Dreams - Job 32-34

 Job 33:13-18 (ESV)

Why do you contend against him,

saying, ‘He will answer none of man's words’?

For God speaks in one way,

and in two, though man does not perceive it.

In a dream, in a vision of the night,

when deep sleep falls on men,

while they slumber on their beds,

then he opens the ears of men

and terrifies them with warnings,

that he may turn man aside from his deed

and conceal pride from a man;

he keeps back his soul from the pit,

his life from perishing by the sword.

I am not a “dreamologist.”  I do not study dreams.  I do not interrupt dreams.  I do dream, dreams, if that helps.  I do remember most of my dreams, which is not true from some people.  My wife seldom dreams and, if ever, remembers her dreams.   I have read a lot about dreams (since I dream almost every night.).   I am curious about them.   

In the Old Testament we read a lot about God speaking to people in their dreams. You can actually do a search and find almost fifty times a scripture passage that talks about dreams.   In fact, Job already mentioned that God has spoken to him in his dreams:

Job 4:12-13 (ESV)

“Now a word was brought to me stealthily;

my ear received the whisper of it.

Amid thoughts from visions of the night,

when deep sleep falls on men,

In the above passage, Job’s fourth friend, Elihu, is confronting Job.  He is confronting Job about Job’s accusation against God that God will not answer when Job calls.   Yet, Elihu states, that is not true.  He reminds Job that God speaks in many ways and forms.   Now, here is where it gets dangerous for the 21st Century believer.   Remember, in Job’s day they did not have the full cannon of Scripture.   God did speak in audible voice, through a donkey’s voice, in the voice of storm, through prophets and priest, from a mountain, through a brith light on the road Paul was traveling, in a small still voice, and, many times, in dreams.   What Elihu is teaching us in the above passage is not that we should expect to hear God in our dreams, but that God uses dreams to stir man’s hearts.  Note these two passages:

Jeremiah 23:16

Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.

Psalms 16:7 (ESV)

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

Jeremiah is warning the people not to listen to false prophets who tell you to do something contrary to God based upon the dreams in their heads.  But, in the Psalm passage David is saying that God instructs him at night, in his dreams.   

I have no idea about the psychology of dreams.  Neither to psychologist.  They study dreams to see where they come from  and what they mean.  One thing we do know is that man is not even aware that god stirs thoughts in their minds via dreams that they might see God.   God uses all types of ways to say, “I am here.”   Note:

Psalms 19:1 (ESV)

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

God declares Himself in the heavens and He can declare Himself in dreams.  But, the final authority rest in what He has said about Himself in God’s finish Word.  The point that Elihu was making to Job was that God does speak to you Job, you just don’t want to hear what He has to say.  At the end of the book, God will speak to Job.  We have no idea if that is audible or through a prophet or in a dream.  But, God does speak to declare His glory.