Dream

VIEW:15 DATA:01-04-2020
The revelation of God's will in dreams is characteristic of the early and less perfect patriarchal times (Gen_28:12; Gen_31:24; Gen_37:5-10); to Solomon, 1Ki_3:5, in commencing his reign; the beginnings of the New Testament dispensation (Mat_1:20; Mat_2:13; Mat_2:19; Mat_2:22); and the communications from God to the rulers of the pagan world powers, Philistia, Egypt, Babylon (Gen_20:3; Gen_40:5; Gen_41:1); Elihu, Job_33:15; Daniel 2; Dan_4:5, etc. The dream form of revelation is that most appropriate to those outside the kingdom of God. So the Midianite (Jdg_7:13), Pilate's wife (Mat_27:19). But it is the Israelites Joseph and Daniel who interpret; for pagandom is passive, Israel active, in divine things to the glory of the God of Israel. Dreams were a frequent means of imposture and idolatry Deu_13:1-3; Zec_10:2).
The dream form of revelation is placed below that of prophecy and even divination (Num_12:6; Joe_2:28; 1Sa_28:6). "Trances" and "visions" are mentioned in the Christian church, but not dreams. While God has acted and can act on the mind in a dream (wherein the reason and judgment are dormant, but the sensations and imaginations active and uncontrolled by the judgment), His higher mode of revelation is that wherein the understanding is active and conscious; consequently, the former mode appears more in imperfect stages of the development of God's scheme than in the advanced stages. "In the multitude of dreams are divers vanities" (Ecc_5:7), i.e., God's service becomes by "dreams" (foolish fancies as to what God requires of worshippers); and random "words," positive vanity of manifold kinds; compare Mat_6:7, "they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


In everyday life, dreams are often related to matters that a person has been engaged in or been thinking about, and usually have no religious significance (Ecc_5:3). But the Bible records exceptional cases, where dreams did have religious significance. In circumstances where people had no written Word of God to guide them, or where God had an urgent message to pass on, he sometimes spoke to people directly through dreams (Gen_20:3; Gen_31:24; Gen_46:2-4; 1Ki_3:5; Mat_1:20-24; Mat_2:12). Dreams may have had meaning even when God did not speak directly, though these were rare (Gen_37:5-11).
Among people who did not know God, a dream with meaning usually required a person who knew God to interpret it (Gen_40:9-19; Gen_41:1-32; Dan_2:1-45; Dan_4:4-27). Among God’s people, a dream with meaning usually had a fairly obvious interpretation (Gen_37:5-10; 1Ki_3:6-9; Act_16:9-10).
Moses warned people to be careful in believing those who claimed that God had spoken to them through dreams. Such people were often false prophets, who led others astray (Deu_13:1-3; Jer_23:25; Jer_23:32). Moses was well aware that sometimes God may have spoken to the true prophets through dreams, but the Bible writers usually spoke of such experiences as visions rather than dreams (Num_12:6; see VISION).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


Job_20:8 (a) By this figure is described the evanescent and transient character of the wicked man who appears on earth for a little while, and then disappears. (See also Isa_29:7).

Psa_73:20 (a) All the prosperity and activity of the wicked has no more value in GOD's sight than a dream has to any person after he awakens.

Psa_126:1 (a) The marvelous transformation of Israel, from being the tail of the nations to being the head, did not seem to be a reality. They could hardly believe it was true.

Jer_23:28 (a) The vagaries and mental wanderings of ungodly, religious leaders are called "dreams" and are contrasted with GOD's Word. Dreams are like the chaff, having no value whatever. GOD's Word is like the wheat, which contains life, and gives life.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


