Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Apple of His Eye”
3/19/65
Tonight’s subject is “The Apple of His Eye.” You will find this statement in only a dozen places in the Bible, all in the Old Testament. It first occurs in the Book of Deuteronomy, the 32nd chapter. There we read that “the Lord found Jacob in a desert, in a howling waste wilderness; he encircled him and cared for him, for he was the apple of his eye” (verse 10). Then we read in the Book of Psalms, the 17th Psalm, where the Psalmist David is asking that the Lord will make him the apple of his eye. That 17th Psalm ends with the statement that “when I awaken from sleep, I will be satisfied beholding thy form” (verse 15). He confesses that he’s asleep, but when he awakes from sleep he’ll be satisfied beholding the form of God. But he wants to be the apple of God’s eye. And then in Zechariah, we are told, “He who touches you touches the apple of God’s eye” (2:8).
Now when we open the Bible, bear in mind we are in the midst of mystery. You can’t take it on the surface, so what does it mean, this apple of God’s eye? Now, a mystery is not a matter to be kept secret but a profound truth that is mysterious in character. So, how to unravel it? Now you listen carefully for it will mean so much to you tonight in the most practical sense in the world. It’s profound and yet on the surface of Caesar it’s so practical on this level, and yet it goes right down to the very depths of the soul of man. The apple of his eye means “the pupil of the eye” therefore very precious. It’s called “the gate, the door, the baby of the eye.” In Hebrew it means, literally, “the little man, the little man of the eye.” Did you ever look into a certain person’s eye…or your own eye for that matter in the mirror… and see yourself reduced to a little tiny miniature? Only the blind would not have that experience. But everyone in this world at some time…the curious child…when I was a child and very, very curious, I would look into the mirror and see myself in a tiny little thing on the pupil of my eye. That’s called the baby of the eye, that’s the little man of the eye.
Now, when God sees you, bear in mind when God looks at you he’s only seeing himself. He doesn’t see the outside. He looks and sees through the door, through the gate, the baby, himself in miniature. Now he found Jacob, and he encircled Jacob, and took care of Jacob, and said of Jacob, “You are the apple of my eye.” Now, in the Book of Amos, the prophet asked the question, “How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” (7:2) and the Lord said, “I repent of this and it shall not be so.” Again the prophet asked, “How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” and again the Lord said, “I’ll repent of this; it shall not be so.”
So what does it mean for us, that the whole vast world was initiated by God? “He who began the good work in us, he brings it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). So he looks into us, and he can only see himself, and it’s so small, it’s so little he has to expand it and bring it through. Well, how does he expand it? Well, he expands it in a series of names. We’re asked the question, “Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you know!” (Prov. 30:4). Well, the name revealed first in the Old Testament is the name of power, El Shaddai; so the name revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is only power. So when he looks into the early stages of man, his name is power, almightiness. That’s how man reflects him; that’s how man sees God: sheer might.
And then he changes the name, and he looks into man and sees the name I AM. That comes with the exodus. When he’s leading man and leading man out of the land of Egypt, man sees a different kind of a God by the change of name. For God’s real self, his person is concentrated in his name. So the name changes all through scripture. Here we have the name now I AM; it leads us out. It brings us into a final revelation of the name. It’s also a character, also his purpose. So we are told, “In many ways God spoke of old to our fathers by his servants the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb. 1:1). That’s the last day.
One of his names was not only El Shaddai, which means God Almighty, it was El Olam, which is God the Everlasting One. Now we are told he took Olam and put it into the mind of man, as told us in the Book of Ecclesiastes (3:11). He took eternity, he took the everlasting state, and put it into the mind of man. It contains everything; therefore, it contains all of his names. It contains everything that could ever be in eternity. So we come to the final revelation of the great name and the final revelation is Father. So here, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). I didn’t know it. I thought of him as power, as might. I thought of him as the Eternal Being. And finally, in the very end of the journey, I know him; I know him by revelation, and I know him as Father. I know him as Father only by reason of the Son [David] who revealed to me the fatherhood of God.
