Neville Goddard on Judges 2:11-17 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Judges 2 in context

Scripture Focus

11And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:

12And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.

13And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

14And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

15Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

16Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

17And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.

Judges 2:11-17

Biblical Context

Israel turns away from the LORD to idol worship, inviting hardship. Even when deliverance comes through judges, the old habits of following other gods persist.

Neville's Inner Vision

Judges 2:11-17 plays out as a parable of states within the soul. The children of Israel are not a people in time but a consciousness that forgets its Source. Baalim and Ashtaroth are the seductive pictures of desire that lure the mind away from the I AM. When you identify with these images, the LORD’s anger is the friction of your attention turning toward outcomes instead of the presence that underwrites them. You experience oppression because you have believed your outer conditions define you; you sell yourself into the hands of en-emies that spoil you. Yet the story is not final: the LORD raises up judges, symbolic renewals of consciousness, who deliver you as you awaken to a new pattern of awareness. The cycle ends only when you hearken to the inner authority, not the repeated receipts of sensation. The remedy is simple: return in imagination and feeling to the truth that I AM God in you, the governing presence that never left. By steadily keeping faith with that identity, you renew the covenant and find deliverance in the felt sense of your own wholeness.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Close your eyes and declare in the present tense that I AM governs this moment; revise the scene to show deliverance already accomplished. Feel the relief as the new covenant takes root in your consciousness.