Metaphysical meaning of Israel (mbd)
Israel, is'-rå-el (Heb.)--contending for God; striving for God; who prevails with God; a prince with God; dominion with God; rulership with God. The idea is a development out of that of contending with and prevailing over anything whatever.
a Jacob's name was changed to Israel after he had wrestled with "a man" all night at "the ford of the Jabbok," and had succeeded in obtaining a blessing. "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.... And he blessed him there" (Gen. 32:28, 29). b Israel is the nation that sprang from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through Jacob's twelve sons (Gen. 49:28).
Meta. The significance of the changing of Jacob's name to Israel is this: The mind controls the body through the nerves, and a great nerve, the sciatic, runs down the leg through the hollow of the thigh. The will acts directly through this nerve and when the individual, through his mentality or understanding (Jacob), exercises his I AM power upon the natural man in an attempt to make unity between Spirit and the divine-natural, there is a letting go of human will (Jacob's thigh is out of joint). A great light of understanding breaks in the struggling soul when it discovers that there is a divine-natural body, and it clings to that inner life and strength and eventually brings it to the surface in perpetual vigor. This is the significance of the blessing and the new name, Israel (one who has power with God and man, spiritual and material).
If you are like Jacob (supplanter, one who is journeying from place to place to find satisfaction) counting the past and looking to the future, change your attitude to that symbolized by Israel, and find peace in the Lord's reality.
Israel as a nation, in its highest significance, symbolizes spiritual consciousness. The thoughts that have been wrought in Truth and righteousness make the spiritual mind, or spiritual consciousness (Israel).
In Numbers 21:1-3 Israel represents the reality of spiritual ideas in consciousness; the Canaanite represents the elemental life forces in subconsciousness. Through Israel the Canaanites are delivered unto Jehovah, or come under the law of Spirit and are transmuted into spiritual energy.
Isaiah 19:23, 25 symbolically describes the unification of seemingly material substance (Egypt) and the psychic forces (Assyria) under the control of spiritual thought (Israel).
"Israel" (a prince with God) is the real of man, that consciousness which is founded in God. It requires the story of Israel from Abraham to Jesus Christ to picture the growth and spiritualization of the whole man. The unfoldment and lifting into full spiritual consciousness includes the body of man, which must be unified with soul and spirit in Christ, that it may take on and manifest the true spiritual substance and character idealized of God in the beginning for man. In spirit, soul, and body each of us must come into the perfect expression of Godlikeness.
Faith is the foundation faculty or power in mind, through which spiritual man is brought forth. If you will read about Abraham, from whom the children of Israel are descended, you will see at once that he typifies faith.
Saul, the first king of Israel, represents the personal will. When the personal will does not recognize the right of I AM or Christ to rule, and does not make a union with wisdom and love, it becomes very obstinate and acts unwisely. Thus Saul brought great trouble to himself and his subjects, and had to give place to a higher phase of consciousness--was succeeded by David.
Animals represent certain physical qualities in the organism. Horses stand for vitality; oxen, for strength; and so forth. A mule typifies some very stubborn phase of the personal man. In the case of David it depicts the obstinacy of the personal will (Saul), over which David gained dominion.
David, who represents love (heart), makes a union with wisdom (top head). The human will is unified with the divine will and so is guided by love and wisdom. Thus David rides on, or has dominion over, the mule--the obstinacy of personal will. From this union of love and wisdom, the feminine and masculine principles within man, Solomon (peaceful, the wisdom consciousness) is brought forth into kingship. He reigns in peace, exercises wisdom, and builds the Temple--the body. He is the natural offspring or outcome of David's overcoming, and he judges wisely in ruling the people of Israel (the ideas that make up the real consciousness in man).
The uplifting and redeeming of the entire man is not complete until man is born of Spirit and Jesus Christ comes to perfection in and through him. The spiritual body, which is the perfect-idea body in each of us, enters into the very cells of the seemingly physical body until the physical man manifests the real spiritual substance, intelligence, and life that underlie every form. It is through Spirit within us, the Christ or real self, that the intellect is quickened and Truth is established in consciousness. Jesus Christ was of the house of David (love) and He brought the law of love to perfect fruition. He also quickened all His faculties and powers. This process is typified by the calling of the twelve disciples, who, individually, represent different spiritual qualities. The twelve sons of Jacob are the first or natural bringing forth of the faculties, which culminate in a higher expression in the twelve disciples of Jesus.
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Preceding Entry: Ismachiah
Following Entry: Israelites
