In his book, A
Wind in the House of Islam, David Garrison asserts that in our day, God is
speaking to Muslims around the world through dreams and visions of Jesus
Christ. As they then seek out what the experience meant, they find themselves
interacting with Christians and being introduced to the Kingdom of God through
Christ. When Garrison’s book came out in 2014, it sparked a wave of wonder. It
wasn’t that no one thought God could speak through dreams – He’s been doing
that since the patriarchs - but that He would speak to multiple people through
dreams with a common meaning to a common cause.
The Magi have arrived at
Mary and Joseph’s home and have worshipped Jesus. They had been instructed by
Herod himself to return to him and report. Matthew records their next action, “…having been
warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by
another route.”[1] The
language does appear to indicate that they had a common dream, but the content
of that dream we are not told. What we are told much more bluntly is in the
next verse, "When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.
“Get up,” he said, “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.”
[2]
God warns the Magi about
Herod, and then (and it is a separate occasion, at least one day apart) warns
Joseph about Herod. Both Gentile and Hebrew are given specific instructions
through a dream to avoid crossing paths with Herod. Quite aside from the
significant missiological implication (as we saw in the previous verses), there
is a huge theological implication here. For what we are reading is that
omnipresent, omniscient and omnipowerful God is supernaturally warning His
followers that Herod is bent toward wickedness – even to the degree that God
wants His followers (or at least these particular followers) to avoid him. One
might even say that God is aware that Herod is destined to shed blood, that He
does not intend to stop him, and that God is likewise determined to save these
few out of all who will suffer. How all this fits in with the compassionate
nature of God to all (witness John 3:16) is a mystery.
What He does, does not
always make sense to us. For we cannot figure Him or His plans out. As Isaiah
wrote, “For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”[3]
In light of all He has revealed and all He has done, and all He is doing - our
way is but to consider and to worship, to take heed and obey.
· God has been
speaking to you. What is clear about His
instruction? What is confusing? What stops you from obeying what you know?
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