'According to all these words, and according to all this

vision, so did Nathan speak unto David' (1 Chron. 17:15).

'Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness,

behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the

prophet, the son of Amoz' (2 Chron. 32:32).

'I Daniel, had seen the vision'; 'To seal up the vision and

prophecy' (Dan. 8:15; 9:24).

'A vision appeared to Paul in the night' (Acts 16:9).

'I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord' (2

Cor. 12:1).

'A prophet, or a dreamer of dreams' (Deut. 13:1).  'God ... answereth

me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams' (1 Sam. 28:15).  These and

kindred passages show the close link that the Scriptures establish between

the gift of prophecy and the dream.  It will be observed, however, that the

first reference (Deut. 13:1-3), like several not quoted here, refers to the

false prophet, even as false prophets and their misleading visions are

referred to by Jeremiah (14:14; 23:16).  Ecclesiastes says: 'A dream cometh

through the multitude of business ... in the multitude of dreams ... are also

divers vanities' (Eccles. 5:3,7).  So that dreams by themselves are suspect

and must not be confused with Divine illumination.  On the other hand, the

Lord spoke to Abimelech, to Joseph, to Solomon and to Daniel by dreams, and

when the prophet Joel refers to the prophetic gift associated with the day of

Pentecost, he said, 'Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old

men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions' (Joel 2:28).

Neither visions nor dreams of themselves were a sufficient warrant for

unquestioning acceptance.  Neither the prophet nor his hearers were treated

as automatons.  Just as in New Testament times, the believer is enjoined to

'try the spirits', for some were not of God, so, in Old Testament times, even

though a prophet or dreamer of dreams gave a sign or a wonder, and even

though that sign or wonder came to pass, even then all such prophecy should

be tested by the known will and Word of God (Deut. 13:1 -5).

Perhaps no gift so overwhelmed the individual mind of the human

instrument as the gift of prophecy, for it is written, 'holy men of God spake

as they were moved by the Holy Ghost', (2 Pet. 1:21), and that word 'moved'

means 'driven' as by a tempest (Acts 27:15,17), and so much so that Balaam,

even against his inclinations, admitted that, when the moment came, he would

not be able to speak anything but what the Lord put into his mouth (Num.

22:38; 23:5 -10).  Nevertheless, in spite of all this pressure on the one

hand, the believer was expected to exercise his responsibility before the

Lord, and to distinguish 'the chaff from the wheat' (Jer. 23:28).

A series of statements is made in Jeremiah 23 concerning the false

prophets which illuminate this use of what we might call 'the moral

'I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to

them, yet they prophesied.  But if they had stood in My counsel, and

had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have turned

them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings' (Jer.