1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.
The name of Abraham's second wife, Keturah, means "incense," "perfume," "aloeswood." Keturah represents a soul consciousness that aspires to higher things even though still in sense.
2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
Zimran represents a positive expression of joy, harmony, and grace, the first conscious result of a union in the individual of awakening faith (Abraham) with the aspiration of the soul for higher bodily attainment (Keturah). Jokshan represents a sly, treacherous, deceitful tendency that often exists in the sense mind of man and that places the individual who gives way to it in difficult situations. Medan and Midian represent the sense of dominion that to a degree is founded on discrimination and understanding but that is still full of contention and strife. Ishbak typifies the transitoriness of human ambition and its results. Shuah denotes an exceedingly depressed, downcast state of thought.
3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.
Jokshan begat Sheba, who represents wholeness or fullness on various planes of existence ("return to an original state," "repose," "equilibrium"), and Dedan ("mutual attraction," "physical love," "low"), who represents a phase of physical or animal attraction and affection. This must give way to true love, which is spiritual in its character and is unselfish and pure. Dedan had three sons. Asshurim represents the reasoning power of faith operating in sense consciousness. The reasoning of the intellect, guided by the senses, may seem almost invincible at times, but it does not endure. Only spiritual ideas and their manifestation are truly strong, powerful, and abiding. The second son of Dedan was Letushim, who represents the sense of being oppressed and hard driven that all persons in the lower, earthly consciousness experience much of the time. In the Letushim, consciousness advancement is slow and is gained by means of hard experiences. The third son of Dedan was Leummim, who symbolizes great increase and multiplication of thoughts in consciousness but without real spiritual quickening.
4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
Midian had five sons. Ephah represents darkened and obscured phases of thought and soul in which the Spirit of Gods is working--over which Spirit is brooding--that Truth may blossom forth and come to fruition in due time. Midian's second son was Epher, who represents thoughts on the animal plane of consciousness in man that are active but young and inexperienced. His third son was Hanoch, who represents entrance into a higher consciousness than has been known and experienced before. The fourth son, Abida, represents the belief that knowledge comes through the senses. The judgment of the senses, based on outer appearances, produces discordant thoughts, jealousies, and the like. Midian's fifth son Eldaah ("whom God has called"), represents a central thought that responds in a measure to the quickening presence of Spirit although it belongs to the sense phase of human consciousness. It perceives that God is the source of understanding, yet it does not bring forth definite fruit in consciousness.
5 Abraham gave all he had to Isaac.
Isaac was the product of Abraham's spiritual consciousness, while the sons of the concubines were the product of his personal consciousness. Hence, Isaac (meaning divine sonship) was the rightful heir to all that Abraham had.
6 But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.
7 These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, a hundred and seventy-five years.
8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
9 Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre,
10 the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There, Abraham was buried, with Sarah, his wife.
Machpelah was a field "before Mamre" that Abraham bought from Ephron, of the children of Heth. Machpelah represents the subconscious body substance. As in the case of Sarah, when the aggregation of thoughts symbolized by Abraham has done its perfect work in the conscious realm of mind, it gives way for the time being to other activities of the mind and sinks back into the subconscious. The name Mamre means "Firmness," "Vigor," "Strength." The lesson here is that spiritual consciousness (suggested by Abraham) brings about the right relation among all the faculties, establishing firmness, vigor, and strength.
11 After the death of Abraham, Gods blessed Isaac, his son. And Isaac dwelt at Beerlahairoi.
The name Beerlahairoi means "the well of the living one." Isaac symbolizes divine sonship. When the individual realizes that life is omnipresent and eternal and that Spirit is its source he has laid the foundation for its manifestation throughout his whole being. This foundation is the blessing spoken of here.
12 These are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham.
Ishmael represents the thoughts that are the fruit of the personal or carnal in man.
13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth: Neba'ioth, the first-born of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
The first-born of Ishmael was Nebaioth. Nebaioth represents the external senses or material consciousness, reflecting the light of the inner, true ideas that are born of Spirit ("heights"), and realizing the possibility of bringing forth abundant good ("cultivation of the soil," "fruitfulness," "germinations") through the power of the word of understanding ("prophetic utterances," "inspired words"). The second son of Ishmael was Kedar. Kedar represents a confused, unsettled, disturbed, obscure thought. Yet one with a degree of power that belongs to the outer or sense side of consciousness. The third son of Ishmael was Adbeel. Adbeel represents a yearning of the soul for something higher and better. This yearning will bring forth fruit in time, when it has been subjected to the necessary education and training. Though not always recognized as coming from YHVH, this discipline is brought about by the working of the divine law. The fourth son, Mibsam, represents a perception or sensing, to a degree, of the joys and beauties of Spirit: the power to perceive, discriminate, detect, estimate.
14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
The fifth son, Mishma, represents a receptive, attentive, obedient attitude in the outer or sense consciousness. The sixth son, Dumah, represents the condition that man calls death; also the state of man wherein he is dead through his trespasses and sins. The seventh son, Massa, represents the ushering in of a new thought regarding that in man which has hitherto been deemed by him to be wholly material and so doomed to death and dissolution. This new thought is a prophecy that the seemingly physical body will ultimately be lifted up and saved alive. Massa represents a type of thought that lays hold of, retains, and transports this truth ("divine declaration," "a lifting up,") into the outer organism, the seemingly mortal part of the individual.
15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Ked'emah.