Dream
(חֲלוֹם, chalom'; Sept. ἐνύπνιον; but καθ᾿ ὕπνον and κατ᾿ ὄναρ in Matthew are generally used for "in a dream"). Dreams have been the subject of much curious speculation in all ages. The ancients had various theories respecting them, the most notable of which for our present purpose is that of Homer (Iliad, 1:63), who declares that "they come from Jove." The most philosophic opinion of antiquity respecting dreams was that of Aristotle, who thought that every object of sense produces upon the human soul a certain impression, which remains for some time after the object that made it is removed; and which, being afterwards recognised by the perceptive faculty in sleep, gives rise to the varied images which present themselves. This view nearly approaches that of modern mental science, which teaches that dreams are ordinarily the re-embodiment of thoughts which have before, in some shape or other, occupied our minds (Elwin, Operations of the Mind in Sleep, Lond. 1843). They are broken fragments of our former conceptions revived, and heterogeneously brought together. If they break off from their connecting chain and become loosely associated, they exhibit oft-times absurd combinations, but the elements still subsist. If, for instance, any irritation, such as pain, fever, etc., should excite the perceptive organs while the reflective ones are under the influence of sleep, we have a consciousness of objects, colors, or sounds being presented to us, just as if the former organs were actually stimulated by having such impressions communicated to them by the external senses; whilst, in consequence of the repose of the reflecting power, we are unable to rectify the illusion, and conceive that the scenes passing before us, or the sounds that we hear, have a real existence. This want of mutual cooperation between the different faculties of the mind may account for the disjointed character of dreams. This is in accordance with the theory of dreams alluded to in Ecc_5:7; Isa_29:8.
"The main difference between our sleeping and waking thoughts appears to lie in this, that in the former case the perceptive faculties of the mind (the sensational powers [not their organs; see Butler, Analogy, part 1, c. 1], and the imagination which combines the impressions derived from them) are active, while the reflective powers (the reason or judgment by which we control those impressions, and distinguish between those which are imaginary or subjective and those which correspond to, and are produced by, objective realities) are generally asleep. Milton's account of dreams (in Par. Lost, 5:100-113) seems as accurate as it is striking. Thus it is that the impressions of dreams are in themselves vivid, natural, and picturesque, occasionally gifted with an intuition beyond our ordinary powers, but strangely incongruous and often grotesque; the emotion of surprise or incredulity, which arises from a sense of incongruity, or of unlikeness to the ordinary course of events, being in dreams a thing unknown. The mind seems to be surrendered to that power of association by which, even in its waking hours, if it be inactive and inclined to 'musing,' it is often carried through a series of thoughts connected together by some vague and accidental association, until the reason, when it starts again into activity, is scarcely able to trace back the slender line of connection. The difference is that, in this latter case, we are aware that the connection is of our own making, while in sleep it appears to be caused by an actual succession of events. Such is usually the case; yet there is a class of dreams, seldom noticed, and, in. deed, less common, but recognized by the experience of many, in which the reason is not wholly asleep. In these cases it seems to look on as it were from without, and so to have a double consciousness: on the one hand we enter into the events of the dream, as though real; on the other we have a sense that it is but a dream, and a fear lest we should awake and its pageant should pass away. In either case the ideas suggested are accepted by the mind in dreams at once and inevitably, instead of being weighed and tested, as in our waking hours.
But it is evident that the method of such suggestion is still undetermined, and, in fact, is no more capable of being accounted for by any single cause than the suggestion of waking thoughts. The material of these latter is supplied either by ourselves, through the senses, the memory, and the imagination, or by other men, generally through the medium of words, or, lastly, by the direct action of the Spirit of God, or of created spirits of orders superior to our own, or the spirit within us. So also it is in dreams. In the first place, although memory and imagination supply most of the material of dreams, yet physical sensations of cold and heat, of pain or of relief, even actual impressions of sound or of light will often mold or suggest dreams, and the physical organs of speech will occasionally be made use of to express the emotions of the dreamer. In the second place, instances have been known where a few words whispered into a sleeper's ear have produced a dream corresponding to their subject. On these two points experience gives undoubted testimony; as to the third, it can, from the nature of the case, speak but vaguely and uncertainly. The Scripture declares, not as any strange thing, but as a thing of course, that the influence of the Spirit of God upon the soul extends to its sleeping as well as its waking thoughts. It declares that God communicates with the spirit of man directly in dreams, and also that he permits created spirits to have a like communication with it. Its declaration is to be weighed, not as an isolated thing, but in connection with the general doctrine of spiritual influence, because any theory of dreams must be regarded as a part of the general theory of the origination of all thought."
