Neville Goddard on Ezekiel 28:16-18 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Ezekiel 28 in context

Scripture Focus

16By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

17Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

18Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

Ezekiel 28:16-18

Biblical Context

Plainly, the passage depicts a high being whose pride and wealth-minded conduct defile sacred space, leading to judgment and a fiery downfall. He is cast out from the mountain of God and reduced to ashes, exposed before rulers.

Neville's Inner Vision

Within Ezekiel’s vision, the 'covering cherub' is not a distant creature but a symbol of a self-image enthroned in beauty and power. The 'multitude of thy merchandise' and the 'stones of fire' reveal how thoughts organized around appetite and dazzling brightness become the inner theatre where violence is brewed. As long as the I AM—your awareness—identifies with this bright image, wisdom is corrupted by its own radiance; you mistake sensation for truth. The cast-out from the mountain of God is a turning back into your own inner kingdom, a shift from exalted self-image to clear consciousness where others appear as kings in your life. The fire that issues from within you is the energy by which you either burn away the old self or are burned by it; in Neville’s terms, holiness is a state of consciousness, not a place to be earned. When you no longer worship beauty as power and withdraw the traffic of self-glorification, the inner sanctuaries cease to be defiled, and the ashes of the elder self yield to the light of I AM.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Close your eyes and revise your self-image to the I AM as sovereign of your inner kingdom; breathe deeply and feel the reclaiming fire burn away pride and defilement, revealing the ashes as starting points for new light.