We have read about a dream Jacob had. What was it? We have read about two dreams Joseph had. What were they? We now read about dreams of the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt. Do you ever dream? Do you see, hear, touch, and smell in your dreams? But how can you see when your eyes are closed? Yes. You see with the eyes of your spirit. And do you also hear, feel, and smell with the corresponding senses of your spirit?

There are many kinds of dreams. In some dreams, people see things just the way the Lord wants them to see them, when He has something to tell about the future. In other dreams, people see things that angels who live in beautiful gardens and paradises of heaven show them. In still other kinds of dreams, spirits who are inclined to be foolish show people things fanciful and strange, made up out of parts of the pictures of things they have in their memory.

The dreams that Joseph dreamed came from the Lord through heaven, and by them the Lord foretold to Jacob and to Joseph what He was going to do for them.

A person’s memory, which is the "book of life" of which we read in the holy Word of the Lord, has written and painted in it everything that person has ever seen, felt, smelt, tasted, touched, learned, thought, loved, wished for, been pleased with, cried for, laughed at, worked, played, or lived in any manner whatever. The Lord makes use of this "book of life" and selects material from it for the dreams which He shows to us while we are asleep, when He wants to tell us something. So, when Joseph dreamed, he saw sun, moon, and stars, which he had often seen before, and which were pictured in his book of life. But the Lord made them do something new, which foretold Joseph's future. This is the way it was also with the dream about the sheaves. And this is the way it was also with the dreams of the butler and the baker. The butler had in his book of life, or his memory, pictures of vines, that he had seen before he was put in prison; also of Pharaoh's cup; and the Lord took these pictures and made them move in a new way in the dream, which meant something about his future life. What it meant the butler did not know, but Joseph knew, because the Spirit of the Lord told him. And this is the way it was with the baker and his dream of the delicacies, the baskets and the birds.

These dreams were all from the Lord and different from our ordinary dreams. Once in a great while, however, even now-a-days, the Lord sends someone a dream that tells about the future. But the dreams of the Word were different even from such dreams, because each dream in the Word contains, besides the natural meaning such as Joseph "interpreted," another deeper, spiritual meaning.

You would probably be surprised to find how many dreams are told in the Word. Count up as many as you know. But do not include visions. Do you know the difference between a vision and a dream? You know that when people dream they are asleep. When people have visions, they are not asleep, but still the eyes of their bodies may be closed and they pay no attention to what goes on around them, for the eyes of their spirit are opened so that they see the things that are represented in the spiritual world. The prophets had both visions and dreams. Turn to Daniel 10, and you will read of a vision. All the things that John describes in the Book of Revelation were seen and heard by him in a vision, not in a dream. When angels were seen by Elisabeth, Mary, Zachariah, and the shepherds, they were seen in a vision not in a dream. Swedenborg sometimes had visions. But for the most part, what he saw was different from a vision because he was wide awake, both as to his body and as to his spirit. If you want to know the difference, first read a chapter from the Book of Revelation, and then read one of the "Memorable Relations."

You may remember that Joseph stands for, or represents, the Lord. When Joseph was in the pit, it represented the way the wicked people of the Jewish church treated the Lord at the time of the crucifixion, and on other occasions, and the way that people even now treat the Word which He has written through Moses, the Prophets, and the Evangelists. Joseph's being in prison in Egypt represents the same thing. Do you remember that when the Lord was crucified there were two men crucified with Him? One was saved, the other was not. So there were two men with Joseph in the prison. One was saved, the other was not.

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