H. L. Sheppard

                                                                                                                 Bulletin

                                                                                                                 August 2010

 

EVEN THE HEATHEN

CAN DREAM

 

Even heathen kings can hear from God, once they fall asleep. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of an enormous tree and a gigantic image composed of gold and clay; dreams which were interpreted by Daniel as a warning of God's impending judgment, and to predict the course of Jewish history for the next 2,600 years. Pharaoh dreamed of cows and corn which Joseph interpreted as feast and famine for the next 14 years. Abimelech dreamed and God revealed to him that Sarah was Abraham's wife, not his sister.

 

God will infiltrate a man's dreams anytime there is a need to speak to that man some otherwise unutterable truth. Carnal men have a tendency to ignore God, that is, until they face a dilemma that seems to have no rational explanation. When natural human logic and rational thought leave men groping for reasons, they often turn to the supernatural for answers. King Saul sought answers in Endor at a witch's house. Pharaoh called on Joseph to interpret his perplexing dream. When the wise men and magicians of Nebuchadnezzar's court could not even help the king remember his troubling dream, he called on Daniel to appeal to the God of gods for enlightenment.

 

The fact is, dreams often challenge men to see in the invisible, touch the intangible believe in the impossible. God often uses dreams to reveal to men the reality of the spiritual world, and show them the temporal superficiality of the physical world. In dreams, men can fly, have super-human strength, run faster than a gazelle and know things that mere mortals cannot know. No wonder God placed within the confines of all grey matter the innate ability to dream.

 

Without dreams we are confined to the here and now. Without dreams we cannot rise above the mundane existence of our workaday lives. Without dreams we cannot know the exultant joys of soaring above the flesh that binds us to the dust and dirt from whence we were taken.

 

But, we CAN dream! In our dreams we can soar with eagles, fly high above the dirty clay ball of earth with all its manifold troubles. In our dreams we can see beyond the hindrances of the moment and on into an unencumbered future filled with triumphs and potential. In our dreams God enables us to see the unseeable, know the unknowable and believe the unbelievable. God is a God of dreams and dreamers. Aren't you thankful His divine providence enables your mind's thought to transcend the now, leave the gravitational pull of life's troubles and sail off up into the ethereal to sit with Him in heavenly places? Even Heathen kings can dream.  It's no wonder that:

 

DREAMERS DON'T SEE PROBLEMS

THEY SEE POSSIBILITIES!