Esau Jacob Israel

Esau – Jacob – Israel

Neville Goddard 02-12-1963

We are told by Paul in II Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The word “righteousness” is described for us in the Encyclopedia Britannica as “right thinking.” We are also told there is a three-fold cord that is not quickly broken. It is built like the ark, on three levels: the physical level here, the psychological level, and the spiritual level. Tonight we are taking three characters of Scripture: Esau, Jacob, and Israel. I think I have broken this cord – in fact I am convinced of it, so I would like to share with you what I know of these levels. They are not persons as we are; they are states of consciousness through which the immortal soul passes on its way to God.

We read this story in the 25th chapter of Genesis. We are told that Rebecca was childless and that she and Isaac prayed to God that they may be blessed with a child, and God responded. That is what we are told all through the Bible, this response to prayer for a child. In this case they are twins. And the Lord said unto her: “Two nations are in your womb and two people born of you shall be divided; one shall be stronger than the other and the elder shall serve the younger.” Now here is a prophecy, before the children were brought into the world, which one would excel. Here is predestination – you cannot interpret it in any other way. They are brought into the world, they haven’t committed either good or evil, and yet one is predestined to excel. He is the younger – Jacob, the supplanter – and the first one, Esau, must serve him. But I tell you: these are states of consciousness. Or we can take them on different levels.

We are told in the same chapter of Genesis that the first son he gave me was red all over, like a hairy animal, so they called him Esau. His other name was Edom – like Adam – spelled in the same way [in Hebrew], the red earth, the red being. That’s the first one, who must now serve the younger. The second came out holding in his hand the heel of the first, and he was called Jacob, the supplanter.

We are told the first one was a hunter, a man of the fields, and the second one was a smooth-skinned lad who lived in a tent. So on this level it is the outer and the inner man. No matter how hairless you seem to be, just put a magnifying glass on the body and you will see the body is completely covered with hair (you may call it a fuzz but it is hair) and the most external thing in this world of man is hair; next will be skin. The second one has no hair, so, hairless – that is the inner man. Putting it now into our language so that you and I can understand it and apply it, the outer man is a man of sense. I am in this room right now and everything seems so real, more real than anything else in the world. I know this room by reason of my bodily organs. My senses allow it and my reason dictates it. This is fact; all this is real.

There is an inner man and he is skilled in arranging things so that they reach to desired ends, not based upon the evidence of the senses. The inner man, by standing here, could desire to be elsewhere and deny the evidence of my senses, denying reason, dare to assume I am where I would like to be, and rearrange the furniture of my mind. Instead of using this to tell me I am here, I use other furniture – objects of my mind. Here I rearrange it and remain faithful to that state until it takes on the tones of reality. And when it seems to be sensory vivid and I open my eyes upon it, I am shocked to find I am still here. That is the inner man, called Jacob, the supplanter – he takes the place of the outer man. He supplanted his brother twice. First he took his birthright, then he took his blessing; so these are the two in conflict and the whole story is one of conflict.

Eventually, after unnumbered ages, Jacob will be given the name of Israel, “a man after God’s own heart.” It seems to come soon, but it doesn’t really. No one knows the length of time between the awakening of these two states of consciousness and the fulfillment in the form of Israel. But you must read the Bible from all angles.