Job 20:8

He shall fly away as a dream.

The dream of life

Job, in the text, speaks of life as a “dream,” a mere passing phantom of the brain.

I. A dream implies a dormancy in certain faculties of our nature. The flitting visions of the brain at night always imply the slumbering state of certain powers of the soul. The will has but little to do with the creations of the dream world. In what sense is the soul asleep? What are the faculties that lie dormant within us? There are those that consciously connect the spirit with the spiritual universe--God and moral responsibilities. But spiritual sleep is unnatural and injurious.

II. A dream fills the mind with illusive visions. The mind sees things in the dreams of the night that never will and that never can have any actual existence. Like dreams, our life here is full of fictions and fancies.

1. Man’s notions as to what his life here will be are illusions.

2. Man’s notions as to what constitutes the dignities and blessedness of life are illusions. Compare the world’s ideas of dignity with the dictates of common sense, the teaching of philosophy, to say nothing of the higher light of revelation. All notions of dignity and happiness are illusive which have not--

(1) To do more with the soul than the senses.

(2) To do more with the character than the circumstance.

(3) To do more with the present than the future.

(4) To do more with the absolute than with the contingent.

III. A dream is of very short duration. The night dreams of men are very brief, compared with the regular thoughts of their waking hours. Like a dream, life too is brief. This life dream will soon be over. (Homilist.)