In the words of Rich Mullins, Jacob got two women and a whole house full of kids. Jacob, renamed Israel, had twelve sons by four different women: two wives and two concubines. Those twelve sons had their own families... twelve different tribes of Israel.
The word Israel appears in the Bible over 2,400 times, and it's used in a number of different ways. The word itself is difficult to precisely define. The el part of the word refers to God, as in Elohim. The rest of the word comes from the Hebrew sara, usually defined as to wrestle, or compete.
What do angels, a compass, the four gospels, the 12 tribes, three animals and a man have to do with each other? Is there some hidden spiritual connection between them? Is there a biblical pattern to these things?
