2000-3-6 08:27:00
It's been a while since I have posted a chapter in the Gathering of Lights. Here's the next installment:
It may be helpful here to outline briefly the positive and negative aspects of each tribe.
Joseph is represented by two tribes: Ephraim and Manasseh.
EPHRAIM: Positive: Spirit of adventure, curious, very productive, influential, persuasive, creative, love of life, zest, and acts on true principles. Negative: Pride in his accomplishments is his biggest fault. Also blindness, apathy, supportiveness, and lack of love.
MANASSEH: Positive: Has power to relieve burdens of others and power to forget the trivial problems and concentrate on what is important. Also unselfishness, love, and strong devotion. Negative: Strong desire to hold on to the past. Substitutes love of the past for love of those living in the present.
JUDAH: Positive: Has power to gain great respect and praise from others, power of accomplishment, one pointed direction, aggressive, handles power with grace. His destiny is to show the strength of God. Negative: Envious, wants to control others, inconsiderate, takes unfair advantage, separative, and lack of love.
ISSACHAR: Positive: Unhurried, seeks the God within, reflective, obedient, submissive to the will of God. His destiny is to show the world that the reward for righteousness is found within one's own soul, not in a handout from the Master. Negative: Submits to authority without questioning, does not value freedom as he should, lack of principle, and lack of pride.
GAD: Positive: Upholds the law in righteousness, strong determination--will seldom admit defeat, power to endure, very productive, works with nature, and accurate. Negative: Will uphold unrighteous law, argumentative, separative, lack of love and concern, does not turn the other cheek, selfish. The destiny of Gad is to show the way to victory over the forces of evil through divine order.
SIMEON: Positive: Obedience through knowledge and freewill, acquiescent, respect, orderly. His destiny is to show the world how to "hear" or listen to the god within and act upon that knowledge. Negative: Cruelty, anger, uncaring and unfeeling, violent, slow to obtain the power of Israel, energies are scattered, and does not seek the true God.
BENJAMIN: Positive: Protective, loving, caring, seeks to help, seeks peace and cooperation. His destiny is to show that through great effort that the attributes of the Son of God can be acquired by all. Negative: Accepts suffering as a way of life--he needs to open the door to joyousness. Selfish, aggressive, separative, pride, and indifference.
NAPHTALI: Positive: Spiritual strength and blessings, glad heart, love of freedom, willingness to sacrifice, endurance, and strong spirit. His destiny is to bring the message of the fullness of joy that the presence of God brings. His "yoke is easy and his burden light". Man does not have to be miserable to serve God. Negative: They view life as one of suffereing and hardship, depression, moody, inconsistant, succumbs to terror and fear, and not watchful of freedom and liberty.
ZEBULON: Positive: Has an abundance to share with the world, generosity, friendliness, kindness, good manners, strong ideals. His destiny is to show that the way to the abundant life is by doing the will of the god within and expressing it. Negative: Intolerance, separative, thinking that God belongs to their group, nationalistic, selfishness, lack of common sense, and apathy.
REUBEN: Positive: Peaceful, prosperous, zest for living. His destiny is to point the way to the son of God within each man who is the beloved Son of the Father. Negative: Pride, overly emotional, lack of high aspiration, and unreliable.
ASHER: Positive: Happy jovial attitude, does not worry over non-essentials, generous, trusting, loving. The destiny of Asher is to bring happiness through abundance and relieve the poor from want. Negative: Selfishness, gluttony, lack of empathy, apathy, and lack of control.
LEVI: Positive: They are the teachers of the word of God, the true holders of the Priesthood, they have the Urim and Thummim, jlight and knowledge, the key to revelation and the knowledge of God. They are mediators between God and man. Their destiny is to spiritually unite mankind through the Spirit of the One God. Negative: They can become the worst of men when they rebel against the light. When this happens they loose all powers of Israel.
Concerning Levi's negative aspect it is written: "Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly. . ." Gen 49:5-6.
These are the Black Magicians and the conspirators of the world who seek to enslave mankind through subtle means. Many of Simeon are their cohorts and instruments of carrying out their plans.
DAN: Positive: The greatest virtue is correct judgement and timing, power to rule and gain respect and to handle men and measures, leadership. The destiny of Dan is to be the righteous judge. Dan will also be a criteria for judgement for the other tribes. The New English Bible has the following translation on Dan: "Dan - now insignificant his people, lowly as any tribe in Israel!" Gen 49:16.
