Neville Goddard on Deuteronomy 9:7-29 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Deuteronomy 9 in context

Scripture Focus

7Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.

8Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.

9When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

10And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

11And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

12And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

13Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

14Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

15So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

16And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.

17And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.

18And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

20And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

21And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

22And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.

23Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.

24Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

25Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

26I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:

28Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.

29Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.

Deuteronomy 9:7-29

Biblical Context

Moses recounts Israel's rebellion from Egypt, the giving of the tablets, and his intercession for mercy; despite a stiff-necked people, God preserves the inheritance.

Neville's Inner Vision

Within you, the wilderness of Deuteronomy 9 is your interior landscape. The rebellion Moses laments is your habit of forgetting the I AM, turning away from the flame of awareness. The molten calf is any image you fashion from fear—an idol that diverts you from the direct experience of God as your own I AM. The two tables of stone represent the living commandments written on your consciousness—the truth you know in the fire of awareness and the covenant you keep in the quiet of your mount. When Moses descends, carrying the broken tablets, he shows how your attention can shatter externalized forms when you truly observe your own thoughts. Your prayers for the people mirror your desire to spare yourself from destruction by belief in separation; yet the mercy of God is ever at hand, extending your inheritance by grace, not by effort. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob become your threefold memory of your enduring nature. The culmination is the inner act: you fall to your heart’s cry for mercy, you speak to the I AM, and you rise with the tablets intact, renewed by your steadfastness.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Close your eyes and picture the two stone tablets in your hands, then revise any image of lack by saying: "I AM is my source; this moment I am kept in covenant." Feel it real by dwelling in that assurance for a moment.