Neville Goddard on Joshua 8:18-26 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Joshua 8 in context

Scripture Focus

18And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.

19And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire.

20And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

21And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai.

22And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

23And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

24And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword.

25And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

26For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

Joshua 8:18-26

Biblical Context

God directs Joshua to stretch the spear toward Ai. The ambush succeeds, the city is burned, and all the inhabitants of Ai are slain.

Neville's Inner Vision

To Joshua's act of stretching the spear, I say: you are the consciousness extending its attention to a problem. The city Ai is not a place out there but a state of mind you have believed you must endure. When Joshua does not withdraw his hand until the inhabitants are utterly destroyed, that is the insistence of awareness upon a fixed inner conclusion. The smoke rising and the pursuers turning back are the visible effects of a decision held fully in the I Am; outer chaos yields to the certainty of one who will not loosen the appointed posture. The king of Ai is brought alive by the living belief you choose to confront, and you render it powerless by refusing to release the frame of mind that sustains it. The whole sequence is not history but a discipline by which a new self emerges. See your difficulty as a city you can conquer by keeping your focus on the end-state you desire, imagining it until it is real in your present sense of self.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Sit in quiet stillness, extend the spear of your awareness toward the issue, and affirm, I Am governing this. Hold the vision until the old belief collapses and the new state feels inevitable.