They were so insignificant that John the Revelator left them out completely when mentioning the tribes that will follow Christ. Actually, Dan is a symbol of the "least of the brethren" and shall be the touchstone on which others are judged. The negative Danite is often hated and feared and makes it a real test for an Israelite to "love his enemies" or to do "good to those who despitefully use you." When the negative Danite becomes positive then he is the one in the position of the righteous judge, for "the first shall be last and the last first".
Negative: He seeks openly for power and authority and not in the form of a secret conspiracy as the Levites, but may have many secrets along the way. He is the author of contention and strife and tries to stop true progress and holds on to the old ways. He has much negative emotional energy.
Here we conclude the positive and negative aspects of Israel. The consistent use of "Israel" here is somewhat of a misnomer for it is technically incorrect. The name Jacob should be used when referring to a negative Israelite person, group or nation whereas the name Israel applies to those who are manifesting godliness. It is interesting to note the contrast of the meaning of the two names. You will remember that Jacob was the name of the man Israel before he prevailed over the god he wrestled with. The meaning is the antithesis of Israel for it literally means "heel catcher" and is derived from the Hebrew AQAB. From this word and its variations the Bible translates as follows: "heel, take by the heel, supplant, restrain, lie in wait, crooked, deceitful, polluted, and subtlety". No wonder God changed his name! A man who wrestles with God deserved a better name than that. However, the name and its derivations are a perfect symbol of the negative aspects of Israel as a whole.
Two scriptures using a Hebrew variant of Jacob are particularly interesting to note. The first is: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen 3:15
It is interesting to note that the word "heel" corresponds to "Jacob". The serpent then will "bruise" Jacob. In his pre-Israelite condition he is very vulnerable and "backsliding" as the Bible calls it.
Th other scriptures concerns the tribe of Dan: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, and adder (horned snake - New English) in the path, that biteth the horse heels (Jacob), so that his rider shall fall backward." Gen 49:17
Here the serpent who bites at the heel of the seed of the woman is identified. It is the negative aspect of the tribe of Dan. Even more revealing is the Hebrew for the word "biteth". It comes from NASHAK which can be translated as: "to oppress with interest on a loan". The translators rejected the idea that Dan could lend money to "horse heels" so they used the fitting word: "biteth". But when we realize that it should be Jacob instead of "heels" the correct translation makes sense. Keep in mind that the blessing was given by Jacob himself. A more correct rendering would be: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a snake in the path (of progression to the New Age), which oppresses with high interest loans the house of Jacob so that he falls backwards."
Is there anything that oppresses the people of the world more than the high interest rates? For some reason the people of the world do not seem to realize that the interest rates are the main controller of the economy. In the late 70's the prime interest rate went from around 7% to almost 20% and the economy went downhill accordingly. Then in the eighties when the interest rate began to go down the economy improved. The main reason the economy in the United States was good throughout the nineties is because the interest rates were reasonable.
As proof that this is the correct translation we will examine another verse where NASHAK is used. Keep in mind that this is a commandment of God given through Moses: "Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury." Deut 23:19
The phrase "lend upon usury" and the word "usury" comes from NASHAK. Surely they were not commanded to not bite their brother, or to bite money.
Who then are from the tribe of Dan mentioned here? They are the powerful bankers of the world who play the role of the adversary (serpent) and purposefully drive the interest rates of the world high so they can reap benefit from the misfortune of their brother Jacob. Keep in mind that not all bankers are Danites for many of them are fine individuals performing good service, but the negative Danites are those who selfishly reap financial benefits with no regard for the misfortune of others. The large landholders in Central and South America and other nations who reap benefits from slave labor (the laborers are treated and paid like slaves) are also Danites. A negative Danite aptly fits the description of a serpent blocking the way on the Path of progression. A person oppressed by money-worries accomplishes little or nothing creative or progressive.
Concerning the negative Danites we are told that the Woman (the Kingdom of God) "shall bruise thy head". The new economic order that will manifest within the Kingdom of God will do just that and will eventually abolish the Danite interest rates, but the new economic order will not be manifest through a bruised and overcome Jacob, but through true Israelites. Jacob lies down no power to hurt him. Even the gods cannot outwrestle a Jacob who has become Israel.
Each individual also belongs to one of the tribes of either Jacob or Israel and it may not be the same tribe as that of the national or group consciousness. In the United States, the land of Joseph, we have many who are of Levi, Judah, Reuben and so on. Even though one tribe is dominant in the consciousness of each individual the other eleven also play upon his personality and soul and more than one aspect can be displayed by an advanced human being. The life mission of each individual will be through the expression of one of the tribes.
Copyright 2000 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved