Inner Flight and Divine Governance

Neville's Inner Vision

These verses describe a people who, driven by fear of the Chaldeans after Gedaliah’s murder, depart their land and seek refuge in Egypt. In Neville's terms, the outward departure is a flight of consciousness—from trust in the I AM to dependence on external powers. The dwelling in Chimham by Bethlehem marks a temporary shelter, a state of mind clinging to past nourishment while ignoring the deeper inner governor. The killing of Gedaliah by Ishmael stands for a traumatic memory that authority has fallen from within; therefore the mind yields to fear and seeks a foreign land. The Babylonian governor imagery reveals the error of thinking power resides outside. But the passage also contains a corrective: the inner man can revise the scene by returning to the I AM, affirming that you are the governor of your life, and that divine protection is ever-present. When you imagine yourself as the one who governs from within, your outward steps align with that state, and exile yields to an inner exile’s return—the kingdom within.