LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Tasters from the King's Table
Dreams
In the first two chapters of Matthew there are five significant dreams, and five messages through them.
In the first (1:20-24), an angel of the Lord announces to Joseph not to reject Mary, because of her pregnancy, because what had been conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit. The second (2:12) was given to the wise men from the East so that they wouldn’t inform Herod where the boy Jesus was. In the third (2:13), an angel appeared to Joseph telling him to flee to Egypt with the Boy and his mother, because Herod would look for the boy to kill it. In the fourth (2:19), an angel appeared to Joseph so that they would return to Egypt, because those who had sought the Boy’s death had died. And in the fifth (2:22), Joseph was told to go and reside with his small family in the region of Galilee.
Five providential dreams, five voices of warning that alerted key characters in the middle of adverse circumstances, so that the purpose of God was fulfilled. Five dreams that have at their centre the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, when He came to this world, in the greatest weakness.
A man, a woman and a boy seem so fragile, and the force of an enraged Herod seems so terrible. Nevertheless, a single movement of the hand of God, an opportune warning, a message in a dream, is sufficient to overcome evil and put a shield around those whom He loves.
When the purpose of God is involved, the beloved of God can rejoice fully in their smallness and helplessness, that He is sufficiently powerful to protect them. When the heart of God has been captivated on the earth by a Boy, and by some men (because His delights are with the sons of men), it does not matter that they are extremely weak, because there is no force in the universe, neither angel nor demon, that is able to harm them, because God Himself keeps them.