“Gid‘on got there just as a man was telling a comrade about a dream he had had: ‘I just now dreamt that a loaf of barley bread fell into the camp of Midyan, came to the tent and struck it so hard that it overturned the tent and knocked it flat.‘ His comrade answered, ‘This can only be the sword of Gid‘on son of Yo’ash, a man of Isra’el. God has given Midyan and all its army into his hands.'”-Judges 7:13-14
Gideon is still nervous and wants another sign from the Lord that he will prevail over his enemies.
So the Lord instructs Gideon to take a man named Purah with him and head down to the hillside below where the enemy was encamped to eavesdrop on what was being said.
The area was surrounded by guards because rumor had spread that thousands of Israelite troops had joined up with Gideon and were preparing to launch an attack.
When Gideon and his companion got closer, they overheard one guard telling his comrade about a dream he had.
The dream was that a cake made out of barley tumbled into their camp site and flattened his tent to the ground.
The other Midianite soldier, upon hearing that, immediately understood the dream meant that the Israelites led by Gideon were about to attack and that they would be victorious.
The first question that comes to mind is why did the guard take the other guard’s dream so seriously?
The answer is because in those days, dreams were considered very important.
Recall what happened with the Pharaoh in the Book of Genesis when he asked Joseph to interpret a series of troubling dreams he had.
We can also see here that the Lord will supernaturally implant dreams into the minds of Israel’s enemies in order to achieve his purposes.
In fact, dreams and visions are the most common way God spoke in biblical history.
Check out these words from the Torah.
“When there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions,
I speak to them in dreams.”
-Numbers 12:6
Consider also that when Yeshua was a baby, his father was warned in a dream to…
…“take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”-Matthew 2:13
Also Peter’s vision that the gospel was not just for Jews came to him in a dream when he received a vision of a large sheet let down to earth by its four corners containing all kinds of four-footed animals.
And that really is the takeaway for today.
That the Lord still speaks to us in dreams and we should pay close attention to them.
An occurrence I think we have a tendency to dismiss because we think it was only something that took place in ancient times past.
The Lord knew every thought that Gideon had deep inside his heart.
He knew he was still nervous about whether he would really be victorious over his enemies.
The Lord answered Gideon’s concern in a dream…even if it was a dream planted in another man’s mind.
And the Lord will answer your deepest concerns as well.
Sometimes in a dream…so pay attention to them.
Amen