Who Is Israel?

If you mention Israel to someone in our day, one's mind most likely will think the holy land, state of Israel, the land of Israel or as Zionist have declared the homeland of the Jewish people. Although those are the thoughts of modern man from the mentioning of the word Israel, it is not the thoughts or according to what is written in scripture. The word Israel is used in many different context in Scripture. The word is used as the name of an individual, the name of a people, the name of a territory, the name of a united kingdom, the name of a divided kingdom and the name of commonwealth.