The Art Of Religion Book

When we hear the word Israel, most of us naturally think of the country or State of Israel. Our Bible however, uses the word Israel in several different contexts. The first mention of the word Israel is found in Genesis 32.

Jacob had wrestled through the night with the “Angel of God” and prevailed, meaning that he fought tenaciously until the Angel finally dislocated his hip to end the wrestling match. Even then, Jacob would not let go of the Angel, until he promised to give Jacob a blessing.

As a result, Jacob did receive both a verbal blessing and a name change, his new name became “Israel.” The name Israel basically means “One who has wrestled against God and man and prevailed.”

Jacob then made the statement, “I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved.” Many scholars believe that Jacobs statement reveals that the Angel was actually Jesus, our coming Messiah. Prior to His physical birth as a human, Jesus appeared in many different physical forms throughout the Old Testament.

Israel, (Jacob) fathered 12 sons, who became the 12 Princes, or “Sons of Israel.” Each son raised up and ruled over their own family group, which became known as the 12 Tribes of Israel. As those tribes continued to grow and spread out, they eventually established and settled what became known as the “Land of Israel.”

It took until May 14, 1948, before the Land of Israel was officially recognized by the leading world governments, as a sovereign state and independent nation. A unique fact about Israel, is throughout all of its various periods of captivity, they miraculously managed to maintain the God given name of Israel.  

There are many Bible references, showing us how God the Father spoke about Israel as a land, (nation) but also as His “Chosen People.” Bible history tells us that the people of Israel often turned away from serving God and went their own way. The men lusted after foreign (pagan) wives, who led them into demonic idol worship.  

In Malachi, God the Father tells the hurtful story of how bad all that disobedience made Him feel. He spoke about Israel being both His “Child” and His “Bride.” God was crying out to Israel to stop their rebellious disobedience, repent, and turn back to the Father who loved and wanted to protect them.

Israel kept choosing to turn away from the “Truth, blessings and protection” of their Heavenly Father. That foolish decision caused them to continually bring their own personal fate (destiny) upon themselves.

The last usage of the word Israel that I would like to write about, is a term called “Spiritual Israel.” That usage defines an accepted theological concept, and Christian doctrine. It is a Biblical theme or thread, that is laced throughout the whole Bible, but was never officially written down in proper noun form.

I will be changing gears here, to go back farther in time to where I believe the concept of “Spiritual Israel” began. The Aboriginal Australians have a saying, “If you don’t know who your mob is, (ancestors are) then you don’t know who you are.” Many modern-day Christians think and act as if they were descendants of the Apostle Paul.

The fact is, all True Believers (Hebrew and Gentile alike) are spiritual descendants of Abraham. In Matthew chapter 1, we read that the lineage of Jesus, who’s given Hebrew name was “Yeshua,” (meaning salvation) traces back to Abraham. Yeshua was certainly never ashamed of His Hebrew roots, and we should not be either.

The main Biblical story of Abraham can be pieced together by reading chapters 11-25 of Genesis. For those who love extra Biblical research, many interesting details about Abraham are revealed in Jasher, also called the “Book of the Upright One.” Jasher is considered one of the “lost Hebrew texts,” that mysteriously disappeared from circulation.

It is disappointing to me, that Abraham, a man declared to be the “Father of our faith,” did not have more written about his life in our Bible, especially in the New Testament.   

God personally mentored Abram (Abraham) for perhaps 20 years or so after leading him out of the Land of Ur, (Babylon) and into Caanan Land. A very unique, one of a kind happening occurred between God the Father and Abram, when God referred to Abram as “His Friend.” I believe that God ordained friendship, was the birth of what later became known as the “Circumcision of the heart.”

That unique friendship, represented an intimate, personal relationship, based on an extremely deep and unwavering “Covenantal Love, Trust, and commitment,” between God and man. The New Testament relates to that same type of intimate personal relationship with God as, “becoming Born Again.”

In John 15, we read about a similar happening between Jesus and His Disciples. When He said “I no longer call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing: but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

God entered into an Eternal (unbreakable and unconditional) Covenant with Abram, promising that He would never break His end of what became known as the “Abrahamic Covenant.” Eternal means that covenant is still valid today.   

