Jacob became husband of two wives & two concubines by circumstantial history. By the time his 4 wives were through with him he ended up with 12 children! Among his children, one was particularly outstanding by all measurements – Joseph. Joseph was literally a dreamer. He dreamt dreams and thus troubles began! The moment you begin to have dreams, your troubles start and that’s because dreams set people apart.
Joseph had two dreams. One was so misinterpreted it virtually cost Joseph his life. (Through a convoluted destiny path he somehow became Prime Minister in Egypt). Centuries down the line, we are still misinterpreting that particular dream.
In dream number one, Joe and his brothers were out in the field gathering bundles of wheat. Suddenly, Joe’s bundle stood straight and his brothers’ bundles circled round it and bowed down. Joe’s brothers eventually went to Egypt to buy wheat from Joseph, bowing down to him. It took 14 years for the dream to come true just like it took 14 years for his father’s dream to marry.
Dreams take time! That’s lesson number one.
Lesson number two: Sometimes God uses particular numbers as themes in our lives.
For Joseph the number was 7. In Biblical numerology, 7 is the number of perfection. 2 tranches of 7 make 14. Scripture say, “Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”. What is the number cycle of your life?
Lesson number three: Dreams demand perfection. No dream comes to pass without trial. Trials refine our character, giving us the ability to handle the fulfillment of our dreams. If you’re passing through trial right now, just remember that trials have a number. It has a termination point. Joseph had another dream. The first dream was terrestrial. The second, celestial.
In this second dream, the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowed down to Joseph. Now I have four questions for you: One: Did these dreams come to pass or not? Yes.
Two: Did Joseph’s brothers bow down to him? Yes!
Three: Did Joseph’s mother ever bow down to Joseph? No! His mother had been dead for years.
Four: Did his father ever bow down to him? No!
Therefore, it’s not correct to interpret the 2nd dream to mean his father & mother would bow down to him. The brothers, the 11 stars – bowed down but not his parents. They are not the sun and moon. The question then is, who is the Sun, and who is the Moon in the second dream? To know the interpretation, note that the 1st dream was terrestrial but the 2nd was celestial.
The brothers were represented in both the terrestrial and celestial dreams. There is terrestrial Israel, there is celestial Israel; there is natural Israel, there is spiritual Israel. Natural Israel is the nation of Israel. Spiritual Israel is the Church. The Bible calls us the “commonwealth of Israel.” The pillars of natural Israel are the children of Jacob. The pillars of spiritual Israel are the twelve apostles. There is a correlation in the numbering of the children of Jacob and the apostles. There were originally 12 sons of Jacob just as there were originally 12 apostles. One son of Jacob was sent away to Egypt reducing the number to eleven. Judas was arithmetically eliminated from the list of apostles bringing the number down to eleven. He was replaced by Matthias & another apostle named Paul was raised, bringing the number to 13. In the same vein, Joseph was split into two by his father to receive a double portion of the blessing. Joseph became Manasseh and Ephraim brings the number to 13. The terrestrial is thus a reflection of celestial Israel.
The celestial dream was pointing to the future – to us, the Church. Joseph was a typology of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we haven’t resolved who the Sun is, and who the Moon is. In the celestial realm, who are these? Ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun god, Ra. He was the most important god in Egyptian religious order. He was in charge of creation. They also worshipped the moon god, Khonsu, regarded as the child of two other gods & instrumental in creation of new life. And so, the sun god, Ra was a contender for the title of “Lord of the Universe” with Jehovah, while the moon god, Khonsu was a contender for Sonship with Jesus. But Ra and Khonsu must bend the knee, just as in the dream of Joseph. (For at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!).
Four hundred years after this dream, an epic battle of supremacy emerged between Yahweh and Ra and Khonsu. Let my people go! Jehovah demanded. But Ra said NO! And Khonsu said NO! And so God manifested signs and wonders across three realms of creation – in the land, in the sea and in the air. He told Moses in Exodus 12:12, “…against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord”. God executed judgment against Ra, Khonsu and the pantheon of Egyptian gods. He exiled them from Egypt (2 Samuel 7: 22 – 24).
If we must tackle the problems of our nation spiritually, we must exile the gods behind the carnage. For we wrestle not against flesh & blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness & spiritual wickedness. Joseph’s 2nd dream is pointing to the future in much the same way that the visions of Daniel pointed to the future. The bone of contention in Egypt is encapsulated in Ephesians 1:20-23 (MSG). “God raised him (Christ) from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe: everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule.” Therefore, the bone of contention in Egypt was governmentalism!
We must adopt the posture of sacerdotalism and stand as mediators between Heaven and Earth. Our voice goes to Heaven, our knees touch the ground. We have the power to bring God’s kingdom to bear on Earth. When we seek to bring God’s Kingdom to bear on Earth, we step into the realm of governmentalism.
Stand up now and lift your voice to Heaven. Bring Heaven down to Earth, into your circumstances, into our nation, into our health, into our children’s lives.
© Leke Alder | talk2me@lekealder.com