“I have a dream”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, March 11, 2022
Genesis 40:1-23 (Forward, p. 41) CEV p. 41
Several of my favourite pieces of pop music have dreams as their theme, “I Dreamed a Dream” (from Les Misérables), “Any Dream Will Do” (from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and “The Impossible Dream” (from Man of La Mancha), just for starters. However, even though these songs have gained much popularity, the public estimation of dreams is somewhat divided. Even without going to the more extreme opinions of dreams of such psychiatrists as Freud or Jung, most people still see them simply as a kind of unconscious ‘processing’ of one’s fears or daytime experiences. As such, most people today do not take them overly seriously and far too often, don’t even remember them or take note of them.
However, in the ancient world, particularly in the Bible, dreams were taken quite seriously, and, in fact, crop up frequently, and were remembered and listened to and heeded. In fact, often they were seen as messages from God Himself, sometimes as warnings or calls to action and sometimes as predictions of the future. So, even apart from today’s instance, just think of the following instances of dreams and how well they were remembered:
Jacob and his dream of the stairway to heaven (Genesis 28:10-22);
Joseph and his own childhood dreams, prior to being sold into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 37);
And later on in the Josephs story, Pharaoh’s dreams (Genesis 41);
The Magi, being warned by God not to return to King Herod (Matthew 2:12);
Joseph, being warned of Herod’s evil plans and told to flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14).
And, this is just apart from the many times that God appeared to people in visions (with Abraham in Genesis 15:1 and 17:1, for instance, or Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the Temple, Isaiah 6, or Paul’s vision at Troas begging him to come over to Macedonia, Acts 16:9-10).
The dreams in today’s passage, though encapsulated in symbolic images, were clearly meant to predictive of the future, whether for good or for bad. For the royal cupbearer, the spelled good news--reinstatement, but for the baker, some rather terrible news—his impending death. Interestingly, nothing at all is said in terms of the rightness or wrongness of Pharaoh’s decision. It was simply reported ‘as is.’ We do not see the hand of God in this, not a bit.
However, when it came to Pharaoh’s dream later on in the Joseph story, it clearly was meant as a warning and as a call to action. It is clearly God speaking and choosing to use Joseph to save both his family and the people of Egypt from starvation and death.
So, what about us? What do we do with dreams and visions? (I’m assuming that we all do have them in some way or another). Probably we don’t take them seriously and often don’t even remember them. So, seldom do we take them as warnings or calls to action. Seldom do we see God speaking to us through them. But what about other ways in which God can speak? Through our thoughts, perhaps? Or through the Scriptures? Do we take them seriously—and act on them? My hunch is that we often do not. Often, I suspect, we just take them as idle thoughts, suggestions and nothing more. And often we are so busy that we simply don’t take the time to be still and listen. So, maybe this time of Lent is an opportunity to do just that, to be still, to listen, and then take seriously what thoughts come to mind, thoughts which, by the way, ‘may’ actually come from God. Amen.
Forward notes: “They said to him, ‘We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.’ And Joseph said to them, ‘Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me’” (verse 8).
“I often remember my dreams. Some are funny, some serious, some scary. When I share a dream with a trusted friend, I often find that I can connect it to my life, either now or in my past. Sometimes, I gain a new perspective when I examine a dream, and I get an insight on how to approach a situation. I remain open to any message that may come from a dream.
“Several biblical characters had dreams in which God directed them to do something or told them what the future would hold. In Egypt, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and gained favour in his court. God spoke to another Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary and Jesus to a safe place to avoid Herod’s wrath. Does God speak to us today through our
dreams? Perhaps. The only way to know is to sleep and dream and be open to the message.”
Moving Forward: “Consider keeping a dream journal and pray for discernment of whether God is speaking to you through your dreams.”