SLEEPING, DREAMING, WAKING

All Scripture references are to the New International Version, UK edition of 1984, unless stated otherwise.

To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish't.

William Shakespeare : Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1)

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statue of thinking ‘TO BE, OR NOT TO BE’ is the famous phrase of the soliloquy from Shakespeare's play, in which Hamlet ponders the meaning of life and asks whether or not it is worthwhile in the face of so many hardships. To die to sleep? He comes to the conclusion that most people strive to stay alive because of their fear of death and their uncertainty at what lies beyond. Another Shakespearian character uses the same metaphor: ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.’ (Prospero, The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1.)

‘Sleep’ is of course a euphemism for death, based on an analogy between lying in a bed and lying in a tomb. Old and New Testament Scriptures use the figurative expression, the Prophets and Apostles under Divine inspiration arguably endorsing the hope, even the assurance, that as in literal sleep, so also in the sleep of death, an awakening follows. Thus David, Solomon and successive kings of Israel were said to sleep with their fathers, the inference being that they would at some future time awaken (1 Kings 2: 10; 11: 43). David himself was confident of a future life: ‘As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness’ (Psa. 17:15, KJV). The Prophet Isaiah presents a more expansive fore-view: ‘But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy: . . . the earth will give birth to her dead’ (Isa. 26: 19).

But when would this be? We have no evidence not even a suggestion that any have so far returned from the grave to a renewal of earthly life, and the hope remains tantalisingly unfulfilled. Only one the Lord Jesus has thus far been raised from the death state, appearing of necessity as a man for a fleeting forty days before ascending to Heaven, as the Apostle states (John 3:13): ‘No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven the Son of Man.’ And St. Peter at Pentecost also witnesses to the fact: ‘Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day . . . David did not ascend to heavenʼ (Acts 2: 29, 34).

Why Do We Sleep?

The word describes the natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the external world is suspended. Most of us spend about a third of our lives doing it, though some get by with much less. Napoleon Bonaparte, Florence Nightingale and Margaret Thatcher reputedly needed only four hours each night. There is no set amount of time necessary for sleep, since it varies from person to person. The phenomenon of sleep has baffled scientists for centuries and there is still no settled opinion on its apparently vital function throughout the human life cycle. Some lines of thought suggest that sleep is necessary for the development and health of the brain. Deprived of sleep, we often have difficulty making rational judgements.

Insomnia is at epidemic levels in the modern world, and many complain about difficulty with falling asleep. The root causes are complex and little understood, and the ‘sleeping pill’ a dubious palliative, so the pace and pressure of daily life continues to take its toll. At its worst, total inability to sleep proves fatal, and in fact an extremely rare genetic condition has been identified and named as fatal familial insomnia (FFI). Reprehensibly, deliberate sleep deprivation is a torture device used to break prisoners of war and to coerce confessions from criminal suspects. It can make the toughest man cry.

Adam’s Deep Sleep

St. Paul reminds the Church ‘That the first man was of the dust of the earth’ (1 Cor. 15: 47; Gen. 2: 7). Adam was probably accustomed to his nightly sleep and doubtless observed the same phenomenon among the lower creatures in his environment. But for some time he lacked human companionship, and the Creator remedied the deficiency by performing what might be viewed as the first-ever surgical operation, the Divine anaesthesia being a deep sleep (Gen. 2: 20-22):

While he was sleeping, [God] took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

So why do we sleep? The period of comparative unconsciousness performs necessary operations, its restorative processes being vital for maintaining life. And as the earth itself continues its diurnal routine seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night (Gen. 8: 22), so earth’s inhabitants are programmed to follow the Divine pattern, waking by day, and sleeping by night, for their comfort and refreshment.

Dreaming

Notwithstanding great advances in medical research, why we dream remains an intriguing mystery. Scientists are generally agreed that everyone dreams, though the frequency in which dreams are remembered varies from person to person. Whether dreams have a specific function biological or psychological has not been determined, but one theory suggests that they combine with the process of sleep to help the brain sort through the data collected in the waking hours. And it is a common experience that a difficult problem from the previous night is often resolved on waking next morning.

The Bible is specific that in Old Testament times a prophetic dream was a mental operation that saw with the mental eyes while the Prophet slept. Joseph's dreams of his future greatness are examples of such (Gen. 37: 5-10). The Apostle Peter, recounting his own experience of Divine revelation, reminds us of the Lord’s constant witness through the Prophets (2 Peter 1):

19. [W]e have the word of the prophets made more certain . . . 20. no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Prophets did not necessarily understand the import of their revelations, though some were gifted in doing so. Daniel could explain visions and dreams of all kinds (Dan. 1: 17), though at least on one occasion the Lord cautioned his eager enquiry, saying ‘Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. . . .You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance’ (Dan. 12: 9, 13).

The Sleeping Multitudes

So Daniel rests, sleeping with his fathers, and awaits the 'time of the end' to receive his allotted inheritance. As he was Divinely inspired to record that, ‘Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt’ (12: 2), so he too would wait in death until a fuller understanding of God’s purposes for mankind is made known in the resurrection.

There was a necessity for dreams and visions in olden times which does not exist now. The Lord Jesus often countered His critics with an appropriate quotation from the Prophets, though their preparatory work was complete when the promised Messiah began His ministry. Yet for a further period the early Church was blessed by special revelations, beginning at Pentecost, when Peter saw the events of that occasion as a fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel 2: 28, 29 (Acts 2: 17, 18):

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

Such Pentecostal revelations ceased once the writings of the Apostles were complete, and believers worldwide have had the guidance of Old and New Testaments in their quest to be faithful to the Heavenly Father and to recognise the signs of the times forecast in His word.

The Waking Multitudes

Jesus endorsed Daniel’s prophecy: ‘[A] time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out’ (John 5: 28). Contrary to the wishful thinking of many, there is no immortal soul that departs when the body dies. When the breath of life is gone, it is the living soul the person which lies unconscious until the resurrection day, as in a sleep.

The Apostle Paul looks forward to that prospect, far future in his own day (1 Cor. 15):

20. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

At the awakening we may be sure that the identity of each one will be unmistakeable, the memory perfectly restored, and the prospect of eternal life open to all. Fantasy? Science cannot prove it – nor disprove it. It is by the exercise of faith in the Divine purpose, witnessed by God’s servants through the ages, and by the ransom sacrifice of His beloved Son, that we have this blessed assurance.

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. . . . The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

— Lamentations 3: 21-23, 25, 26 (KJV)

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