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Gen_37:5-10
This might, however, have passed. But the lad began to have dreams of distinction and honor, confirmatory of the preeminence with which his father’s partiality had seemed to invest him. He not only dreamed, but told his dream—and that, probably, not without some degree of juvenile exultation. These dreams, like all others to which a representative significance is attached in Scripture, were symbolical; but the symbols were, even at the first view, more easily intelligible than in the dreams of Pharaoh’s servants, of Pharaoh himself, of Nebuchadnezzar, and of Peter, and even, perhaps, than that of Jacob himself at Bethel. The brethren were binding sheaves in the field, when their sheaves bowed down to his sheaf, or fell to the ground while his remained erect. Another dream was stronger still—the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars did obeisance to him. Even Jacob, who easily interpreted this to mean himself, his wife, and his eleven other sons, was not altogether pleased at this; as for his brothers, these dreams strengthened into positive hatred the dislike with which Joseph was already regarded.
In our day, or rather among ourselves, such dreams would be but little considered, and we are therefore the more struck by the serious attention with which they were in ancient times regarded. Which was right—our long neglect of dreams, or the strong attention which they received in former days, and do still receive among many nations? There can be no question respecting the dreams of Scripture. They were certainly prefigurative—they were true, they were important, and the attention they received was most proper. There can be no doubt of this; the question, therefore, really is, Whether dreams have ceased to be significant—whether this door of intercourse with the future has been closed? The view of dreams set forth in Scripture, and which pervades the sacred books, is, that God does sometimes make known his will to man, and disclose his purposes in dreams—“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, Note: Job_33:13-17. in slumberings upon their 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.” So also the prophet Joel, quoted by Peter in the great day of Pentecost, regards dreams as a form of prophetic intimation—“Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” Note: Joe_2:28-32. Act_2:16-17. The question is, Whether these things have ceased? It may be so; miracles have ceased; prophecy has closed; why may not significant dreams also have ceased? They may; but have they? Few of the dreams of Scripture, scarcely any, have reference to spiritual matters; and some of them are of no importance but to the dreamers, affecting them only as individuals. We cannot therefore say that they would be discontinued from any spiritual reasons; and still less can we say, that the state of man requires them less now than of old. If we believe there is a spiritual world, why should we be eager to shut up almost the only door of intercourse with it? The state of man may often require intimations more distinct than can be conveyed by impressions upon the mind. These more distinct intimations can only be conveyed by words or signs; oral communications have ceased. The voice of God walks not now in our gardens, and is not heard upon our mountains; but a most fitting mode of symbolical or pictorial intimation is left, when the world is shut out, the bodily senses are dormant, and the mind is alone awake, and is capable of receiving any impression that may be made upon it. We can not only see, but hear. There is nothing that man can learn in his waking state, which may not be imparted to him in a dream. The fact is, probably—more than probably—that God still speaketh once, yea twice, in dreams, yet still “man perceiveth it not.” It may be, that the circumstances of our high civilization are unfavorable to such perceptions. “A dream,” says the wise man, “cometh through much business,” Ecc_5:3. By multiplying our ideas, by increasing the objects of interest and attention to us, the materials of mental association become so various, and the activity of the mind is so much awakened, that ordinary dreams are probably much more numerous than in older and simpler states of society, and the impressions they make more faint. The late rising, and the number of hours devoted to rest, among us, is also favorable to the increase of puerile dreams; whereas men leading a less wildering waking life, sleep regularly and shortly, but soundly; and, rising early in the morning, have but comparatively few dreams. It is well known that dreams seldom arise during sound sleep: and all the sleep of men of simple oriental habits is sound. Hence dreams being more numerous and less vivid, they make less impression on the mind, and those among them that may be really significant, become less heeded. Nevertheless, history, biography, and the experience of most of us, supply not a few modern instances, in which dreams have been most important for warning, for guidance, or for the detection of crime. Those of the latter class are not, perhaps, the most frequent in themselves; but they are most generally and authentically known, as their evidence is necessarily produced in the investigation of the case. Yet even in these cases, there has seemed a general disposition to underrate their importance, for which we feel unable to account, but from the general disposition among the men of the world to discountenance the idea of a particular Providence. This idea is necessarily involved in the belief, that God speaketh to man in dreams; and this very reason, which renders the belief distasteful to the world, should recommend it to the earnest consideration of those to whom that doctrine is dear.
