Christian dream interpretation? Are our dreams from God?

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).

Though associated in some passages with trifles and vanities, Job 7:14; Ecc. 5:7, there is yet abundant evidence in the scriptures that God often conveyed His mind to people by means of dreams, and this not only to those who obeyed Him, but also to the heathen. Gen. 20:3, 6; Judges 7:13. "God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed: then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man." Job 33:14-17. God said that He would instruct His prophets in dreams. Num. 12:6. He also used dreams in the case of Nebuchadnezzar and of Daniel in order to reveal His will and purpose concerning, the future.

Joseph, the reputed father of the Lord, was directed several times by means of dreams; and Pilate was warned by his wife to have nothing to do with that just man because of what she had suffered in a dream. Matt. 1:20; Matt. 2:12-22; Matt. 27:19. It is to be remarked that in the last days when God pours out His Spirit on all flesh the sons and daughters will prophesy, and the young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream dreams. Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17. This will be the way that God will make known His mind in those days.

Dreams play an important part in Joseph's history previous to his exaltation. God frequently took this way to communicate His mind, or to reveal beforehand coming events, in the ages before Moses, when there was no written revelation of His will. So in the book of Job, where we have history antedating Moses (as we believe), we read of God speaking "in a dream, in a vision of the night," to men. Now we have His written revelation, the completed Bible, and it is only in extremely rare and exceptional cases that we can recognize a dream as having come from God. "A dream cometh through the multitude of business," that is, from purely natural causes, Scripture says (Ecc. 5:3). This may be said of the mass of dreams. but there are dreams on record which are undoubtedly of divine origin, and can be accounted for in no other way. For instance, I know a lady well, who said one morning to one of the members of her family, "I fear something is going to happen, for I saw in my dream last night a pool of blood." And before that day closed her husband was carried into the house with his face covered with blood, which was flowing from a gash in his forehead. "There is my pool of blood," she exclaimed, as she opened the door and saw it. He had been thrown from his wagon, and struck his forehead against a sharp stone. Now this may appear trifling to some, but how many individuals (and even nations) have been saved from the grossest materialism by such and similar means, none of us can tell. Anyway, history records what an important place dreams held in the cults of ancient Egypt and Assyria, and the divinely inspired story of Joseph confirms it.

Pharaoh is the dreamer in the chapter before us to-night. He dreams two dreams of exactly the same import. He stands in his dream by the river Nile, and sees seven well-favored and fat-fleshed kine feeding in a meadow. Then he sees seven ill-favored and lean-fleshed kine come up out of the river and eat up the well-favored and fat-fleshed. He dreams again, and sees seven ears of corn, rank and good, come up on one stalk. Then he sees seven thin ears, blasted with the east wind, spring up after them, and they devour the rank and full ears. Pharaoh then awakes, and is troubled. He tells the magicians and wise men his dreams. "But," we read, "there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh." Then the chief butler speaks up, and tells of his and the chief baker's experience in prison years before, and how Joseph had correctly interpreted their dreams. "And it came to pass." he says, "as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged." "Then," we read, "Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh." Pharaoh tells Joseph his dreams, and Joseph at once explains to Pharaoh what they mean. He interprets the seven well-favored and fat-fleshed kine and the seven rank and good ears of corn to signify "seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt." And the seven lean kine and thin ears he interprets as seven years of famine. "And there shall arise after them" (the seven years of plenty), he says, "seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous. And," he adds, "for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass." Then, unasked, and with the dignity becoming a messenger of God, the Hebrew slave advises the king just what to do in view of what was about to come to pass — reminding us of his great Antitype, whose name is "Counsellor."

But then in the second place, though God gives no account of His matters, He does speak to man, though so often man does not perceive it. And, having stated this, he proceeded to indicate ways in which God does thus speak. He may speak in a dream or a vision. He has often done so, as Scripture records, and evidently He does so still, particularly with simple saints, who know but little of the Bible, and possibly have but little of the Bible in their native tongue. Where saints are instructed in and by the Bible — a superior form of guidance - dreams, in which God speaks, are comparatively rare. And, if God does thus speak to a man in a dream: to what end is it? To alter his course and to humble his pride into the dust. A salutary word for Job; and for all of us.

