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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Dream
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The revelation of God's will in dreams is characteristic of the early and less perfect patriarchal times (; ; -10); to Solomon, , in commencing his reign; the beginnings of the New Testament dispensation (; ; ; ); and the communications from God to the rulers of the pagan world powers, Philistia, Egypt, Babylon (; ; ); Elihu, ; Daniel 2; , etc. The dream form of revelation is that most appropriate to those outside the kingdom of God. So the Midianite (), Pilate's wife (). 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 -3; ).
The dream form of revelation is placed below that of prophecy and even divination (; ; ). "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" (), 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 , "they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."