There are dreams that you forget and ones that you remember and come back to you. This is one of the latter.
I dreamt a very masculine dream!
I was with a man who was orchestrating a project. I’m not sure but he was like an older John Eldredge (the author of various books). It was a big project. There were many other men of different backgrounds. We were all involved in this project. The project was in some kind of construction yard. Each guy had a part to play. New guys kept coming. I wasn’t quite sure where I fitted in as my instructions were not clear. We were making something intricate of wood on a large scale.
(I think at one point in the dream I was aware that I was not hearing very well and was a little frustrated by this)
I went off with one group and spoke to a man I didn’t know. We were given a model railway to make. I said I had had enough of model railways when I was a lad and discarded the plan.
I was made aware of one guy in particular who I saw and was introduced to along with some other men. Later he came for me whilst some of us were standing around under a kind of structure. We were asked to follow him and sit with him. I was asked first. Initially when he looked at me, I didn’t realise he was calling me as I didn’t quite understand him when he said my name. He looked like he was a Maori (interesting dialogue about this word here) or from the Polynesian islands but he was actually from Mauritius. I asked when I was next to him do you hold hands on Mauritius he looked really offended and said “No”, really quickly. I said I had heard on some of the islands around this happened. He had a kind of device he started smoking. I was not pleased he did this but as we were all together and others weren’t bothered by it, gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Then something else took place we were introduced to another Polynesian man. We were all sitting down. Others were around. There was some kind of tribal patterned fabric on a raised surface. I think it was leather. Music began to play that was strange from another place. This man was a musician and artisan.
This dream has structure to it. It follows a pattern. The basic meaning conveys being part of something – a building project. The first thing that comes to my mind as I ponder this relates to what Yahweh is doing in building his tabernacle – one that’s not made with human hands, but one made of the spirit. This is his overall plan. The dream is calling me, reminding me of my personal involvement in that project. Interestingly the name John means Yahweh is gracious and Eldredge can mean old wise ruler.
2 Co 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, the tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.
Heb 9:11 But Christ has arrived as a high priest of the good things to come. Through the greater and more perfect tent not made by hands, that is, not of this creation,
Mk 14:58 “We heard him saying, ‘I will destroy this temple made by hands, and within three days I will build another not made by hands.”
There’s a personal sense of calling here to follow a strange man who I am unfamiliar with of a different culture. This is somewhat like the call that Jesus makes to his disciples and by extension to us. To us who are not Jewish like Jesus is, this does come as a strange calling to something that is not like anything we’ve experienced before. I have heard this call personally I have written about it before here.
Many of us still may be playing at life, making our model railways and playing with them but we don’t really find them satisfying enough. They are only imitations of bigger things which are more satisfying and ultimately make us more human and Christlike. Sometimes I have been sidetracked – excuse the pun, into projects that are like Paul says:
All things are permitted, but not all things are profitable. All things are permitted, but not all things build up. Let no one seek ⌊his own good⌋ but the good of the other.
W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), 1 Co 10:23–24.
All the building work went on outside in the dream, including the craft and leather work of intricacy. I had a hunch that leather is important and that it has something to do with the house of God. In Numbers chapter 4 fine leather (hide of a sea cow!) is mentioned in regard to the tabernacle – get this 7 times! That’s if I’ve counted correctly. When something is repeated in the Bible it usually has some significance and that you should take note. Seven times is a lot of repeats in one chapter.
Then there’s the Levites who are written about in this chapter. The Bible Project has a great page on what they were about. I will expand a little bit on them here.
Exodus 26:1–14 (Ref: Christian Standard Bible Study Bible: Notes): Mishkan, from shakan (“dwell”), describes human dwellings (Nm 16:24) or the divine dwelling place (Ps 43:3). Commonly these are tents (Nm 24:5), and mishkan is sometimes translated tent (Sg 1:8; Ezk 25:4). Mishkan occurs with ’ohel, “tent,” in 73 verses. Mishkan can suggest home (Jr 51:30), a permanent structure (Is 32:18). Mishkan can connote a resting place (Is 22:16), salt flats as an animal’s dwelling (Jb 39:6), or territories as dwelling places (Hab 1:6). Exodus 25–40 describes the tabernacle (Ex 26:6) built as God’s residence (Lv 26:11), also called the “tent of meeting.” This structure as the mishkan can be distinguished from its top, called a “tent” (Ex 26:7), and its “courtyard” (Ex 38:31). Mishkan also characterized the temple (Ps 43:3; 74:7), and most references to mishkan concern either the tabernacle or the temple. God will again establish his mishkan among Israel (Ezk 37:26–27) at the end of the age.
Exodus 26:1–14 (Ref CSBSB:N): The tabernacle proper was made with four layers; the first of finely spun linen, the second of woven goat hair, the third of leather made from ram skins dyed red, and the fourth another kind of leather whose source is uncertain. The word used for it appears also in Ezk 16:10 to describe material for special sandals. The Hebrew word translated fine leather (also in Ex 25:5; 35:7) might be borrowed from an Egyptian term. The Hebrew word also sounds similar to an Arabic word for a marine mammal, probably the manatee or dugong.
The Kohathites who were a subdivision of the Levites made leather work.
Numbers 3:25–26 (LEB): 25 And the responsibility of the descendants of Gershon in the tent of assembly is the tabernacle, and the tent covering it and the curtain of the doorway of the tent of the assembly, and the hangings of the courtyard and the curtain of the doorway of the courtyard that is around the tabernacle and the altar, and its tent cords, all of its use.
What does this compute to today? It’s about worship it’s about prayer. It’s about ministry. It’s about the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
You and I are to be establishing the place for God to dwell.
I think this dream has come back to me recently as I’ve been thinking about Psalm 133. Look at English translations of this Psalm to find out about harmony, unity, togetherness, and family to name the main themes. This to me is a puzzling Psalm it seems to be quite unique in the Psalter. Often the translations refer to unity in the first verse. One person I’ve written of before called Jeff Benner who has worked on ancient Hebrew pictographs says the word behind this unity i.e. echad is unit and by extension family.
Yahweh wants a body to inhabit or a tabernacle to live in. He did this in his Son Jesus Christ who now invites us to be one with him and continue his abiding presence.
Leviticus 26:11–13 (LEB): And I will put my dwelling place in your midst, and my inner self shall not abhor you. And I will walk about in your midst, and I shall be your God, and you shall be my people. I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke, and I caused you to walk erectly.
Reading verses like the ones above make sense of what the New Testament of the Bible is conveying about our lives in Christ.
“The New Testament is inspired commentary on the Old Testament”
Dr. Michael Heiser
As the people of Yahweh, we have a responsibility to continue what he has begun through his Son Jesus Christ in walking with him as worshippers and workers for the Kingdom which is being established through our obedience to the Great Commission (Matthew 28.16-18) and the Great Commandment (Matthew 22.38, 1 John 3.23).