Ps. 6: 7, 8  “I bless the LORD Who gives me counsel; in the night, my heart also instructs me.  I have set the LORD always before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

Do you dream in color?  In one way, that’s a trick question because a lot of people don’t even remember dreaming at all.  I do dream in color, and I often remember vivid snippets of dreams.  The other night, I had a dream wherein I thought of a new word, that, in the context of the dream, was somehow earth-shatteringly clever and important :  “impossihossibility”.  Explain it now I cannot, but I think it had something to do with horses.  I play the piano beautifully in my dreams, too.  If only!  Jillian remembers whole dreams – book, chapter, and verse. 

Modern psychology, of course, explains dreams as the subconscious “working out”, or making sense, of events of the day or fears of the future – and most of the time, it’s not hard to interpret our dreams that way.  A dream of falling?  We’re usually feeling that something in our life is out of control.  A dream of being out in public and suddenly realizing we are dressed only in our underwear?  We’re feeling vulnerable.  The Bible, though, records many instances of God using dreams to give very specific instruction.

It’s interesting in the Christmas story that two of the principle players, Mary and Zechariah get face-to-face visits from Gabriel, Elizabeth gets her news second-hand from her hubby, and Joseph gets his visit while he’s catching zzz’s.  Twice, in fact – when he gets the news about Mary’s baby, and when he’s warned to take mother and Child to Egypt.  God always mixes things up.  Just because He does a thing one way one time doesn’t mean He’ll repeat himself.

Joseph was obviously a man of amazing character.  Men generally didn’t marry until they were established in life, so he would probably have been at least 30.  That’s a long time to dream about being married, a long time to ponder on the Song of Songs and to look forward the delights of married life.  Finally a young bride is chosen and the betrothal is entered into.  Then, before the actual marriage takes place…. “Uh, Joe, dear, I’m pregnant.”  In Jesus’ day, it wasn’t uncommon for young unwed pregnant girls to claim “Honestly, I didn’t even have sex!”, and according to some historians, it was even fairly common for girls to claim to be carrying the Messiah.  Hey, you could hardly be accused of sexual sin under those circumstances, right?  The Bible doesn’t tell us whether Mary told anyone about Gabriel’s visit at the time, or whether she tried to convince Joe about what was going on.  I think she would have – but it wouldn’t have been any wonder that he didn’t believe her if she did.

Most men, upon finding that their intended was pregnant, and knowing it wasn’t THEIR baby, would be mightily offended in pride.  Mortified.  Humiliated.  The tendency would be to lash back.  But Scripture tells us that Joseph was a “just man”, and had no such desire.  He was unwilling to put her to shame.  He wasn’t willing to MARRY her under the circumstances, but he wasn’t going to make a public spectacle of her in the divorce, either.  Yet, he “considered these things.”  He didn’t act rashly or hastily.  It was during this time of consideration that the angel of the LORD dropped in on his dream to either confirm what Mary had already told him, or to break the news if she hadn’t tried.

Zechariah got a face-to-face visit from Gabriel, and still had the audacity to ask, “Oh, yeah?  Really?”  Joseph had a dream, and it was ‘nuff said.  Matthew says Joe “woke from his sleep and took Mary as his wife”.  Talk about immediate obedience!   Joseph was obviously a man looking to the LORD for counsel, and anxious to follow it.  Because of that, he had no qualms about his course of action, no matter what anyone else might have thought.

May we be as ready to act on the LORD’s guidance, no matter when the marching orders come through!