Now, just as God looks into my being and sees only himself and whatever he has assumed as name at the time that he sees me, that is all that I can reflect. So, on this level I look into your face and I only see in you what you are going to see in me. So I assume a name, a nature. I assume that I am healthy or I am wealthy or that I am known or I am…I name anything…and then I look right into your face and your face should reflect what I am assuming that I am. Just as God looks into man and man can only reflect that name that God is assuming at the moment that he beholds man. For he is unfolding his name in man, gradually, up to the very end, and the final is God the Father.
So, here on this level, look into the face of your employer and you want to fill a higher job in the organization? Well, let him see in you the man who is qualified for that job, for he can only reflect what you are assuming that you are. And so, you look right into the face…it would be like looking into the eye and seeing yourself. For all that you see when you look into the eye of man, if you ever saw it, is simply yourself. Then you expand it to greater and greater and great dimensions. So looking into the face of another—assuming first that you are this, that or whatever you want to be—-you then allow that face to express by whatever it does confirmation of what you are assuming that you are.
So God looks into man’s eye and man is the apple of his eye. On a certain level, God is infinite power, El Shaddai, and that’s what man believes God to be. Then he looks on another level and God is I AM that I AM; that’s what man believes God to be. He goes through all these stages and finally comes to the very end. Now, I could tell you from now ‘til the ends of time that God is a father, but I can’t persuade you to the degree that you will be persuaded when you have the experience. You will have the experience of the fatherhood of God. Then and only then will you really know how true the gospel is. He said, “I know my Father and you know not your God; for my Father is he whom you call God.” That’s the 8th chapter of the Book of John. Then in the 10th chapter of John, he said, “I and my Father are one” (verse 30).
And they took up stones to stone him, for they knew his background. He’s claiming that God, the Infinite Being, is one with himself. He’s claiming that he’s God. And, of course, they know his limited birth, his limited world, and so it’s the height of insanity. So they’ll take up stones—-the stone being the literal facts of life they’re going to present to him—-because they can name his father, his mother, his brothers, his sisters, and remind him of the limited background into which he came into this world, and this bold claim is the height of insanity. So he asks them, “For what work are you going to stone me, what good work?” and they answer, “For no good work but for blasphemy; for you being a man, you make yourself God” (John 10:33). And then those who were with him in the most intimate circle, they said to him, “Show us the Father” (John 14:8). You have been talking about the Father and you have promised us that hereafter you will not speak anymore in metaphors but speak plainly of the Father. Show us the Father.” And he said to them, “He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”…for they didn’t understand (John 14:9). And I doubt that anyone would fully understand. You can grasp it intellectually, but you don’t fully grasp it until it happens to you. There is only God in this world. There’s nothing but God. God became as we are that we may be as he is. God achieves his limitless designs by self-limitation, so the incarnation is the limitation of God. Then he looks upon himself and reflects from within man that assumption of himself; and he goes through a series of characters, called “his name,” which really represent God. And the final is Father…that’s the last.
Now, he put into me, as he put into you, into every being in this world, he put eternity into the mind of man. As we are told in the 3rd chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes: “God has put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (verse 11). Only in the very end is it revealed. Well, the word Olam is the word translated “eternity”; and the word Olam is translated in the Book of Samuel as “a youth, a stripling, a young man.” So, in the beginning he put into the mind of man a youth, and no one knows who that youth is. You and I have been taught to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Every priest in the world, every minister, everyone who believes in Christianity will tell you that is what they were taught. I will tell you from experience that is not true. Jesus Christ is God the Father and the Son that reveals him as God the Father is David. Whether you believe it or not, I am not speculating, I am speaking from experience.
So here, Olam is put into the mind of man. Now listen to the words taken from the Book of Samuel. A promise is made that anyone who overcomes the enemy of Israel his father will be set free in Israel. When David brings down Goliath (he’s the enemy), the king said, “Who is the young man?” He said, “Abner, inquire who is that young man?” Abner said, “As your soul liveth, O king, I do not know.” He said, “Inquire who the stripling is.” No one knows. So they bring him before the king, he said, “Tell me, whose son are you, young man?” (1 Sam. 17:56). Now the word stripling, the word youth, the word young man, are the translations of the Hebrew Olam, the same word Olam which is what God put into the mind of man in the very beginning, but in such a way that man could not find it out until the very end of time, the end of the journey. So, he put his Son…“Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee,” the 2nd Psalm, the 7th verse, and, “I will find David and David will cry unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation,’” the 89th Psalm (verse 26). So at the very end of a man’s journey there’s an explosion in his being, and standing before him is Olam, David, and David calls him “Father.” And he knows that David is his son, and David knows that he is his father.
Well, who are you?—“I AM.” So this is my name forever, for all generations. But I will change, not my name, I will add to my name as to character, and I will become a father. I still am I AM, so this is my name forever, for all generations, “I AM that I AM.” But I will add now and reveal my purpose and reveal my true being in a series of experiences. My final revelation is: I’m going to reveal myself as a father. So to everyone, everyone is revealed as God the Father. There’s only God. Well, if there is God and God is a father, there must be a son. The only son is David. So the son stands before you and calls you “Father” and you know he’s your son, he knows you are his father. So you see the universal fatherhood of man and the universal brotherhood of man after you’ve had the experience.
So here, “He is the apple of my eye.” You are the apple of God’s eye. Now, where you stand this day in the unfolding picture I do not know. I do not believe that you would be here-—and many of you who are here as often as you are—were you not at the very end. But that’s only speculation on my part, I do not know. There’s no way of looking at you physically and telling to what degree you have moved. I only know that God is playing all the parts. He looks into you, and these are the words, “We love him, because he first loved us.” That is the 1st Epistle of John, the 4th chapter. “We love him, because he first loved us” (verse 19). Therefore, we only reflect what God is doing in us. We are his image, and yet we are one with the being that is doing it.
He limits himself to expand himself. So he becomes as I am and then looking upon me he sees the “little man.” The “little man” is only a miniature of himself. “But how can Jacob stand? He is so small!” “But I repent of this…it shall not be so.” And again, “How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” Well, Jacob is his love. He found him in the desert, he found him in the howling wilderness, and encircled him. Having encircled him, he took care of him, and said, “He is the apple of my eye.” So you are this Jacob spoken of, and he’s looking right into you, and he can see no one but himself. But he sees himself based upon what he’s assumed as he looks. So if he assumed El Shaddai, God Almighty, that’s how you see God to be…just power, sheer power. Then he assumes “I AM.” And you catch on, “Is this really what God is?” and you begin to feel, “I AM, that’s he.” You’re getting nearer. Then he takes you through all the paces until the very end.
And you didn’t dream you were a father. You had no concept that you were God the Father until God’s only begotten Son stands before you and calls you “Father.” That’s the final revelation. “So in many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers through his servants the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us through a Son” (Heb. 1:1). So it takes a son…that’s the last day…and the son is David. And may I tell you, he is your son, he’s our son, he is the world’s son; therefore, if he is the son of all of us, you and I are one. I can’t be the father of your son and not be one with you. But only revelation could do it. Revelation is the principle source of religious insight. Revelation makes us sure. Without it, it’s all obscure. I can talk about it, rationalize it, reason about it, but it doesn’t quite hit home until it happens. When it happens I know and there’s no doubt in my mind.
