Pleasant Dreams

Dreams are a great mystery. Isn't it strange how our minds remain active while our bodies rest?

Some dreams are dangerous. The Bible warns about false prophets who boasted about their visions supposedly received from God, while their dreams were nothing more than "the delusions of their own minds" (Jeremiah 23:25-29).

Some dreams are constructive. They stir creativity, imagination, and vision. Carl Sandburg said, "Nothing happens unless first we dream." Vincent Van Gogh said, "I dream my painting and then paint my dream." Martin Luther King inspired a generation with his "I Have a Dream" speech. The psalmist joyfully recalled that when the Lord rescued his people from captivity and brought them back to their homeland, they "were like men who dreamed" (Psalm 126:1).

Most dreams are harmless and unremarkable. One of my graduate school professors conducted extensive studies about sleep. He compared the brain to a complex computer that uses sleep as downtime to sort through all the information poured in during our waking hours. Dreams, he theorized, result when our brains sift data to determine which ideas and impressions to store and which ones to file away or forget altogether.

On rare occasions, the Lord used dreams to instruct his people. Jacob dreamed about a ladder or stairway that reached from Heaven to earth. The Old Testament Joseph's dreams got him into trouble with his brothers, but eventually his ability to interpret dreams led him to a high position in Pharaoh's palace. God spoke to the New Testament Joseph through a dream, and he used a dream to steer the Magi away from Herod's wrath. Pilate's wife warned her husband that she had suffered much in a dream because of Jesus.

My wife is pretty good at interpreting my dreams. When I wake up in the morning and tell her what I dreamed, she says, "That's because you're feeling stressed at work," or "You're feeling vulnerable and unprepared." Occasionally she shrugs and says, "I have no idea what your dream means, but you need to quit eating Mexican food late at night!" Even with all of my wife's insight, there's no way she can interpret my dream if I don't tell her what I dreamed in the first place; but God gave this marvelous ability to the prophet Daniel.

King Nebuchadnezzar "had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep" (Daniel 2:1). He called together his advisors, including magicians, sorcerers and astrologers who specialized in matters of mystery. Quite reasonably they urged, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it" (2:4, 7), but quite unreasonably the stubborn king refused. He demanded that they first tell him what he dreamed! "The astrologers answered the king, 'There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! . . . What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men'" (2:10, 11).

The king's advisors, however, underestimated the power of Almighty God. Daniel rightly insisted, "There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries" (2:28). How amazed the king and his royal court must have been when Daniel revealed both what the king had dreamed and what the dream meant!

Later, Daniel himself was troubled by disturbing dreams and visions, but even when the future looked frightening, Daniel survived and thrived because he trusted God.

Without faith, life is a nightmare. But when we trust in the Lord as Daniel did, we learn what the Psalmist meant when he wrote, "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety" (Psalm 4:8).