Neville Goddard on Jonah 1:2-3 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Jonah 1 in context

Scripture Focus

2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

3But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah 1:2-3

Biblical Context

God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry out against its wickedness. Jonah flees toward Tarshish to escape the LORD's presence.

Neville's Inner Vision

In the inner reading, the call 'Arise, go to Nineveh' is the awakening of consciousness calling you to confront a pattern of thought you have deemed wicked. Nineveh is the inner city of your own beliefs—not a place, but a state you must enter with awareness. The 'presence of the LORD' represents the I AM, the constant awareness that you are, even now. Jonah's flight to Tarshish reveals the mind's habit of avoidance: a dream of distance that makes you think you can escape responsibility for your own creation. Tarshish, Joppa, the ship, are inner coordinates of imagination—moments in which you yield to distraction, paying the fare with attention you could have given to inner truth. The remedy is to reverse the scene: acknowledge that you are already where you need to be—in the presence of God within—and choose to respond rather than evade. When you feel drawn away, revise the scene by assuming, 'I am the one who awakens; I go where my inner call leads; I am present now.'

Practice This Now

Close your eyes and revise the scene: I am going to Nineveh within me, for I am the presence I seek. Feel the I AM awakening in your chest as you imagine stepping toward that inner city now.