, 1 John 4:18, Psalms 46:1, Psalms 46:2, Deuteronomy 31:6, Ecclesiastes 2:23
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
(6) God is his enemy, watching as if he were the tossing sea, ready to overleap its bounds, or some monster of the waters to be taken and destroyed. Day and night His hand was heavy upon him. The fitful sleep as he tossed upon his couch was intolerable by reason of the terrifying dreams which God sent, so that strangling was preferable to the choking dread that filled his soul with terror. Poor sufferer! And he was attributing it to his best Friend!
But in the second part Job evidently turned Godward, and began to address Him with his bitter complaint. He realized his own littleness. He was not something great as a sea or a sea-monster, and, in verses 13-16, he cries out that his very nights are a torment with dreams and visions of terror which, he feels, come to him from God. He loathes his present life and tells God that he desires to die.
When he looked for comfort in lying down in his bed, then he says they "scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions" (vv.23-24). He refers to the vision Eliphaz claimed to have had, and which Job considered to be, not for his comfort, but to frighten him, and this moved him all the more to choose to die, so that he declares bitterly, "I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are but a breath" (v.16). We can understand that Job would prefer to be left alone rather than to have the cold criticism of his friends.
Since God is invisible, He speaks to man in ways that do not manifest Him personally, but ways that awaken man's serious attention. Two of these ways Elihu now speaks of, first, in verses 15-18, and secondly in verses 19-22. Though man may not perceive it is God speaking to him yet often God does so "in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men." At such a time God has a captive audience, whether man wants to listen or not. God spoke to Pilate's wife in this way (Mt. 27:19), though sadly, Pilate did not act on her advice, for he had already trapped himself by his weak vacillation.
In cases of God sending dreams to people, He "opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction" (v.16), not to flatter man's pride, but just the opposite, that is, "to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man" (v.17). In other words, if a dream is a warning against what I may be inclined to do, or if it humbles me, then I should take it to heart.
Many unsaved people have been virtually driven by a dream to turn to God from their sins, as verse 18 indicates: "He keeps back his soul from the Pit, and his life from perishing by the sword." Thus, in pure grace God sometimes so shakes a soul by a dream that the person is shocked into turning to God from his sins. Sadly, not everyone will respond to God's appealing in this way.
2ndly: But God has another way, "In a dream in a vision of the night," etc. (verse 15.) He will try again in the night, when the eyes are heavy with slumber. God goes to that slumbering one, and awakens his soul by a dream. I could tell you of many an one who thus has been met by God. It may be that some here can remember some terrible dream, something that caused them to awake trembling and affrighted. But, tell me, tell me, did you heed the warning voice; did you turn to God with the morning light, or are you still unheeding? Tell me, will you still go on despising, rejecting?
Dreams are queer things. Ninety-nine per cent of them are probably foolish, and perhaps the result of a disordered digestion, or an anxious mind. But here and there one comes and passes, and leaves an impression because of its vividness and truth. Such a one was the following.
These dreams of the butler and baker were "according to the interpretation," words which imply that they were of God. For dreams have two sources; either God sends them, or the multitude of business (Joel 2:28, Ecc. 5:3). In them God may reveal His mind, or they may be simply "divers vanities," the fruit of our own passions or necessities (Ecc. 5:7, Isa. 29:8).
He had dreams too, not like the dreams of Eliphaz which reveal the greatness of God, but dreams of terrifying visions, so that he loatheth his life.
That midnight scene makes one think of the words of Eliphaz the Temanite in the book of Job. "In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake." The heart which knows God in Christ need never be afraid, for nothing can overtake that soul for hurt. David, the psalmist, says, by the Spirit of God, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them."
Verses 14-22. But God, though He is greater than man, does not pass by man or ignore him. Elihu speaks of two different ways in which God deals with man. The first is in a vision of the night, in a dream. When there was no Bible, the revelation of God, God spoke to man individually by dreams and visions. He does not do so any longer for we have His completed Word in which His will is made known unto us. The purpose of this way of dealing with man is to withdraw him from an evil way and to warn him so that he may leave the pride which man nourisheth in his bosom; to keep his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword.
Verses
- Job 33:14–1714For God speaketh once, and twice, — [and man] perceiveth it not — 15In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; 16Then he openeth men's ears, and sealeth their instruction, 17That he may withdraw man [from his] work, and hide pride from man.
- Job 4:12–1612Now to me a word was secretly brought, and mine ear received a whisper thereof. 13In thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men — 14Fear came on me, and trembling, and made all my bones to shake; 15And a spirit passed before my face — the hair of my flesh stood up — 16It stood still; I could not discern the appearance thereof a form was before mine eyes; I heard a slight murmur and a voice