The Loaf and the Sword

The Midianite’s dream in Judges 7 is part of Gideon’s famous story. The Bible clearly says what the dream means—but how does a loaf of bread rolling down a hill and flattening a tent mean “Gideon is going to defeat the bad guys”?

To understand this dream, we need to start at the very beginning when God first called Gideon.

Gideon isn’t a big, brave warrior when the angel appears and calls him to deliver Israel. In fact, he’s threshing wheat in a winepress because he’s hiding from his enemies.

We tend to like Gideon because he’s so transparent. He’s terrified to do what God said. He has to confirm it again and again—and he’s still scared.

Eventually God sends him down to the Midianite camp where Gideon overhears two soldiers talking about the bread dream.

“This is Gideon! He’s going to crush us!”

They didn’t know God but they knew what the bread represented—because they knew Gideon’s story. No doubt it had spread like wildfire through the entire region. Gideon even received a new name because of it. When the angel called him, he was threshing grain. Why? To make bread. What began as a seed had reached maturity.

Here are three principles we can learn from this dream story:

1. God can use a dream element (in this case, grain/bread) to represent a person or group of people.

2. God speaks in dreams to those who know Him and those who don’t.

3. You can trust God to speak in dreams and to give you the right interpretation when you need it. He will communicate truth to you in ways you never imagined.

This short dream is fascinating! To learn more, listen to episode 16 of The Dream’s Guy podcast. {eoa}