2514. In a dream by night. That this signifies that the perception was obscure, is evident from the signification of a “dream,” and likewise of “night.” A “dream,” when perception is treated of, signifies something obscure in comparison with wakefulness; and still more when it is said “a dream by night.” The Lord’s first perception is called obscure, because it was in the human that He was to put off, and the shades of which He was to disperse. The Lord’s perception, although from the Divine, was yet in the human, which is such that it does not immediately receive the light itself, but gradually as the shades which are there are dispersed. That He brought Himself into what was less obscure in regard to the doctrine of faith, is signified by “God coming again to Abimelech in a dream,” as declared in verse 6, where there is no mention of “night;” and that He afterwards came into clear perception is signified in verse 8 by the words, “Abimelech rose early in the morning.”
