Neville Goddard on Judges 18:17-21 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Judges 18 in context

Scripture Focus

17And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.

18And these went into Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye?

19And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?

20And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.

21So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them.

Judges 18:17-21

Biblical Context

Five men steal Micah’s idols and ephod, and a priest joins them; they depart with the carved image, ephod, teraphim, and their goods.

Neville's Inner Vision

Within the living temple of your mind, the five men are comrades of the twelve months of belief, going to spy out the land of your experiences. They carry away the graven image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image—the fixed symbols by which you once ruled your world. The priest at the gate with six hundred armed men is the image of your outer will, the gatekeeper who says, 'What do ye?' as if authority resides outside you. When the five invite the priest to join them, they ask him to be a father to a tribe, to serve a larger national identity rather than his small household of belief. The priest's heart is glad because the arrangement confirms his power and status, not his truth. In accepting, he walks in the midst of the people, taking their symbols with him. You may call this a moment when your allegiance to a wider system eclipses single-hearted worship. The remedy is not to destroy all structure, but to reframe the symbols in your imagination so that your loyalty returns to the one life, the I AM that you are.

Practice This Now

Imaginative_act: Assume the scene is revised: I am the I AM, gatekeeper of my inner Israel; dissolve the idols into light and stand as true priest of consciousness. Feel it real by repeating 'I AM' until the sense of separation vanishes.