Isaac Blesses Jacob (Rabel)

METAPHYSICAL BIBLE INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
This is a series of lectures given by Mr. Edward Rabel, member of the faculty of S.M.R.S.
Fall semester 1975 - 2nd. Yr. Class. Lecture given on October 17, 1975

Topic: 39
Gen. 27, pp. 147-150 of transcript.

Isaac Blesses Jacob

We're told in the story that had things just been left alone, Isaac would have bestowed his parental, fatherly blessing on Esau, but Rebekah, bless her heart, contrives to trick him into giving it to Jacob instead. We're not to think about this as conduct which we criticize or condone, this is symbolic analysis of what has happened, but this does lead to some repercussions in the story and in our human nature, but Rebekah achieves her purpose.

Now, all this had to do with the transferring of directive decision-making control and power, which in Jewish family life was of the father and the father the right to bestow it on the, usually, the eldest son, but the father still had some prerogative. He could by-pass the oldest son under certain circumstances and give that parental blessing to a younger. When a parental blessing was bestowed, according to Jewish custom, then that male member of the family had a decision-making position in regard to family, but metaphysically this is what we would call the directive ego, the seat of the directive ego, where it has it's particular place of authority and in most human beings, the directive, decision making ego activity is in the intellect.

Q. What is the metaphysical meaning of Rebekah?

A. Beauty that ensnares, beauty that enraptures. She represents all of the soul qualities which make the soul beautiful, not beauty of form, but beauty of quality, she is a very lovely character.

Because almost all of our directive, deciding and self-awareness are now appropriated into the intellect, there are repercussions in our nature, because of this. I'm going to back-track a bit because I've left out some of my notes.

All this has to do with the transferring of directive control and power, parental blessing from one part of our developing nature to another. During the different phases of our growth, or rather I would say, evolution, because this spreads out over many incarnations, this all doesn't happen in one round, it's spread over a whole evolutionary cycle.

The directive power is transferred to different places in our being and it is transferred to different centers according to the pattern of our development, both as a race and as individuals, the reason for this is that it helps to give us greater diversity in our development for unity. The only way we can achieve a return to unity is to experience all of diversity. This eventually, this directive power, decision-making power and control will be held in perfect balance by what we call the Christ-consciousness. There will be 12 centers of directive power authority and decision-making; all working as one in searching for reality, of God, of truth, this is called, in its entirety Christ-consciousness, but until that is achieved, it will probably be passed from one factor to another in our unfolding nature. Now, in this particular stage of the narrative, it is held in Jacob, the intellectual consciousness, now has control in most people.

in Chapter 27 we read a very plaintive cry from Esau, pleading for a blessing also from his father. This time the father would be the self. Isaac's symbolic reply to him illustrates the plight of man's physical body consciousness at this stage. In our eagerness to have our mentality be given complete ascendancy over our physical nature, we have put our physical nature at a current disadvantage, and it suffers because of it, as Esau's words so clearly reveal. "Bless me, too, oh my father, hast thou but one blessing?" My brother has done this and done this and he felt this degradation, you see, and this deprivation, and many persons' body-consciousness is in this same point right now, and it suffers.

But body-consciousness, Esau, does, have one outlet, it can protest, and it does. Too much pressure is put on it by the intellect. The wrong kind of thoughts are given as treatment, then it can protest, and it does. So much of what we regard as pathological illness today is not that. It is really the body intelligence protesting at what the mentality is doing. Right? Psychosomatic, but it's even deeper than that. A lot of what we just take for granted as being outside infections or contagion, or this or that, or tough luck, or carelessness is something more serious, more personal than that. It is the body intelligence protesting at what the mentality is doing.

Isaac gives a very symbolic reply to Esau's plea. He indicates that the body has a limited sphere of power and activity. "Behold, thy dwelling shall be of the earth and of the dew of Heaven from above," then he goes on and he indicates that the body is to be very much subject to the power of its brother, the mentality. He says, "And by thy sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy brother." You see, it is the body which carries out the self-defense mechanism. The body is what goes to work to earn the bread, and carry out the instinct for survival. "By thy sword thou shalt live, and thou shalt serve thy brother."

There is little the body consciousness can do about this at the present except to take it, and sometimes to protest, to get sick, to find an accident to happen, it can do it, it can find little tricks, you know, but the time is coming when the mind of man will attain sufficient light and understanding to realize there is absolutely no need to tyrannize and mistreat the body consciousness. This will not happen in the story until after there is a change of name in Jacob.

Now, the climax of Esau's threat, or of Esau's protest about his state of affairs was to threaten to kill Jacob, and because Jacob believed that threat, he panics. Now, this is occurring unfortunately among the great majority of persons in the world today. They are believing a threat, which is a protest from body-consciousness, the way mentality is acting these days, to a belief that the body can kill the person. My body can kill - many persons believe, should they? No. Can your body kill you? Your body can die, but by dying, it in no way kills you. You may kill it, but it can't kill you.

We've got to reverse this belief, the fear, and so many people are living with this, it's a spectre that haunts them every time they look at the clock. Every time that handle of that clock moves, my body is a little nearer to the time when it's going to - see? Esau will carry out his threat - a totally useless type of fear. One that will be rectified as the mentality becomes more and more spiritualized. The modus operandi - when Jacob will change to Israel, will begin the reconciliation between mind, mental consciousness and body consciousness, and then the fear of death will be removed and the reconciled body and mind consciousness will be developed into the healing consciousness.

And that will eventually develop into the what? Regeneration, which is the pure health consciousness, pure, totally, spiritual health consciousness. That's what we're working toward.

Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on February 23, 2015.