Neville Goddard on Exodus 20:25 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Exodus 20 in context

Scripture Focus

25And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

Exodus 20:25

Biblical Context

Exodus 20:25 forbids building the altar with hewn stone. If you lift a tool upon it, you pollute the sacred space.

Neville's Inner Vision

Think of the verse as a meditation on the inner ground of being. The stone represents consciousness as it is—unshaped by ego’s hammer. The tool is mind’s effort: argument, technique, or the urge to control outcomes. Lift that tool upon the stone and you pollute the altar, for you have substituted force for stillness. Neville teaches that your reality is the state you inhabit; true worship arises when you do not try to manufacture it with external means. Hold to the I AM within, not to rites or devices. The inner temple remains pure when you stop trying to carve it with thought; your imagination then works as a revealer, not a creator of separate results. In this light, Exodus 20:25 becomes a practical reminder: purify your worship by relinquishing the habit of shaping inner reality with egoic tools. Return to the uncarved stone of your being and let the presence of God reside there as I AM, untouched by effort, fully alive in stillness.

Practice This Now

Practice: sit in quiet, envision an uncarved stone altar inside your chest. State 'I AM' and refuse to lift any tool upon it; rest in the feeling that the inner altar is pure and unaltered by effort.