“It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against Mount Zion” (Isaiah 29:8).

The dreamers of this world are not only the utopian idealists and the contemplative meditationists. The really impractical dreamers are those who most pride themselves on being pragmatic materialists and scientific naturalists, dreaming that by their own efforts they can bring about perfection on Earth. The fact is that this world is not the real world, but only a temporary world which, like a dream, will soon fade away in the light of God’s eternal day, when we awake in His presence to experience the world as God intended it.

In our text, it is significant that the sleeping men are dreaming only about eating and drinking. In the same manner, those whose interests and desires are centered in this world only, will find all their objectives have turned to nothingness. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (I John 2:16,17).

In that great day when the real world which will last for eternity arrives, all the “multitudes” in “all the nations” of the world—those who have ignored the will of God and who have thus, in effect, been “fighting against Mount Zion”—will finally awaken, but it will be too late. How urgent it is that men now awake to God’s word and God’s will. “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14). HMM