Many of our readers will remember a case which filled the newspapers some years ago. One point in it, which was only mentioned, because it was historically necessary to complete the case, engaged our attention greatly at the time. A young woman was murdered in a barn, and buried under the floor. She was thought by all who concerned themselves about her to be still alive in another place: and the murder remained not only undiscovered, but unsuspected at the time, when the young woman’s mother was warned repeatedly in a dream to search the barn. She did so; the murder was thus discovered, and the murderer (Cordor,) condemned and executed. Now, from what other cause than a supernatural action upon the mind of the mother, could this dream have been produced? But men would not perceive or acknowledge this. The counsel on both sides, the judge, the reporters, the editors, all, with one consent, pushed this most prominent feature of the case aside. It did not elicit one serious reflection, one pious remark. It was to them only a dream. To us it was the finger of Providence; it was the voice of God, responding to the cry of innocent blood.
Other cases, perhaps more striking, might be produced to show that God has not ceased to speak to man in dreams, whether he will perceive it or not; and that Pilate’s wife’s message to her husband—“Have thou nothing to do with that just person; for I have suffered many things this night in a dream because of him;” Note: Mat_27:19. and Paul seeing in a dream a man of Macedonia praying to him for help, Note: Act_16:9. are not the last examples of such communications to mankind.
It would be curious to trace the ideas of dreams entertained by different nations. We have scriptural evidence that, among the Egyptians and Babylonians, dreams were more seriously regarded, and the task of interpreting them entrusted to a distinct and learned profession. Note: Gen_41:8. Dan_3:2; Dan_4:7. Great importance was attached to dreams among the Persians; and it is reported, that Cyrus was cast forth at his birth, because a dream of his mother’s was interpreted to promise him universal empire. In the Chou-king of the Chinese, it is in dreams that the sovereign of heaven makes his will known to the sovereign of the earth. In Homer, dreams came from Jove; and by both Greeks and Romans it was believed, that in the solitude of caves, and groves, and temples, the gods appeared in dreams, and deigned to answer in dreams their votaries. Among the Hindus, dreams solve a coloring to the whole business of life. Men and woman take journeys, perform arduous penances, and go through expensive ceremonies from no other cause than a dream. Among the North American Indians all dreams are of importance, but some are of mysterious fatality to the dreamer, so intimately connected with his well-being, and even his existence, that to obtain their fulfillment, becomes the one object of his thought, and the aim of all his endeavors. Among the Moslems, good dreams are held to be from God, and bad from the devil. Good dreams were held by Mohammed to be one of the parts of prophecy. He is reported, in one of the traditions, to have said—“A good dream is from God’s favor, and a false dream is from the devil. Therefore, when any of you dreams of what he likes, he must not tell it to any one but a friend; but when you see anything you dislike, you must seek protection with God from its evil, and from the wickedness of the devil, and spit three times over your left shoulder, and not tell the dream to any one; then, verily, it never will do you any harm.” The injunction not to tell bad dreams is curious. Perhaps, there was a similar feeling of old; for Pharaoh’s butler and baker seem to have been both reluctant to tell their dreams. The point is particularly insisted upon by Mohammed; we read, “A man once came to the prophet, and said, ‘I dreamed my head was cut off.’ Then his majesty laughed, and said—‘When the devil plays with any one of you in his sleep, do not mention it.’” In another place he denounces nothing less than hell-fire against those who, to serve a purpose, invent and relate a dream they have not had. Note: Mischat ul Masabih. Book 21, ch. 4, part 1.