Dream in Biblical History

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What is a Dream?
DREAM
From a very early period dreams have been observed with superstitious regard. God was pleased to make use of them to reveal his purposes or requirements to individuals, and he also gave power to interpret them. Gen 20:3-6; Gen 28:12-14; 1 Sam 28:6; Dan 2; Joel 2:28. And if any person dreamed a dream which was peculiarly striking and significant, he was permitted to go to the high priest in a particular way and see if it had any special import. But the observance of ordinary dreams and the consulting of those who pretend to skill in their interpretation are repeatedly forbidden. Deut 13:15; Deut 18:9-14. The words dreams and visions are sometimes used indiscriminately. Gen 46:2; Num 12:6; Job 20:8; Job 33:14-15; Dan 2:28; Zech 7:1, though elsewhere they would seem to be distinguished. Joel 2:28. In the vision the subject may be awake even though it take place at night. 2 Kgs 6:17; Acts 18:9; Acts 23:11; Acts 27:23. Paul's vision, 2 Cor 12:1-2, Ex 6:4, was an ecstasy. To his mind heaven was open, yet so real was the vision that he could not tell whether he were in the body or out of it. Some commentators place this vision while Paul lay on the ground at Lystra as if dead from the stoning. Sometimes miraculous revelations of God's will are called visions. Luke 1:22; 1 Sam 3:15. See Vision, Trance. The power of interpreting dreams was, of course, a supernatural gift, so far as the dreams had reference to future events; for these are necessarily unknown, except to the supreme Disposer of them. Gen 40:5, 1 Kgs 15:8; Gen 41:16. Since the fuller revelation of God's will has been made to us in the gospel, all confidence in dreams as indicative of future events is presumptuous and delusive, and all pretension to the power of interpreting them must be regarded as in the highest degree impious and absurd.

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'dream' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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