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newton3003
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In Numbers 12:6, God says “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.”
Is it only prophets who dream? In Matthew 2:13, “…an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take [Jesus] and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’” Was Joseph therefore a prophet? In a sense, perhaps. One might argue he was a prophet, albeit on a very small scale compared to the widely-known prophets.
Is a prophet anyone who dreams? What is a prophet but the voice of God? That would leave out those whom we would not consider to be righteous. 1 John 4:1 warns, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, FOR MANY FALSE PROPHETS have gone out into the world.” False prophets may claim to have certain dreams. False prophets may dream like the rest of us. But their dreams do not come from God, except perhaps if such dreams warn them to mend their ways.
Can every righteous person who dreams be considered a prophet of God, however large or small? For such people, are dreams messages and visions orchestrated by God? It would seem so. All of us have had dreams that seem at first glance to be nonsensical. But are they? Is it worth the time to figure out what they’re trying to convey?
In Genesis 40, a chief cup-bearer and a chief baker are prisoners of the Pharaoh that ruled before Moses’ time. The Bible doesn’t tell us what crimes they committed, only that, per 40:1 they “…committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt.” They each have dreams. The cupbearer dreams of a vine with three branches that blossoms into grapes. The chief baker dreams he had three cake baskets on his head, and the birds swoop down and eat the cakes. Does that mean they were prophets because they had dreams? It would seem unlikely, particularly if they were imprisoned for just cause. And if so, it would seem that God may give dreams to prophets of Him, but not everyone who dreams is a prophet of Him.
How can we tell when someone who tells us they had a dream or vision from God is a prophet in a sense, and when someone claiming to have such dreams is not a prophet? If we walk down a city street, and a man with a Bible in is hand stands on a corner saying God told him in a dream that he is the Second Messiah, and that we should all jump in the East River, so we can save ourselves by letting him baptize us, should we obey him? Secular common sense would make us very skeptical, but does the Bible offer any guidance to discern between true prophets of God and false ones?
Perhaps the book of Jeremiah may give us a good footing. Jeremiah 23: 13-14 says, “In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.” Jeremiah appears to sound sarcastic when he refers to these evil-doers as prophets! But to be sure, Jeremiah 23: 16-17 says, “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. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” So, some further guidance is to regard the people who listen to these prophets. Would those people be considered righteous?
Further guidance comes from Deuteronomy 13:1-3 which says, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
A person who strives for righteousness may well consider the dreams they have, for if they have anything to do with being fruitful through righteous works, or remaining fruitful through such, they may well be a message from God.
Is it only prophets who dream? In Matthew 2:13, “…an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take [Jesus] and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’” Was Joseph therefore a prophet? In a sense, perhaps. One might argue he was a prophet, albeit on a very small scale compared to the widely-known prophets.
Is a prophet anyone who dreams? What is a prophet but the voice of God? That would leave out those whom we would not consider to be righteous. 1 John 4:1 warns, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, FOR MANY FALSE PROPHETS have gone out into the world.” False prophets may claim to have certain dreams. False prophets may dream like the rest of us. But their dreams do not come from God, except perhaps if such dreams warn them to mend their ways.
Can every righteous person who dreams be considered a prophet of God, however large or small? For such people, are dreams messages and visions orchestrated by God? It would seem so. All of us have had dreams that seem at first glance to be nonsensical. But are they? Is it worth the time to figure out what they’re trying to convey?
In Genesis 40, a chief cup-bearer and a chief baker are prisoners of the Pharaoh that ruled before Moses’ time. The Bible doesn’t tell us what crimes they committed, only that, per 40:1 they “…committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt.” They each have dreams. The cupbearer dreams of a vine with three branches that blossoms into grapes. The chief baker dreams he had three cake baskets on his head, and the birds swoop down and eat the cakes. Does that mean they were prophets because they had dreams? It would seem unlikely, particularly if they were imprisoned for just cause. And if so, it would seem that God may give dreams to prophets of Him, but not everyone who dreams is a prophet of Him.
How can we tell when someone who tells us they had a dream or vision from God is a prophet in a sense, and when someone claiming to have such dreams is not a prophet? If we walk down a city street, and a man with a Bible in is hand stands on a corner saying God told him in a dream that he is the Second Messiah, and that we should all jump in the East River, so we can save ourselves by letting him baptize us, should we obey him? Secular common sense would make us very skeptical, but does the Bible offer any guidance to discern between true prophets of God and false ones?
Perhaps the book of Jeremiah may give us a good footing. Jeremiah 23: 13-14 says, “In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray. But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.” Jeremiah appears to sound sarcastic when he refers to these evil-doers as prophets! But to be sure, Jeremiah 23: 16-17 says, “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. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” So, some further guidance is to regard the people who listen to these prophets. Would those people be considered righteous?
Further guidance comes from Deuteronomy 13:1-3 which says, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
A person who strives for righteousness may well consider the dreams they have, for if they have anything to do with being fruitful through righteous works, or remaining fruitful through such, they may well be a message from God.