So, “What is his name and what is his son’s name? Surely you know!” (Prov. 30:4). May I tell you, the whole history of humanity is little else than this eternal wrestling with this eternal riddle. If man could only find out the name. Well, he finds out the name in parts. At first, he sees him in the thunder, in the lightning, in all the earthquakes, in all the convulsions of nature. Sheer power! And he’s frightened. And then how long? When he’s about to make his exodus from the vast world of horror, it’s revealed as I AM. And he feels more secure…people don’t frighten him any more. He says, I am healthy or I am wealthy or I am this. He doesn’t know how to use it, but he will try, he’ll experiment. And he will do much by the use of the name I AM. That’s the marvelous revelation: It’s forever I AM. And then, as he begins to apply it he proves it. But he doesn’t know the final revelation until the Son comes, for “No one knows who the Father is except the Son. No one knows who the Son is except the Father” (Mat. 11:27).
So the Son comes and, may I tell you, it’s a moment, well, I would use the word dread. Because, all revelation comes so suddenly—-they are unannounced—-and when they happen it’s the sense of dread, because you didn’t expect it. And suddenly a vibration that you don’t understand, you’ve never had it before, and suddenly you’re exploding, and then these things begin to unfold within you. Because the Father, who has been looking at you as the apple of his eye, took the little baby of the eye and then began to expand it to make it just like himself. He couldn’t leave it that little tiny miniature in the eye of you, he’s looking right into you, and so he expands it. As he expands it he changes his nature relative to you, and he changes his name relative to you. And it’s an expansion of the little one; for, literally, the Hebrew word actually means “the little man in the eye.” And so, he looks into you and he’s seeing only himself as he begins to expand.
So that’s what Blake meant in the beginning of his poem. He started it with an explanation about “Expand! I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine.” Only one being, “I am in you and you in me, mutual in love divine. Expand!” He explodes it, and so the little one, the little baby in the eye begins to expand. As it expands, God, who’s beholding only himself, has to change his nature relative to what is expanding. So from sheer might it moves into simply being, and finally culminates in God the Father, who is infinite love, nothing but love. And the horrors that man in this expansion goes through until he reaches the point of being God the Father! So in the end, there is nothing but God the Father, and you are he.
But, may I tell you, on this level it is the most practical approach. You think of someone now in your mind’s eye. Well, now put on his face an expression which implies he sees in you what you are assuming that you are. Well, if you look into his eye, physically, that’s the man you would see. Smile and look in a man’s eye and you’ll see yourself smiling. Begin to cry and look into a man’s eye and in that pupil you will see a man crying. Well, what man?—yourself in miniature form. Change your mood, and look into the same eye and you’ll see yourself changed. So every change in you is reflected in the pupil of the one who reflects it. So now take a man, bring him into your mind’s eye and see him as you would like him to see you. Let him see you as you would like to be seen by the world. Now, you see it; believe in the reality of what you see. And in a way that no one knows this unseen reality will come to the surface and be projected on the screen of space, and you will confront yourself as that being. That’s how we grow in this world. It’s only God. We learn from the great secret as revealed in scripture that is how he did it.
So I found Jacob. Now the word Jacob means “supplanter.” When he wrestles with him all through the night, he changes his name to Israel. Every time there is a radical change of character in scripture the name is changed. It was Abram and he changed it to Abraham. There was Jacob and he changed it to Israel. There was Saul and he changed it to Paul. These are radical changes of the name as reflected in the apple of his eye. So the simple little statement: “I found Jacob…I have encircled him, and I took care of him, for he is the apple of my eye. And anyone who touches him touches the apple of my eye.” So anyone who touches you touches the apple of God’s eye. God is looking into you and all that God can see in you is himself. He can’t see anyone but himself.
But on a certain level, God to you is infinite power, and you’re frightened by it. You can only see God as power-—not a loving power, sheer power—-because that’s what God is seeing in you as himself as he begins to expand you. As he expands you and gets you to the very limit, he is God the Father. Then God the Father explodes within you; and being a father there must be a son, and the son appears instantly. He’s this heavenly youth as described in the Book of Samuel. You’ve never seen such beauty! There’s no one that I’ve ever seen on earth, no piece of sculpture, no painting comparable to the David that came into my world. And he only bore witness to being that I am. What was he telling me…for he’s God’s son? He was telling me, you are God the Father. That’s what he was telling me.