Whatever may be the difficulties attending the subject, still we know that dreams have formed a channel through which Jehovah was pleased in former times to reveal his character and dispensations to his people. This method of divine communication is alluded to in Job_33:14. The most remarkable instances recorded in the Old Testament are those of Abimelech with regard to Abraham (Gen_20:3), Jacob on his way to Padan-Aram (Gen_28:8), and again on returning thence (Gen_31:10), Laban in pursuing Jacob (Gen_31:24), Joseph respecting his future advancement (Gen_37:6-11), Gideon (Judges 7) and Solomon (1Ki_3:5). In the New Testament (as was predicted, Joe_2:28) we have the equally clear cases of Joseph respecting the infant Jesus (Mat_1:20; Mat_2:12-13; Mat_2:19), Paul (Act_16:9; Act_18:9; Act_27:23), and perhaps Pilate's wife (Mat_27:19).
"It must be observed that, in accordance with the principle enunciated by Paul in 1Co_14:15, dreams, in which the understanding is asleep, are recognized indeed as a method of divine revelation, but placed below the visions of prophecy, in which the understanding plays its part. It is true that the book of Job, standing as it does on the basis of 'natural religion,' dwells on dreams and 'visions of deep sleep' as the chosen method of God's revelation of himself to man (see Job_4:13; Job_7:14; Job_33:15). But in Num_12:6; Deu_13:1; Deu_13:3; Deu_13:5; Jer_27:9; Joe_2:28, etc., dreamers of dreams, whether true or false, are placed below 'prophets,' and even below 'diviners;' and similarly in the climax of 1Sa_28:6, we read that ,'the Lord answered Saul not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim [by symbol], nor by prophets.' Under the Christian dispensation, while we frequently read of trances (ἐκστάσεις) and visions (ὀπτασίαι, ὁράματα), dreams are not referred to as regular vehicles of divine revelation. In exact accordance with this principle are the actual records of the dreams sent by God. The greater number of such dreams were granted, for prediction or for warning, to those who were aliens to the Jewish covenant. Thus we have the record of the dreams of Abimelech (Gen_20:3-7); Laban (Gen_31:24); of the chief butler and baker (Gen_40:5); of Pharaoh (Gen_41:1-8); of the Midianite (Jdg_7:13); of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan_2:1, etc.; Dan_4:10-18); of the magi (Mat_2:12), and of Pilate's wife (Mat_27:19). Many of these dreams, moreover, were symbolical and obscure, so as to require an interpreter. Again, where dreams are recorded as means of God's revelation to his chosen servants; they are almost always referred to the periods of their earliest and most imperfect knowledge of him. 'So it is in the case. of Abraham (Gen_15:12, and perhaps 1-9), of Jacob (Gen_28:12-15), of Joseph (Gen_37:5-10), of Solomon (1Ki_3:5), and, in the N.T., a similar analogy prevails in the case of the otherwise uninspired Joseph (Mat_1:20; Mat_2:13; Mat_2:19; Mat_2:22). It is to be observed, moreover, that they belong especially to the earliest age, and become less frequent as the revelations of prophecy increase. The only exception to this (at least in the O.T.) is found in the dreams and 'visions of the night' given to Daniel (2:19; 7:1), apparently in order to put to shame the falsehoods of the Chaldaean belief in prophetic dreams and in the power of interpretation, and yet to bring out the truth latent therein (comp. Paul's miracles at Ephesus, Act_19:11-12, and their effect, 18-20).
"The general conclusion therefore is, first, that the Scripture claims the dream, as it does every other action of the human mind, as a medium through which God may speak to man either directly, that is, as we call it, 'providentially,' or indirectly in virtue of a general influence upon all his thoughts; and, secondly, that it lays far greater stress on that divine influence by which the understanding also is affected, and leads us to believe that as such influence extends more and more, revelation by dreams, unless in very peculiar circumstances, might be expected to pass away." (See the [Am.] Christ. Rev. October 1857.)
The Orientals, and in particular the Hebrews, greatly regarded dreams, and applied for their interpretation to those who undertook to explain them. Such diviners have been usually called oneirocritics, and the art itself oneiromancy. We see the antiquity of this custom in the history of Pharaoh's butler and baker (Gen_40:1-23); and Pharaoh himself, and Nebuchadnezzar, are also instances. SEE DIVINATION. It is quite clear from the inspired history that dreams were looked upon by the earliest nations of antiquity as premonitions from their idol gods of future events. One part of Jehovah's great plan in revealing, through this channel, his designs towards Egypt, Joseph individually, and his brethren generally, was to correct this notion. The same principle is apparent in the divine power bestowed upon Daniel to interpret dreams. Jehovah expressly forbade his people from observing dreams, and from consulting explainers of them. He condemned to death all who pretended to have prophetic dreams, and to foretell events, even though what they foretold came to pass, if they had any tendency to promote idolatry (Deu_13:1-4). But they were not forbidden, when they thought they had a significant dream, to address the prophets of the Lord, or the high-priest in his ephod, to have it explained (Num_12:6; compare the case of Saul, 1Sa_28:6-7). False and true dreams are expressly contrasted in Jer_23:25; Jer_23:28. SEE NIGHT-VISION.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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