The following was a recurring dream given to John Dau, which he shared in his book God Grew Tired Of Us.
"In my
dream I sit atop an eight-foot-tall anthill and watch over my father's
flock. As I perch there, I make toy cows out of clay. Beside me lie my
knife, my stick, and my spear. I am chewing a sorghum stem and looking
at my clay cows, when all of a sudden I hear something running. The
curtain of grass opens, and I see a goat of mine, followed by a lion.
The lion chases the goat around and around my anthill, and I think that
perhaps the goat has run to me to get my help. I get up, grab my spear,
and point it at the lion. The lion bows down, afraid of me, and freezes.
I seize the lion by the tail and swing it around in a circle. I am so,
so powerful. Holding the lion's tail like the handle of a whip. I beat
the animal's body against the anthill. Still the lion refuses to move. I
switch to my stick and beat the lion's head, then return to swinging it
by the tail and whacking it against the hill.
When I look up from beating
the lion, I see a group of boys having fun. I drag the lion to where the
boys are playing. The boys ask me, 'Why are you killing that lion?' I
say, 'If I kill this lion, he will not be able to attack my goats
again.'
We talk like that for a while.
In my dream I stand like a Dinka boy on watch, with my right leg
straight, my left leg bent at the knee, and the handle of my spear
tucked under my shoulder, its point stuck in the ground like a third
leg.
'What do you want to do with that lion?' one of the boys asks.
'I want to throw it away,' I reply. 'I will take it far away and get rid of it so it cannot harm anything in my village again.'
I take the lion to a place
where I can cast it into a swift flowing river, where the current will
make it disappear. Just as I start to toss it in, though, it comes alive
and stands up. In the blink of an eye, it grows strong again. The lion
chases me, intent on catching and eating me. I run very fast, until I
trip over a bunch of grass and fall. The lion leaps toward me, and I
wake up."
(Dau, John Bul. God Grew Tired Of Us. pg 235)
The
dream given to John Dau is a very good example of how God uses
symbolism to give details. Throughout John's book he wondered why God
made them go through so much suffering. I felt his sorrow as I read
about their many long and difficult hardships, and I continue to feel
great sadness for all the horrible events around the world that are
taking and displacing so many lives. I know more difficult times are
coming for people everywhere, because I understand why God brings
judgment to the earth. John didn't quite understand why in his book, but
I saw God gave him the recurring dream to tell part of the story.
John said he did not know what the dream meant, but because I'm familiar
with Biblical concepts and spiritual guidance, I could see a lot of meaning
in it. It has to do with having further knowledge of the spiritual world.
First, John stands on an anthill in the dream. Ants symbolize workers,
especially restless, hardworking people. Ant drones also symbolize
unthinking laborers that go about business more on instinct than logical
thought. John stands on the anthill to symbolize how he, as well as the
church in general, stand on those kinds of work ethics. We will see in
the meaning of this dream how the church goes about business like
drones, because she is not thinking as deeply about God's guidance and
spiritual things as she should be.
The toy cows John makes and looks at symbolize the church's sacred
cows or false beliefs and incorrect doctrine that she unreasonably clings to despite things that show she is wrong. The cows are made of clay (earth) to symbolize how those
false beliefs come from worldly or earthy ways of thinking that do not
come from God.
The lion symbolizes the enemy of mankind, Satan, who prowls like a
roaring lion looking for someone to devour, from 1 Peter 5:8. It tries
to kill a goat from his herd to symbolize how the enemy also tries to
destroy the fruits of our crops and take our wealth, which they can do
because of judgment for our sin. The enemy accuses us before God day and
night (Revelation 12:10).
In the dream, John confronts and seemingly kills the lion, throwing it
around, which symbolizes how we use our strength and authority in Christ through the New Covenant to fight and rebuke the enemy. That is why he feels so powerful in the dream and why the lion cowers at him.
In the dream he believes that killing the lion will protect his people,
which represents how people think that simply rebuking the enemy will
protect us. However, that is only partially true.
When he tries to discard the lion in the river, it comes back to life
and attacks again. This refers to how the enemy cannot be "killed" or
kept away permanently simply by rebuking or praying. God is trying to make John and
the church aware that their current beliefs and knowledge about
spiritual things is incorrect. They're tripping on their false beliefs,
which is symbolized by the bunch of grass John trips on, since overgrown
grass can symbolize overgrown false beliefs. The end of the dream is
saying how John and the church are missing the important knowledge of
how God's laws and covenants work, because when we sin or break God's
laws, we are open to being attacked by the enemy.
That means when we sin, whether we know it or not, judgment comes to us
through curses, such as bad illness, accidents, and loss of property and
wealth. Rebuking the enemy and praying for help and deliverance does
help, but the help can only be temporary if we continue to sin. That's
why Jesus told people to not sin anymore after he healed them, like the
man He healed at the pool of water. He said, "See, you are well again.
Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5:1-14).
The only way to completely kill the lion in the dream is to become unaccusable before God, which means to become sinless as Jesus was. We can only get the full blessings of God's promises if we walk righteous and strive to keep sin out of our lives, at least the worst ones foremost, since there are lesser sins that we should not worry as much about. Worrying over all sin is a ploy of the enemy to brainwash us into constant fear over false sins as well as excessive worry over any sin, no matter how small.
Still, knowing what sin really is, is very important to understand, not just for ourselves, but also for our children and families through generational curses (see generational curses on
1/26/2009; Exodus 20:5, 34:6-7; Leviticus 26:22, 26:39; Numbers 14:18, 16:25-35; Deuteronomy 5:9, 23:2, 28:18; Joshua 7:24-26; 2 Chronicles 29:6-9; Jeremiah 2:9, 9:16 32:18, 36:31; Lamentations 5:7; Hosea 4:6; 2 Peter 2:14). We need to think about that, strive to get rid of sin from our lives, and teach the truth to our families, because it will help and protect everyone if we all try to walk righteous before God.
If we keep learning about what the full truth is and the laws and commands God
expects us to walk in today, then we would not hurt so much as a People,
like God said in Hosea 4:6, "My People are destroyed from lack of
knowledge." That's a big reason why John Dau's people went through so
much suffering and why much of the world comes to so much tribulation.
People do not know how much they do wrong in God's eyes because of their
lack of knowledge or because they were taught wrong. Unfortunately, the
church works too much like ant drones without thinking deep enough
about God's Word and spiritual guidance and excludes information from the whole
picture.
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