Metaphysical meaning of Israelites (mbd)
Israelites, is'-rå-el-ites (fr. Heb.)--descendants of Jacob; belonging to one of the tribes of Israel.
Descendants of Jacob, or Israel (Exod. 9:7; II Kings 3:24; Rom. 11:1).
Meta. The illumined thoughts in consciousness, which are undergoing spiritual discipline. They are the total of our religious thoughts. In the beginning of our journey from sense consciousness to spiritual consciousness, from Egypt to the Promised Land, not all these religious thoughts are awake to spiritual Truth, but among them are the highly illumined ideas and faculties that the many inspired leaders, judges, prophets, and kings of Israel represent.
The Israelites represent the thoughts in us that belong to the Israel consciousness; they typify that in us which is always endeavoring to follow the inner leading of the divine law. They are our spiritual thoughts, the thoughts that pertain to the real and enduring ideas upon which man and the universe are founded.
The purpose of the spiritual thoughts in the body (Children of Israel down in Egypt) is to raise it up, gradually to infuse into it a more enduring life and substance. When you affirm the spirituality of your body and yearn for its release from bondage to material belief, you are making demands on Pharaoh, and in fear that he will all at once lose his hold on life he hardens his heart, and sometimes the Lord, the universal law of equilibrium, hardens it for him. Then there seems a failure to attain that which you have tried to demonstrate. But a step has been taken in the all-round evolution of the body, and you will find that you are gradually becoming stronger both physically and spiritually.
The Israelites in Egyptian slavery represent thoughts that once had the illumination of Spirit, but that have gone down into, and have become obscured by, matter and material conditions.
The army of the Israelites represents an aggregation of thoughts in the mind of every individual--thoughts that know Truth and strive to follow it. The army of Truth is made up of spiritual, invisible forces.
The strong point of the Israelites was their faith in the one God.
"The lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 10:6) are the spiritual thoughts unaware of their real character.
The disciples were instructed to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and not to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans, because the thoughts and the people that have a knowledge of Spirit are the first to be redeemed and taught Truth. Here is where man's greatest spiritual power is first developed. Afterward he will find a way to redeem the Gentiles--his sense thoughts.
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Preceding Entry: Israel
Following Entry: Israelitish