Satan desired to trouble them by some means, and the apostle shews that signs and wonders are generally found on the enemy's side. He would have already succeeded for the moment if he could divert them from a scriptural expectation. "But of the times and the seasons, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them … But ye are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief." You are of the day. That is the position of the Christian. He is peacefully already of the day. He needs neither signs, nor wonders, nor dreams. He has the word. He ought to possess his soul in patience, humbly keeping his place. You will generally find that sisters are the ones who have seen these things, and I have not, moreover, noticed that this has drawn them, or others, nearer to God. God can use sisters, and often honour them greatly in their service, but it is well that this should be in much quietness and modesty of spirit; lest the enemy, who ever seeks, and seeks more than ever now, to trouble and mislead the souls of believers - lest, I say, he should take occasion from the weakness of the vessel - weakness which demands honour from us, but which, on the part of the sisters themselves, requires patience and quietness. So I beg these sisters to weigh these things well, and not to allow themselves readily to put faith in these dreams, as if they came from God. Let them not allow themselves to be carried away by their imagination, lest they should fall into the snare of the enemy, and lest he should take advantage of this to shake the faith of some.

p76 [From the French.] VERY DEAR SISTER, - I hear that some of the sisters have had dreams about the coming of Jesus. This has given me some uneasiness, for although absent in body, I am with you in spirit, desiring and seeking the good of all of you, the dear redeemed ones of our precious Saviour. It is by the word of God, our rule and our light in these last days, that we must abide. I do not pretend to say that God may not give warning by a dream, for the word of God says that He can do so; but we must be much upon our guard. We have no need of a dream with respect to matters clearly revealed by God.

We too may have dreams; and one may not say that all spring from the busy working of the brain, or that God may not deal thus as of old in slumberings on the bed, to withdraw man from self-will and hide pride from him. But we have as believers, and especially as Christians, far better than such comparatively vague intimations. We have the scriptures in all their fulness, revealing God, His counsels, work, will, and ways, from eternity to eternity. We have also the Holy Spirit sent from the Father and the Son in heaven, never to leave but to abide with us and in us; Who when come undertakes to guide us into all the truth, and declare to us the things to come, glorifying our Lord Jesus in both. He is the standing, intimate, and ready interpreter, not like one among a thousand, as Elihu says, nor even as Joseph supernaturally endowed, but a divine Person dwelling in us. May we have grace to abjure all that grieves and hinders, and to cultivate what is of Himself so as to enjoy the privilege and the fruit more and more. For though God was ever faithful from the earliest days, no saints ever had this wondrous privilege till the Saviour died, rose, and ascended, whom the Holy Spirit thus honours.

We find in Scripture that God deigned frequently to reach the attention of people by means of dreams. Many instances could be adduced. Now, however, we have in the Scriptures the full unfolding of His mind, so that dreams, having that for their object, are unnecessary. There is enough in the Book of God to give complete intelligence to every willing heart as to all that is connected with our spiritual well-being for time and eternity, as well, surely, as to very much more than our personal well-being.

We consider that Joel 2:28 had a partial fulfillment at Pentecost. Its final accomplishment is still to be looked for in the history of God's ancient people. God can speak to men now by dreams or a vision of the night, but we consider that the true and proper way for a child of God to be guided is by the Word and Spirit of God. It is very unsafe ground indeed to be merely guided by dreams or by the impressions of a man's mind. We vastly prefer the solid imperishable Word of God.

Ans.—It may be the Lord wishes to break up the bad habit of trusting in dreams. Before His Word was all revealed and written down, He often spoke to His people in dreams, but now that we have His Word in our hands all else must give way to it. We must trust in it as the ship in which we sail.