365 Reflections

Mighty kings in the Bible who thought they were God were troubled by one of the most impotent forces on earth - dreams. Consider that Pharaoh's troubling dream spooked him enough to search out and find Joseph, who could interpret them successfully. Now, in Daniel 2, we have a repetition of that theme in scripture.  Daniel 2:1 (ESV) In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Not only does the king experience troubling dreams, but he cannot sleep. One could harken back to Esther 6 when Xerxes suffered the same affliction and called for the chronicles of his reign to be read to him. The story turned on that simple moment, and here in Daniel, dreams and insomnia do their work to open doors of opportunity for God's chosen ones living in exile.  Nebuchadnezzar calls for the magicians and enchanters to come and solve the problem, but UNLIKE Pharaoh, there will be no telling of the dream. Nebuchadnezz...

Joshua 5:13–15 (ESV) When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord . Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord ’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. I love this passage. God's answer is so funny. But it's such a great passage for the first month of the year.  Every new year we take time to plan out what we want to accomplish. We are going to get more healthy, spiritual, social and/or accomplished. We like to do this. We like to make plans. But what about God? What do we do with Him? Because He has a way of being God no mat...

Joseph has dreams at 17. He tells them to his brothers. Both of them upset his family. My question is, why two? The Bible says that all things will be established by two or three witnesses. That would be one reason for the two dreams. But there's more. God spoke to Abraham about his family twice concerning their innumerability. The first time he spoke of them being like sand on the seashore. The second time like stars in the heavens. Why the two different descriptions? To give shape to God's kingdom. His family would not be simply an earthly family (from the dust), but a heavenly family (by the Spirit of God above us). Through Christ, the Spirit comes down from heaven and inhabits His family. When Joseph has two dreams, God is doing the same thing - revealing to you and I about what kind of King Jesus will be and what kind of Kingdom He will have. The first dream speaks of stalks of grain and sheaves. This kingdom will be one of development and growth from the ground up...