I read in Matthew 2:12 that they were warned not to report back to wicked King Herod. And how did the warning come? In a dream! That sure sounds magical, does it not?
So I ask myself whether it still happens? Can you or I expect to be visited by some messenger or see something in one of our dreams that gives us warnings or guides us toward the next step in our earthly journey toward heaven's wondrous country?
In Job 33:15-17 we read,
"In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men
as they slumber in their beds,
he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
to turn man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride . . .
These are the words of young Elihu when he tried to give counsel to poor, suffering and grieving Job. Job does not refute this point. Everyone took it as a matter of course, it seems, that the Lord God may speak in a dream. Prior to these words Elihu said, "For God does speak—now one way, now another— though man may not perceive it" (v.14).
In the Christmas story several people have dreams, including both Mary and Joseph. Joseph was warned— in a dream—to high-tail it down to Egypt right after the Wise Men left, because Herod was going to try to kill the Christ Child (Matthew 2:13). The Holy Family stayed in Egypt until Joseph had another dream in which he was told to return to Nazareth.
Joseph certainly was not a prophet like Abraham, Moses, Daniel and others. Yet he was granted special guidance in dreams. What about you and me?
Again, I want to be very cautious here, because some pretty weird things have been touted by people who claim they had angels visiting them in dreams and visions. Perhaps we'd do well to listen to the writer to the Hebrews as he says,
"In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe" (Hebrews 1:1-2),
What's that mean? It means we must be very careful to listen to what God is speaking to us through his Son. He calls us to put our entire trust in him, to believe that in him we have complete forgiveness of all sins and that he will raise us up together to be with him into endless ages. There's more, but it is all related to Jesus, the One whose birth we celebrate again this year.
So if you do have some kind of dream that you believe comes from God, I for one am not going to deny it. I only urge you to make absolutely certain that what you think you heard and saw is in accord with what Christ and his prophets and apostles have previously recorded for us in God's holy Word preserved in the Bible.
Do not forget that false prophets claim to have dreams—and they may—but whoever visits them in their dreams is from the dark side and not from God. And those spirits mean us no good.