Ishmael's eighth son was Hadad. Hadad symbolizes the setting up as all-powerful of the intellect in its spiritually unawakened state. Behind the intellect however, behind every expression of intelligence or understanding, there exists the hidden principle of all light, all wisdom, all knowledge: YHVH or Spirit. The ninth son, Tema, represents abundant substance and life, firmness, faithfulness, and Truth stored in the subconscious. The tenth son, Jetur, represents an idea of order, solidity, strength, that which keeps within bounds; the idea or belief that the individual can be kept in orderly existence only when limited to certain lines of thought and action, only when his thoughts, beliefs, and acts are fenced in. The materialistic man's way of making the individual better is always to limit him by means of outer rules and regulations; it knows nothing of true spiritual freedom and guidance, which alone can bring about real strength, unity, and adjustment in consciousness. The eleventh son, Naphish, symbolizes the activity of the very breath of life by which every living creature is animated and inspired, consciously or unconsciously. The twelfth son, Kedemah, represents the inner or true being of man, divine principle; that which exists from everlasting to everlasting, man's true Spiritual or Divine Self. Kedemah, the youngest of his twelve sons, symbolizes the individual's turning within to his Inner or True Being, which is spiritual, eternal.
16 These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes.
YHVH, Spirit, and the Messiah, who is man's true inner self, are first; otherwise the outer man could not be. In outer expression and manifestation however the physical man appears to come first, and he seems to run the full gamut of experience in the outer consciousness before he finally turns about and begins to seek within his own inner being to find YHVH, Spirit, his true source and sustenance. This process is explained as the sons of Ishmael.
17 (These are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty-seven years; he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kindred.)
18 They dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled over against all his people.
19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham was the father of Isaac,
20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean.
When Isaac (representing Serenity, Peace, Joy) was forty years old he took Rebekah to be his wife. Rebekah symbolizes the soul's natural delight in beauty. She was the daughter of Bethuel, who symbolizes unity with God, a conscious abiding in the Divine, and the sister of Laban, who symbolizes an exalted state of mind.
21 And Isaac prayed to YHVH for his wife, because she was barren; and YHVH granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
The inner, joyous life current (Isaac) through the soul's delight in beauty (Rebekah) gradually builds up a physical body of great vitality and at the same time develops an active mentality. These are symbolized by Esau and Jacob.
22 The children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is thus, why do I live?" So, she went to inquire of YHVH.
23 And YHVH said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger."
24 When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 The first came forth red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they called his name Esau.
Esau symbolizes the development of a physical body of great vitality.
26 Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand had taken hold of Esau's heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
Jacob symbolizes the development of an active mind. These two phases of life, the mental and the physical, are represented by Isaac's twin sons Jacob and Esau. They were twins, but Esau was slightly the older, which fact under the Hebrew law gave him the rights of the eldest son and made him Isaac's heir. Metaphysically, this denotes the physical vigor comes first at this stage of development but that the mind accompanies it as a close second. Jacob had hold of Esau's heel when they were born, showing that the mental is directly connected with the physical and holds it in check at all times, even from the beginning.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
28 Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Isaac loved Esau more than he loved Jacob. When we remember that Isaac represents Joy in the individual consciousness we can understand why the physical man seems to supply the needs of joy better than does the mental. Esau continually brought venison (substance to nourish the animal appetite) to please his father. Rebekah loved Jacob more than she loved Esau. The exalted Mother Principle (Rebekah) loves its expression (Jacob) better than the physical expression (Esau) and seeks the blessing of the Father Principle (Isaac) upon it.
29 Once when Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished.
30 And Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red pottage, for I am famished!" (Therefore, his name was called Edom.)
(Esau was named Edom, "red," because he sold his birthright for the red pottage. Edom pertains to the externally focused man, the physical phase of man's consciousness and organism.) This results in a temporary separation in consciousness between the mind and the body.
31 Jacob said, "First sell me your birthright."
Jacob, representing a limited concept of the I AM, is ambitious to receive original inspiration and is unwilling to let appetite and passion rule. Therefore as the whole scheme of development is from lower to higher, Jacob (intellect) must supplant Esau (the immature consciousness of the natural man that is ruled by desire).
It is by the work of conscious re-creation of his life after the pattern of the divine ideal that man gains self-dominion and becomes a citizen of the Kingdom of the Heavens, the Inner Kingdom of Peace and Power.
32 Esau said, "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?"
Esau's birthright is the body and the all-round development to which it is entitled. It is an inheritance of potential mental powers, which rightly used will lift the physical man out of the fleshly consciousness to the higher consciousness of the Divine Mind. Under the natural law of evolution, the physical man (Esau) is brought forth first and has precedence over the intellectual man (Jacob). However, in this allegory, the physical man is overwhelmed by his desire for material comforts ("pottage") and does not sufficiently value the mind power that has been given to man. The mental man, being on a higher plane, naturally draws to himself the finer forces of being. In consequence Jacob (the intellect) acquires precedence over Esau (the body consciousness).
33 Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So, he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
The "birthright" that Esau so willingly bartered away for a mess of pottage meant not only a right to the material goods of his father Isaac but to the spiritual blessings of the covenant of Abraham, which descending on him, should through him bless the world. Instead of "Abraham, Isaac, and Esau", the immortal words would be "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
34 Then, Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus, Esau despised his birthright.
The ambitious ideas of the intellect forge far ahead of the growth of the body. Instead of supplying the body with its natural substance, which is spiritual, it gives the body consciousness intellectual ideas (boiled pottage). Under divine law, however, they were twins and the separation was only apparent. They were to become united again and share all the blessings that Jacob (intellect) had gained.
The name Jacob means "supplanter". In the development of the spiritual consciousness the supplanting quality finds its true office in replacing selfishness with selflessness. We who seek to bring the ideal into active expression in our life know that to do this we must put into the place occupied by willful self-seeking an unwavering faith in the unseen God. The sensual must be supplanted by the spiritual, the apparent by the ideal. The fact that Yeshua (Jesus) approvingly cited the Jewish Tradition in his words "Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven" proves the value of this supplanting power or power that man has to change his mind and so remake his consciousness and his life.