Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SLEEP

The regular suspension of consciousness wherein the body is refreshed (Gen. 28:16; Ps. 3:5[MT 6]; Matt. 25:5). Creatures must sleep, but not the Lord (Ps. 121:4), who indeed cares for us while we sleep (vv. 5-6) and communicates through dreams (Gen. 20:6-7; Matt. 1:20; 2:12-13, 22). God created Eve while Adam slept (Gen. 2:21) and made a covenant with Abram while he slept (15:12). Though God does not sleep, poetic imagery calls upon him to arise as if he were asleep (Ps. 44:23, 26[24, 27]; cf. 78:65).

Sleep appears metaphorically for physical death, whether of the righteous or of the wicked (Ps. 13:3[4]; 76:5[6]; Jer. 51:57; Dan. 12:2; cf. 1 Cor. 11:30). In the NT, however, Christ will awaken believers (1 Thess. 5:10), for those who die “fall asleep” in Jesus (4:14). In the OT the use of sleep for death as a reversible condition anticipated the resurrection (cf. esp. Dan 12:2). Jesus confirmed this when he raised Lazarus, who had “fallen asleep,” from the dead; Jesus came to “wake him up” (John 11:11) as a sign of his authority to resurrect the dead on the last day.

Sleep is also used metaphorically for spiritual dullness and spiritual death. Throughout Proverbs sleep is the occupation of the lazy, yielding poverty and hunger (Prov. 6:9-11; 19:15; 20:13; 24:33-34). In the NT sleep represents spiritual indolence (Mark 14:32-40), a drowsiness from which one must rise, be awakened spiritually, and prepare for the day of salvation about to dawn (13:36; Rom. 13:11; Eph. 5:14; 1 Thess. 5:6-9).

A. B. Caneday

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SLEEP

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)