Aspects of our dreams are often a concoction of reality blended with absurdity. You might dream about the house you grew up in but surely that argument with the giant worm wasn’t real. Nobody’s heard a worm speak since probably never. From what you can recall, the argument was over a sweater that the worm was knitting and whether or not it should include sleeves. You don’t remember how the worm was knitting without arms but you remember feeling a heavy and uncomfortable tension in the room when you said, “Just knit a long tube sock and cut the end off.” What seems orderly in dream land often transforms into chaos right after our eyes open.
Plato acknowledged that dreams could be a source of prophecy or messages from the divine. It’s evident in dialogues like Crito where he touches upon the idea of dreams stemming from an otherworldly source (Crito 1.43a-44b). This was accepted as fact in the world of the Ancient Greeks, but Plato offered his own theories stating that dreams could reveal hidden desires, fears, and impulses that reside within us. He modified a once-popular myth in an attempt to explain the abstract nature of the human soul and— at least partially—what he imagined to be the nature of dreams. Plato likened the human soul to a chariot and charioteer (reason) trying his best to control the two rowdy horses (appetite and spirit). It’s always moving in our mind but the relationship of the driver and the horses is a constant battle between order and chaos. When one sleeps the thundering chariot can no longer be controlled by the driver and those irrational steeds assert themselves and our dreams are born out of the chaos (Phaderus 245c-249d).
At one point ancient man could talk with God face to face (Gen. 3.18), but this privilege is sharply contrasted in the words of a surprised Jacob when he said, “I have seen the face of God and yet I’m still alive” (Gen. 32.30). In the place of personal interaction with our Creator we were provided with something that, while effective, was not nearly as intimate— dreams. But what they lacked in intimacy, they made up for in mystery. The first words of the first recorded dream in the Bible are, “Behold you are a dead man…” (Gen. 20.3b). This was a terrifying glimpse into the future of the dreamer, King Abimelech. If he didn’t give Abraham’s wife back, he was dead.
God spoke to Abraham previously but there seems to be some distinction between a vision and a dream. The word dream occurs fifty-nine times in the Bible and fifty-two of those are found in the Old Testament. When God communicates to a character in the text the reader is either left in the dark as to how He did so or, as in the case of Abimelech, we have the method of transmission stated each time God initially responds. God came to him in a dream “at night” (Gen.20.3a).
God has always desired to communicate with us and that hasn’t changed today. Opening our Bible is what allows Him to have a word with us today, but like Abimelech, our future is determined by what we decide to do with the information received.
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