Neville Goddard on Job 1:6-19 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Job 1 in context

Scripture Focus

6Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

7And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

8And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

9Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?

10Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

11But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

12And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

13And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

14And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:

15And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

16While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

17While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

18While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

19And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Job 1:6-19

Biblical Context

Job 1:6-19 presents a heavenly council where Satan challenges Job, and God allows suffering to test him; outward losses reveal the inner state of trust and the capacity to endure.

Neville's Inner Vision

Job is a state of consciousness that stands upright, aware that good and evil are movements within awareness, not power over it. The hedge about him, about his house, about all that he hath, is the sense of boundary you grant to your thoughts—what you will keep intact by attention and belief. The disasters that report themselves as accidents—the loss of cattle, the burning of sheep, the wind that topples a house—are merely inner movements of belief arising in your mind when you identify with the changing phenomena rather than with the I AM that underlies them. When the report comes, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, know that you are being shown the edge of your own identification. The answer is not to argue with the appearances, but to revise the assumption—from I am at the mercy of external events to I am the awareness that orders events. In the end Job’s integrity remains, because the one reality is consciousness and its imagined images.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Sit in stillness and revise your belief about control by picturing a hedge of awareness around you; feel I am the I AM, untouched by outer appearances.