You had a dream. You wrote it down. But It doesn’t make an ounce of sense, and you don’t know what to do with it. Dreams are full of symbolism, so let’s dive in!
Origins of Symbolism
Just a quick refresher from my other blogs/vlogs, dreams are almost always symbolic. They can be from God or your mind.
Symbols in dreams can be anything: numbers, colors, animals, places, vehicles, and people, to name a few. You will also have dreams with symbols that are unique to you. For example, I worked in the landscaping business for 20+ years. My husband has been in math/science for over 25 years. It’s not unusual for me to have dreams about various plant materials, while my husband has dreams that use scientific symbolism. God will use your experiences as symbolism in your dreams.
I’ll start by saying that many books regarding dreams and interpretations are available and have dream dictionaries. Be careful of them. They may not be Christian books, and those that are will not always have the symbols you are looking for, nor will their interpretation be correct for you. These dictionaries list symbols and their possible meanings. Notice I said possible. A symbol can have multiple meanings, both good and bad. Beyond your personal experiences, books with dream dictionaries get their definitions from the Bible.
I remember reading the Bible years back and noticing several numbers repeat themselves. For example, it rained forty days and forty nights, Moses was forty when he left Egypt, and forty years later, he returned, Israel spent forty years in the desert, and Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days. Forty or fortieth is found ninety-five times in the NIV Bible. From these examples, forty means probation period, testing, or trials.
Gematria vs. Numerology
I don’t have time to get into the complete origins of the Hebrew alphabet, but I will tell you that it has numbers and pictures assigned to each of the twenty-two letters. Assigning numeric values to the Hebraic letter is known as gematria. The first nine letters are the numbers 1-9. Letters 10-18 are linked to the numbers 10-80, and the final letters 19-22 are the numbers 100-400. . A great example of understanding this principle is the numbers and letters representing the year.
Before I show you this example, it is important to understand that the Biblical civil new year begins in the fall with what is known as Rosh Hashanah (head of the year). Hebraically, we are currently in the year 5783 (2023). I’m going to back up to 5780 and ignore 57 and focus on 80. 5780 began in the fall of 2019 and ended in the fall of 2020. Eighty is the decade. The letter representing eighty is peh, a symbol of a mouth. The words blow (Jesus blew on his disciples to receive the spirit) scatter, and breath of life (in Genesis, God breathed life into Adam) are peh words. The pandemic began this year, and there was definitely a battle over the breath of life for many of us. This is a decade of the mouth. We are currently in the year 5783 (2022-2023), and if you want to learn what this year is about, I recommend doing your research – this page doesn’t have time!
Numerology, on the other hand, is associated with the occult. This practice was taken from the concept of gematria in approximately the 6th century BC. It is important to remember that whatever God creates will always have a counterfeit. Numerology is the false version of gematria.
Numbers in Dreams
I’ve had many dreams with numbers in them, and to be honest, it’s the symbolism I’ve struggled with the most. I recently had a dream where I was playing guitar with another person. I was playing in the 5th fret of the 6th string. The other person was playing on the 5th string on the 3rd fret. At first, I thought I was in the wrong spot, but then I realized we were both correct, and the two chords would work together. The only thing that really struck me was the number five, as it was used twice. The number five has several possible meanings, but I knew from the rest of this very long dream that there would be a grace given in the worship.
I also had two dreams within a couple of days of each other where I saw the time on a clock; one was 11:06, and the other was 10:36. I wasn’t sure what it was about, but the first thing I did was pull out the concordance and look up the numbers to see what they meant. I knew that was wrong, so I looked up scriptures that were chapter 10, verse 36 (I did the same with 11:06). There were several. I can’t explain how I knew but I knew when I hit the correct scriptures. They both came out of Hebrews. Hebrews 11:06:
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (NIV)
The part where God spoke to me was the end – he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 10:36:
“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” (NIV)
Notice there is a theme in this? I needed to keep going until I finished my task. Then I would receive my promises.
Although this blog doesn’t give you the meaning of a number in your dream, hopefully, it gives you some ideas on how to build your dream dictionary.
Until next time under the palm, be blessed!
