Neville Goddard on 1 Samuel 4:21-22 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read 1 Samuel 4 in context

Scripture Focus

21And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.

22And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.

1 Samuel 4:21-22

Biblical Context

1 Samuel 4:21-22 records a lament where Ichabod is named, declaring that Israel's glory has departed because the ark was taken. It links the sense of divine absence to a symbol of God's presence.

Neville's Inner Vision

Ichabod serves as a symbol of a state of consciousness convinced that God's glory has vanished. The outer event, the ark being taken, mirrors how you may feel when you believe your inner sense of God is absent. The truth Neville teaches is that the Ark is not an external object but your own awareness. The glory does not depart; you have simply forgotten to attend to your inner state. By assuming the feeling of the wish fulfilled, you revise the memory of separation. Say, I AM the presence of God now, and imagine the Ark resting in the center of your chest, glowing with vitality. As you dwell in that assumption and feel it as real, your thoughts, feelings, and circumstances begin to align with the inner reality of wholeness. Let Ichabod be the old story of absence, and let the present I AM-state be your new identity. The "departure" becomes a misperception in your mind, easily corrected by conscious awareness of God within.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Sit in quiet awareness, place a hand over your chest, and feel the Ark—the inner presence of God—glowing there. Repeat, with feeling: 'The glory of God fills my being now' until the sense of departed glory dissolves.