In this passage, you will find God warning and directing men through dreams. That was not uncommon before the Bible was finally published because men did not have all of the words of God to direct them. Of course, some of them had the Old Testament or parts of it, which was their absolute authority. But still, it is recorded that God occasionally directed them by dreams. Here are just a few examples:

• Gen. 20:3 – God came to Abimelech in a dream to warn him that he had another man’s wife.
  
  
• Gen. 31:24 – God came to Laban to warn him not to harm Jacob.
  
  
• Gen. 41:1 – Pharaoh dreamed a dream that came from the Lord to warn him to prepare for a 7-year famine by storing up food during the next 7 years of plenty.
  
  
• Dan. 2:1 – Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about an image that prophesies the rise and fall of all of the important world empires leading up to the second coming of Jesus.
  

In every case, these dreams were accurate and perfectly prophetic. However, there are a number of other cases where men professed to have had dreams from God and they were lying. Here are some examples:

• 1 Ki 13:18 – the old prophet professed to have received a word from an angel and lied to the young prophet, resulting in the young prophet’s death.
  
  
• Jer. 23:16, 25-32 the prophets prophesied lies to the people. God said their dreams compared to his words were like the chaff to the wheat.
  

Therefore, men should reject dreams today as an accurate revelation of God’s will. There are many who profess to be directed by God through visions and dreams. However, these folks are an abomination and fall in the category of those listed in Deut. 18:10-12. Get away from them and leave them alone.

Now, the dreams recorded in Matt. 2 were for specific purposes to guide men to safety and to fulfill prophecy. The four dreams were:

• v. 12 – guiding the wise men away from Herod and safely home.
  
  
• v. 13 – guiding Joseph to Egypt to escape destruction from Herod and fulfilling Hos. 11:1.
  
  
• v. 19-20 – guiding Joseph back to Israel after the death of Herod.
  
  
• v. 22 – guiding Joseph to Galilee and fulfilling a spoken but unwritten prophecy that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.
  

Of the prophecies that were fulfilled in Matt. 2, there are two that have special significance. The first one is found in Matt. 2:13 and Hos 11:1. Historically, this prophecy records the Exodus, where Israel was called God’s firstborn son before they left Egypt (Ex 4:22). Prophetically, it refers to Jesus coming up out of Egypt following the death of Herod. This is noteworthy because Moses told the Jews that they needed to be looking for a prophet like him in Deut 18:15-18. This prophet is their Messiah. Thus, the common fulfillment of Hos 11:1 under Moses and Jesus would let them know that Jesus is their Messiah.

The second one is found in Matt. 2:17-18 and Jer. 31:15. It concerns Rachel weeping for her children who are being destroyed prophetically in two events: once under Herod when he was killing the children in Bethlehem; and the second time right before the second coming of Jesus. The context of this prophecy is Jer. 31:31-37, which is the prophecy of the new covenant bought by Jesus at his first coming and fulfilled by Jesus at his second coming. Therefore, Israel should have recognized that the baby Herod tried to kill was, in fact, their King.