Neville Goddard on Exodus 23:4-5 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Exodus 23 in context

Scripture Focus

4If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

5If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.

Exodus 23:4-5

Biblical Context

The passage instructs you to return your enemy’s animal and to help him bear his burden. It shows that mercy to others is a practical expression of righteousness.

Neville's Inner Vision

Exodus 23:4-5 speaks of meeting the enemy’s ox or ass in misfortune and returning it, then seeing the burdened animal and helping with him. In the inner map, this is not about cattle at all but about states of consciousness. The enemy is a part of myself I have named Other, a thought I mistakenly identify as separate from the I AM. The ox that strays represents a stray impulse and misdirected feeling; the burden is the distress my mind carries when I resist mercy. To return the animal is to acknowledge that all projections belong to the one consciousness, and to restore right order by the act of imagination. When I practice this, I am not performing charity toward another, but aligning my own awareness with the law of love: I see the other as a neighbor within me, and I soften the heart that would withhold help. The "you shall surely help" becomes a revision technique—feel, in the present moment, that the thought of harm is overruled by grace, and that I am already the agent of relief within the I AM. As this inner alignment holds, the world responds with mercy and generous turns, because I live from a united consciousness.

Practice This Now

Imaginative_act: Sit quietly, recall a dispute, and assume the state of the one who returns the burden to the foe with a willing hand. Feel the instant release in your awareness as you imagine you are helping, and carry that revised feeling into the next interaction.