Even though Abram and Sarah were still childless at that time, God told Abram, “Your descendants will be numbered like the stars in the sky and the sand at the seashore.” Ten years later, when Abram was 100 and Sarah was 90, Sarah gave birth to a son who they named Issac.

The Hebrew name Issac means “He laughs,” or “He will laugh.” in reference to the reaction of joy, trust, and amazement, that Abram first had when God told him that he and Sarah would have a child during their “golden years of life.”

To ratify that newly established covenant, God did two things. First, He changed Abram’s name to Abraham. The Hebrew name Abram meant “Exalted father,” his new name Abraham, meant “The father of a multitude of nations.” Secondly, God asked Abraham to circumcise himself and all the male members of his household.

That circumcision actually served two purposes. Physically, it was an outward sign of the covenant between God and Abraham. Spiritually, it was meant to show that an inward “Circumcision of heart,” had previously taken place. Meaning that Abraham was first circumcised in his heart, before he was circumcised in his flesh.

For male Hebrew babies, circumcision of their flesh was meant to be a sign that they were being dedicated to God. Parents were required to raise their children up with the proper teaching and understanding of the Word and ways of God. It was expected, that a future Circumcision of Heart, (personal covenantal relationship) would one day be entered into between the children and their God.

Abraham’s (Hebrew and Gentile) “True Believing and God honoring covenantal descendants,” are still amassing to this very day. They (We) are what is currently being referred to as “Spiritual Israel.”   

On a deep level, the term Spiritual Israel rightly discerns and defines the “True Believers and devoted followers and worshippers of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Descendents, who have all been circumcised by God in their hearts through a covenantal relationship with Him.”

In Deuteronomy 30, Moses prophetically spoke to the children of Israel, after Joshua was named to lead God’s people into the Promised Land. One of the things Moses told them, was that God Himself would one day “circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their children, so they could learn to love God with all of their heart and soul.”  

We must remember, the people (descendants of Abraham) that Moses led out of Egypt, had ended up becoming indentured slaves in a pagan land for over 400 years. Much of the “Oral Law” teachings from their forefathers had most likely been lost to them. Which is why God had Moses, physically write down those teachings again in His Torah.

During the Council of Jerusalem meeting, written about in Acts 15, Gentile circumcision was a huge topic. Paul complained that a small radical group of Rabbis had been harassing his new Gentile converts. They were teaching that “without physical circumcision, the new Gentile converts were not truly saved.”

It was decided at the Council meeting, that “Born Again, Holy Spirit filled Gentile converts, who were diligent in the faith and exhibited the physical Gifts of the Holy Spirit, did not have to undergo painful adult circumcision, unless they really desired to do so.”  

The Council then laid out a few basic Torah requirements for the new converts to start practicing. It was agreed; they would all learn the rest of God’s ways as they heard “Moses-Torah” being read and taught on the Sabbath.

I believe that previous harassment about Gentile circumcision, prompted Paul to give a revelatory teaching in Romans 2 about circumcision. He taught the difference between the circumcision of the flesh, and the circumcision of the heart.

Paul asked the basic question, “Who is a Jew,” in reference to defining who the true spiritual descendants of Abraham (Spiritual Israel) really were. Paul never said that Hebrew’s should stop following the Torah’s mandate of the 8^th day male baby circumcision.   

Paul did say, that the “physical circumcision of the flesh by man,” needed to be followed up with the “spiritual circumcision of the heart, by God’s Holy Spirit.” Which defines the experience that modern Christians now call “becoming Born Again.”

Receiving the Circumcision of heart, is what allows us True Believing Gentiles to become “Accepted into the beloved,” (the household of God) and become part of “Spiritual Israel.”   

The term Spiritual Israel, does not refer to native born Israeli citizens, who have never earnestly sought God about the receiving His Circumcision of heart. Neither does it include modern day church goers, who have never yet entered into covenantal relationship with Yeshua as their “Lord, Savior, Bridegroom and future coming King!”