Neville Goddard on 1 Kings 12:25-33 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read 1 Kings 12 in context

Scripture Focus

25Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel.

26And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:

27If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.

28Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

29And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.

30And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

31And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.

32And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

33So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

1 Kings 12:25-33

Biblical Context

Jeroboam, fearing the kingdom will return to David, sets up external worship—golden calves at Bethel and Dan, a high place, and non-Levite priests—to keep the people from going to Jerusalem.

Neville's Inner Vision

From the Neville Goddard vantage, Jeroboam's crisis is a crisis of inner kingship. He believes the kingdom’s safety lies in external signs and rituals—two calves on a hill, a new priesthood, a feast devised by his own heart—and thus engineers a worship that keeps God at arm's length. The people imitate the form; yet the form cannot contain the living God whom they fear losing. The inner demand is simple: realize that the true temple is within your own consciousness, and that you are the I AM in whom all kingdoms rise or fall. The moment you permit the inner sense of self to be governed by lack or fear, you create a substitute for reality. The cure is revision and feeling-it-real: assume you are the one king in the inner city, and declare, without doubt, that there is only one God in me; I am always in the temple of the I AM. When this inner alignment is felt as real, the external forms no longer tempt you, and the inner kingdom remains intact regardless of outward appearances.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Sit in silence and declare, I am the I AM; there is only one God in me. Feel the reality of that truth flooding your inner life until your outer circumstances reflect it.