Divine Direction Dreams
Daily Reading: (Matthew 2:19-20):
“After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
What might be lost a bit here is what is said about what Joseph did. Where is Joseph at? Egypt. He is there because God led him there. What is said about Joseph is that He went and he stayed which demonstrated patience. This teaches us to feed on God’s daily provision for us in Christ and trust that God goes ahead of us and makes our paths straight.
One of the interesting things to note here is God says to go to Israel, but He doesn’t say where in Israel. Israel is 8,550 square miles. Israel is about the same size as the state of New Jersey. Are we talking about Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Caesarea, or Capernaum? Where do you want me to go in Israel?
This isn’t much different remember from earlier when God told Mary, Joseph, and Jesus to go to Egypt, without telling them where in Egypt.
“So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.” Now comes an unexpected blessing. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there” (Matthew 2:21-22).
“Having been warned in a dream,” Joseph is getting loaded with these God-given dreams. When you think of those who had the most dreams from God recorded in the Bible, how many people list Joseph? Well, they probably do, but the other Joseph, the one from Genesis. So he was warned in a dream and “he withdrew to the district of Galilee”. We should celebrate the stop signs and the detours, they are a part of God’s leading and His protection.“And he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2:23).
More prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus’ life. The purpose is to announce this is God’s Son. He has come to conquer sin and death, believe in Him and you shall receive everlasting life. Every single move of God is purposeful and it is for our good.
Jesus would grow up in Nazareth and it wasn’t until John the Baptist was put in prison about to be put to death before Jesus moved from there (Matthew 4:12-14).
Each move that Jesus made, declared who Jesus was. When He was born in Bethlehem, He moved to Egypt. Jesus lived in Nazareth and moved to Capernaum each move was prophesied this is what the Messiah would do.
Today like Joseph, God may choose to speak to you through visions or dreams. Receiving visions and dreams is our rightful inheritance as children of God (Acts 2:17). Today, because Jesus has been glorified, we can be sure that the Holy Spirit (who reveals God’s visions and dreams to us) has been given to us (John 7:39).
There are times that God’s visions contain warnings for us. With Joseph, the warning was to escape danger, “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.” (Matthew 2:13a).
But with the bad news also comes a solution for God’s people. “Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him” (Matthew 2:13b).
We can see this in other places in Scripture like Acts 11:28-29: “Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world . . . Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.”
Although visions from God can include pictures of negative events, these visions also contain solutions and answers to the prophesied events. God will never give you a negative or fearful vision and leave you hanging. His Word tells us as much: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). A dream from God will not place you in fear. He will always give you something positive to look forward to and walk in. You will be empowered by His love and the sound mind He gives you to move forward into the things He has prepared for you.
1 Corinthians 14:33: “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” While the vision or dream might have chaotic elements, if it is from the Lord, it will also be the Lord bringing peace out of the chaos.
God-given dreams may take a while (Matthew 2:14), but they are sure to come to pass (Habakkuk 2:2-3) at the right time. When we write down the visions God gives us, we are adopting an attitude of faith.
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