Meta. Bethlehem means house of bread, symbolizing the abiding place of substance. It indicates the nerve center at the pit of the stomach, through which universal substance joins the refined or spiritualized chemical products of the body substance. Through this center are gradually generated the elements that go to make up the electrical body of the Christ man. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.
Judea means praise, or spiritual recognition. The tribe of Judah symbolizes the aggregation of thoughts that has acknowledgment of spiritual things as the one and only thought reality. Thus the substance in which the Jesus man is born in us must be spiritual in character. At Bethlehem, the substance center in man, a union of love and wisdom takes place, and the Christ is brought forth in substance.
In Ruth 1:22 "the beginning of barley harvest" symbolizes a renewal or a reunion of soul and body with true substance. The love of the soul in man (Ruth) must be established in the substance of Spirit before it can become productive of eternal satisfaction.