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Bible Encyclopedias
Dreams
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Of all the subjects upon which the mind of man has speculated, there is perhaps none which has more perplexed than that of dreaming.
Whatever may be the difficulties attending the subject, still we know that it has formed a channel through which Jehovah was pleased in former times to reveal His character and dispensations to His people.
In regard to the immediate cause of dreaming, the opinions of the ancients were very various.
We believe that dreams are ordinarily the re-embodiment of thoughts which have before, in some shape or other, occupied our minds. 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 ofttimes 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; while, 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 position might be fully substantiated by an appeal to the evidence of fact. Dr. Beattie speaks of a man who could be made to dream anything by whispering in his ear. Dr. Gregory relates of himself that, having once had occasion to apply a bottle of hot water to his own feet when he retired to bed, he dreamed that he was ascending the side of Mount Etna, and that he found the heat of the ground almost insufferable. Persons who have had a blister applied to their head have been known to dream of being scalped by a party of North American Indians. Sleeping in a smoky room, we may dream of a house or city being in flames. The smell of a flower applied to the nostrils may call forth the idea of walking in a garden; and the sound of a flute may excite in us the most pleasurable associations.
The only one of our mental powers which is not suspended while dreaming is fancy, or imagination. We often find memory and judgment alternately suspended and exercised. Sometimes we fancy ourselves contemporaneous with persons who have lived ages before: here memory is at work, but judgment is set aside. We dream of carrying on a very connected discourse with a deceased friend, and are not conscious that he is no more: here judgment is awake, but memory suspended. These irregularities, or want of mutual cooperation in the different faculties of the mind may form, for aught we know, the plan by which God gives health and vigor to the whole soul.
How God revealed Himself by dreams, and raised up persons to interpret them, the Scriptures abundantly testify. Under the three successive dispensations we find this channel of communication with man adopted. It was doubtless in this way that God appeared to the father of the faithful, ordering him to forsake country, kindred, and his father's house, and to go into the land that He would show him. To this divine command, Abraham paid a ready obedience. It was by a similar prompt obedience to the admonition conveyed to him in a dream, that Abimelech () himself and Abraham, too, were saved from the evil consequences of his meditated act. To Jacob, also, God appeared frequently in a dream (; ); and his on Joseph, while yet a child, had dreams predictive of his future advancement ().
Such were some of the dreams by which God revealed Himself under the patriarchal dispensation, and that the same divine mode of communicating with man was continued under that of Moses is evident from an express word of promise (). That dreams were one of the ways whereby God used to signify His pleasure, and from the complaint of Saul to the spirit of Samuel (whom the witch pretended to raise up), when he asked him, 'Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?' Saul answered, 'I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answers me no more; neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee that thou mayest make known to me what I shall do.' And, in order to guard against imposition, Moses pronounced a penalty against dreams which were invented and wickedly made use of, for the promotion of idolatry (). Thus Zechariah () complains: 'The idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have spoken a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain.' And so Jeremiah (), 'I have heard what the prophets said that prophesy lies in My name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed,' etc. Yet this abuse did not alter God's plan in the right use of them; for in it is said, 'the prophet that hath a dream, and he that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.'
When Gideon warred with the Amalekites, and was alarmed at their vast multitudes, he was encouraged to do God's will by overhearing one of them relate his dream, and another giving the interpretation (Judges 7). Again, it was in a dream that God was pleased to grant Solomon a promise of wisdom and understanding (, etc.). Here we may perceive what converse the Lord was pleased to hold with Solomon in a dream; and the sacred record informs us how punctually everything herein promised was fulfilled.
The knowledge of visions and dreams is reckoned among the principal gifts and graces sometimes bestowed by God upon them that fear Him; so it is said of Daniel and his companions, that 'God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams (). And the God who had imparted this spirit unto His servant Daniel soon, in the arrangement of His providence, gave the signal occasion for its exercise recorded in the second chapter of his book. In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar a great variety of ends were attained in reference to Babylon, Israel, and indeed the world—all of which were worthy of God's miraculous interference.
That this method of God's revealing himself was not confined to the legal dispensation, but was to be extended to the Christian, is evident from Joel (), 'And afterwards (saith the Lord) I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.' In , we find the Apostle Peter applying this to the illumination of the Holy Ghost. Accordingly, we read that when Joseph designed to put Mary away, because he perceived her to be with child, he was turned from his purpose by a dream, in which an angel made the truth of the matter known to him (). And in the following chapter it is stated, that God, in a dream, warned the wise men not to return to Herod. Moreover, in; , Joseph is instructed to flee into and return from Egypt with the child Jesus.
We inquire not how far God may have revealed Himself to man beyond what Holy Scripture records. Some of the dreams both of ancient and modern times, which lay claim to a divine character, are certainly striking, and may, for aught we know, have had, and may still have, a collateral bearing on the development of God's purposes.
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Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Dreams'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/d/dreams.html.
