David Bahn – Reflections

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Acts 7:1-16

And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” ² And Stephen said:

“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. ⁵ Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. ⁶ And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. ⁷ ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ ⁸ And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him ¹⁰ and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. ¹¹ Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. ¹³ And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. ¹⁵ And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, ¹⁶ and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

My father died at the age of 64. Once a successful businessman. Man of integrity. Too young. Cancer. Cigarette smoker. Such a loss. Couldn’t kick the habit. At his funeral, the pastor of his church called my dad a dreamer. He used the reference in Genesis 37:19 when Joseph’s brothers saw him coming to bring food and to check up on them for their father, “Here comes that dreamer.” The whole chapter is worth reading.

My dad had one dream after another. In some ways he was ahead of his time. He came up advertising ideas, innovations in marketing, and built a motel from 5 rooms to 42 rooms over the course of 30 years.  He would also share ideas with me about making the church I was serving grow. He was constantly dreaming up new things to do. He and my mom came up with a child’s seat belt that would allow the child to be restrained even if standing up in the car’s bench seat(!).

Joseph was quite a different kind of dreamer. He dreamed about haystacks (symbolizing his brothers and father) all bowing down to his haystack. He dreamed that the sun, moon, and stars also bowed down to him. Add that to the favoritism his father showed toward him and you have the makings of resentment, scheming, and dreams turned to nightmares.

But God was in the dreams of Joseph. And as the country song says, “it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way.” Joseph’s brothers and father would one day bow down to him. So would the rest of the world when he had become THE one in charge of all the grain in Egypt during the famine that struck the whole land. Joseph also interpreted the dreams of two prison mates and Pharaoh himself.

There are other examples of dreams and dreamers in the Bible. Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2) when none of the king’s regular astrologers and seers could. God directed Joseph to take Mary as his wife, and to take Mary and Jesus into Egypt by means of dreams.

Sometimes God puts dreams into our hearts in the manner of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:12). It might be of a better financial future. It could be the mending of a broken relationship. It may be of a dream vacation or dream home. But sometimes we dream of things not of God. Those dreams turn to nightmares if we follow them. May God help us to know the difference, and to follow his dreams rather than our schemes!