Any Dream Will Do?

Now Israel [Jacob] loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.  When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him, and could not speak a kind word to him.  Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

Genesis 37:3-5 [NIV]

Dream (drēm) n. [[ME dream, dreme]]

1 a sequence of sensations, images, thoughts, etc.,

passing through a sleeping person’s mind.

4 a fond hope or aspiration

I rarely dream; or at least, I rarely remember that I have had a dream.  I used to dream a lot as a child – including rather ferocious nightmares, but visions of the night are rare for me now.  On the other hand, I still have lots of dreams – hopes, aspirations – things I would like to do or see or try.

Joseph was the eleventh child of the Patriarch Jacob, the first child from his beloved wife, Rachel.  His first ten children came from his also-ran wife, Leah, her servant maid, and Rachel’s servant maid.  Jacob saw in Joseph the heir to his family and fortune, and spoiled him rotten from the day of his birth.  His older brothers were unappreciative, to say the least.  I think girls can handle that kind of parental slight a little bit better than boys.  The Bible says that the brothers hated Joseph – and with good reason. When little brother Benjamin [second son of Rachel] came along, the dynamic did not change.

The Lord gave Joseph two dreams: the first was a circle of 12 sheaves of grain that each brother had bound in the field.  Joseph’s sheave suddenly stood upright, and the other eleven bowed down to his.  True to his pampered brat position, he made sure his brothers knew his dream.  Then he had another: Joseph was a star, and the other eleven stars [brothers], plus the sun [father Jacob] and moon [Jacob’s wives] bowed down to him.  This time, even Jacob was not amused at his arrogant teenage son.

When Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the opening number for Joseph’s character is, Any Dream Will Do.  It is a gorgeous piece with (in my mind), a terribly flawed premise:  in Joseph’s life, as well as yours and mine, any dream will not “do.”  Joseph’s God-given dreams of the night predicted his future far down the road.  Our dreams and aspirations often have a direct influence on the life choices that we make – for better or worse.  Placing my dreams and aspirations in God’s hands, praying for His wisdom and guidance, gives my dreams a far better chance of leading me in the right direction.