25 - Dreams 2
Job 33:
14 For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.
15 He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.
16 He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings.
17 He makes them turn from doing wrong; he keeps them from pride.
18 He protects them from the grave, from crossing over the river of death.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
Our dreams have three possible sources. We may dream because
 we ate too much or too soon before going to sleep
 we want to sort through the events of our life, which we don't do while we're awake
 we are having an actual spiritual experience while we sleep.
Today's key verses from the book of Job enlighten us concerning reasons two and three.
Yesterday, we talked about reason two, and now we want to examine reason three.
When Jacob was a young man, on the run from his brother who wanted to kill him, God spoke to Jacob in this dream:
Genesis 28:
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.
11 When he came to a place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. He found a stone and laid his head on it to go to sleep.
12 Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven, and he saw angels of God going up and coming down the ladder.
13 Then Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder, and he said, "I am the Lord , the God of Abraham your grandfather, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now sleeping.
14 Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
15 I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not know it."
17 He was afraid and said, "This place frightens me! It is surely the house of God and the gate of heaven."
18 Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone he had slept on and set it up on its end. Then he poured olive oil on the top of it.
19 At first, the name of that city was Luz, but Jacob named it Bethel.
20 Then Jacob made a promise. He said, "I want God to be with me and to protect me on this journey. I want him to give me food to eat and clothes to wear
21 so I will be able to return in peace to my father's house. If the Lord does these things, he will be my God.
22 This stone which I have set up on its end will be the house of God. And I will give God one-tenth of all he gives me."
The Holy Bible, New Century Version
This was the first time Jacob had encountered the Lord for himself. He had heard of the Lord, but through this dream the Lord made Himself real to Jacob. Of course, at this point in his life Jacob had no idea Who the Lord really was and so tried to make a bargain with the Lord.
But even when our perception of God is faulty, the Lord doesn't shut us out, but continues to work with us, as He did with Jacob, so that we begin to desire a close relationship with Him.
Prayer:
Father, I'm not sure Who You are, or what You want of me, but I thank You for beginning to make Yourself real to me today.
Keep me from being deceived by any spiritual encounters I have in my dreams that don't come from You.
Keep me on the path where I will discover Your truth and live my life by Your principles, and experience Your love in my heart,
in Jesus' name I pray,
Amen.
If you visit the Sol Wise website
RelateToTheLord.com, you will find there two exciting instances in which the Lord led people to know Him, one of those is this incident in the life of Jacob.
LB stands for "The Living Bible", by Tyndale House Publishers
NKJV stands for "The New King James Bible", by Thomas Nelson Publishers
We hope this study has increased your understanding.
Tomorrow, God willing, we'll have the next in this series.
See you then!
Blessings,
Sol Wise
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