In Search of the True Israel: A Journey from Promise to Spirit

In Search of the True Israel: A Journey from Promise to Spirit

As someone who delves into life's philosophical questions, I often encounter the question: what is the meaning of Israel? Is it merely a geographical location, a political entity, or does the deepest layer go much further? Let us search together for the true meaning of Israel...!

To understand this, we must return to the sources – the Bible – and especially listen to the radical reinterpretation that the New Covenant offers us. The answer is surprisingly current and, perhaps most beautifully: deeply personal.

The Modern Misunderstanding: An Urgent Clarification

Let's immediately name the elephant in the room, with a clear distinction that is often overlooked: The Israel in the Bible is not the same as the modern Israel of today. I know what you're thinking, and perhaps you're already drawing conclusions, but please read along.

Nowadays, people often fight and debate based on a misunderstanding of what Israel truly means. People think that modern Israel is the same as the Israel to which the promises in the Bible were made. But that is not what the Bible says. Scripture teaches us that 'Israel' has two meanings.

• First, Israel was a person. In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestled with God, literally fought with Him all night long. After that, God changed his name to 'Israel'.

  
  

• Second, Israel became a nation. Jacob's twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel; God's chosen people. But understand this well: they were not chosen because of their land. They were chosen because of God's promise.

The nation of Israel existed under kings like David and Solomon. But what happened? They lost their land. They were taken into exile because they turned away from God. Fast forward to today. Israel was founded in 1948 as a political state. But that is not the same as the biblical Israel. The biblical Israel, which was founded on the law, the temple, and its priesthood, is no more due to the destruction of all this in 70 A.D.. Furthermore, not everyone in present-day Israel is a descendant of the 12 tribes. Moreover, the land does not define God's people. Faith does that.

So when people think that defending modern Israel is the same as defending God's chosen people, then you are missing the entire point of Scripture. God's Israel was never about land, but about a relationship with Him!

The Beginning: A Promise and a New Identity

Our journey begins with the patriarch Abraham. God called him and made a covenant promise: "To your offspring I will give this land" (Genesis 12:7; 15:18). This "promised land" was the physical foundation of the relationship.

The next crucial step we find with his grandson, Jacob. In a mysterious, nocturnal scene, he wrestles with a divine being at the river Jabbok ('To return'). This struggle is more than a physical fight; it is a metaphor for the inner struggle of a person who clings to God, wrestling with his own fears, ego, and blessing. Jacob was in this a foreshadowing of the life in Christ, the "anointed one". His transformation already shows that it was never primarily about a physical land or a physical nation – a dualistic thinking of "us" versus "them" – but about a spiritual reality. After this transformative experience, Jacob receives a new identity: "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome" (Genesis 32:28).

Israel means: "he who struggles with God" or "God struggles". From that moment on, the name is an identity, born from a personal, spiritual confrontation.

The Forgotten Truth: Our Deep Unity in Christ

Before we can embrace the full extent of the solution, we must look with gentle eyes upon the human condition. The words of Paul in Romans 3, which seemingly state a universal guilt – "There is no one who does God's will, not one..." – touch a deeper layer when we read them through the lens of eternity.

From this mystical perspective, sin is not primarily a moral fault, but the tragic fruit of forgetfulness. It is the consequence of a deep, collective amnesia. Before the foundations of the world were laid, we were already in Him. Our true identity is and was always anchored in Christ, the Firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15-17).

"We have come forth from God, but have forgotten to return." - Meister Eckhart

This "sin" is the state of living in an illusion of separation. It is the misconception that we stand on our own, separate from the Source. Paul's confronting diagnosis – "Everyone goes their own way" – describes precisely this condition: living from the false self, the ego, which thinks it can exist apart from God. The law, however holy, offers no way out here, because it only exposes the symptoms of this separation, but cannot cure the disease of forgetfulness (Romans 3:20, Romans 7:5-6). It reminds us of our state of wandering, but does not awaken us to the remembrance of our true nature.

The problem, therefore, is not that we were never righteous, but that we have forgotten who we are. The challenge is not to become righteous before a holy God, but to re-member and embrace our true Self, which is already righteous and whole in Christ. This is the beginning of the return to unity, the rediscovery of the kingdom that was always within us.

The Shift: Jesus and the Kingdom from Within

In the New Testament, we see a profound shift in the understanding of these concepts. Jesus Christ repeatedly breaks the expectation of a physical, earthly kingdom.

To the Pharisees, who thought they could locate the kingdom, He said: "The kingdom of God does not come in a way that can be observed. Nor will people say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For see, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21). The kingdom is not about external things, for "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).

He also shifts the core of worship from a physical place (the temple in Jerusalem) to a spiritual reality. To the Samaritan woman He explained: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

The Definition: Paul and the True Heir

Paul continues this line and gives a stunningly clear, profound definition in his letter to the Galatians. He uses a powerful allegory of Abraham's two sons.

• Ishmael represents the covenant of the law (Mount Sinai), born "in the natural way", and represents the earthly Jerusalem that is in slavery.

  
  

• Isaac represents the covenant of the promise, born "by virtue of God's promise" and "by virtue of the working of God's Spirit", and represents the heavenly Jerusalem, which is free, and which is our mother (Galatians 4:22-26).

Paul concludes: "Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise... Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman" (Galatians 4:28,31). The heir is not the one who comes from the flesh (the natural descent), but the one who, like Isaac, comes from the Spirit.

This leads to the concise definition of the true identity of Israel:

"For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly... No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code" (Romans 2:28-29).

And even more powerfully: "No, the true Jew is he who is one inwardly, who is circumcised in his heart; that is the work of the Spirit of God, not of the written law. Such a person will not be praised by people, but by God" (Romans 2:29).

The Ultimate Example: Paul's Own Rejection of the Physical

But Paul does not stop here. He makes it personal and inescapable in his letter to the Philippians. He cites his own impressive physical and religious pedigree and declares it completely worthless:

"Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh! For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;... But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ... I am justified, not by obeying the law but by faith in Christ; I am justified by God on the basis of faith." (Philippians 3:2-9).

Here the apostle himself cuts the knot. The "true circumcision" are not those who bear the physical sign, but those whose worship is spiritual and who trust in Christ. Even the most perfect external qualifications – a born Israelite, a Pharisee according to the letter of the law – are considered "garbage" compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ.

A "true Jew" is thus a spiritual identity. It is any person of any origin whatsoever, whose heart has been transformed by the Holy Spirit. Paul emphasizes this further: "Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7). And: "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation!" (Galatians 6:15).

You are the New Israel, the Temple and the Kingdom

Where does this lead us then? To an awe-inspiring, personal conclusion. Every person who lives their life from "the law of the Spirit of life" (Romans 8:2) becomes the spiritual Israel. This struggle is spiritual, for "though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 10:3).

• You are the Temple: "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). God no longer dwells in a building of stone, but in the human being itself.

  
  

• You are a Priest and a King: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession" (1 Peter 2:9, see also Revelation 1:6). You have direct access to God and are called to exercise His royal influence in your environment.

  
  

• You are the New Jerusalem: In a vision, John saw "the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" (Revelation 21:2). This is not a future city; it is the image of the worldwide Church, the collection of all believers, who bring God's glory and character ("descending") into the world. You are a living stone in that city (1 Peter 2:5).

  
  

This new identity nullifies all human opposites. "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God" (Romans 8:14). And in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). You have clothed yourselves with Christ; the old identities have become subordinate to the new creation that you are in Him.

Conclusion: Your Personal Promised Land

The journey of the promised land is a journey inward. The physical land was a shadow, a metaphor for a deeper truth. The true "Israel" is the identity of every person who, like Jacob, has the courage to go into the night and engage in the inner struggle with God. It is the identity of those who, like Paul, consider all human prestige and descent as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. It is the identity of a child of the promise, a free and sovereign person in the heavenly Jerusalem.

As we have seen, the biblical Israel is fundamentally different from the modern nation-state. The promise was never fulfilled in a political entity, but in a spiritual people. The kingdom is not far away; it is a kingdom of peace and joy, within you. You are the place where God dwells, the priest who represents Him and the king/queen who rules His love and truth in your piece of the world.

The question, therefore, is not: "Where is Israel?" The question is: "Do you live today from the identity of the spiritual Israel?"