So I could say with the writer of the 10th chapter of the Book of John, “He who sees me sees the Father. How could you ask me to show you the Father? Have I been so long with you and you do not know the Father? He who sees me sees the Father.” Well, in Greek the word “see” and “know” are one. To see is to know. To grasp it in your mind’s eye is to see it clearly. Haven’t you said, “Oh, I see that”? Someone tells you something and all of a sudden…they haven’t shown it to you in a visible form but they have told it to you in words, and then you say, “I see that. I can see that.” Well, that’s the same meaning in Greek; to see and to know are one. So he sees it clearly with his mind’s eye. But then, the day will come and you will be unveiled, and then he actually sees it as something objective to himself.
So here, the name of God is really the unfolding thing in the mind of man. He has put everything in the mind of man, which is himself, because he first became, and then he’s reflecting himself. God became as I am that I may be as he is. So when you see it clearly in your mind’s eye and you wait patiently for the revelation, you can forgive every being in this world. For the majority of the people in the world think they are acquiring merit…they’re going to earn the kingdom of God by merit…well, they’ll wait forever because you don’t earn it. It’s simply God working in you, expanding you. As told us in Philippians, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (1:6). Jesus Christ is the very end…when he realizes he is God the Father.
Now the world will think that’s false teaching, but I am not speculating. I haven’t heard one word that I have said to you this night from any human lip. I wasn’t taught it; it was revealed to me. As I stand before you, this whole thing is revelation; it is not of human composition. I didn’t sit down to work out some workable philosophy of life…as ninety-nine, ninety-nine percent of the isms of the world are simply human composition: This is what God ought to have done, so this is now what we must do. People have no furs, you cannot eat meat, cannot drink liquor, they will not smoke, they will (if they can do it) refrain from sex, and this is what God ought to have done, so this is now what we must do. And they say they’ve had a revelation. All of this is false prophecy. Hasn’t a thing to do with reality.
You want to hear God’s word? Read the Bible, from beginning to end. Read the sixty-six books…that’s his revealed word. We are warned, “Do not add to his word or take from it, lest you be found a liar and be reproved” (Prov. 30:6). But man is always trying to change the word of God. In this morning’s paper, you might have read it—I’ve been reading them every day—the Pope’s confessions. He started when he was eighteen. Today is a confession when he was Pope for four years. He was then past his eightieth birthday. Now what Catholic would understand this? These are the Pope’s words. I know my family of the Catholics—-and we’re half and half as I have told you—-not one member of my Catholic family—-that’s also true of my Protestant family—-would understand this. And this is what the Pope said this morning. First of all, he knows he’s the vicar of Christ, he said, “I am the brother of Jesus Christ by adoption and like the son of Mary.” That’s in this morning’s Times. If you have it and haven’t thrown it out, read it when you go home. “I am the brother of Jesus Christ by adoption and like him the son of Mary.”
Well, if you told that to my sisters-in-law who are Catholic and you didn’t first preface it by saying the Pope said this, she’d slap you in the face; that to her would be blasphemy. So to say to anyone who called themselves good Christians that I and my Father are one, with this difference, I know my Father and my Father is he whom you call God; but you do not know your God. Well, who is your God?—-I AM. Wouldn’t they slap you for that? I’m not saying Neville is; I said I AM. Because, when you see the Son, who is seeing him?—-I am seeing him. And whose son is he?—he is God’s Son. Well, is he your son?—yes, it’s my son. I am looking at my son. Isn’t that God? And that’s how it happens. It comes to all of us in the same manner. So the son appears and calls you “God,” calls you “Father,” the Rock of his salvation. Then you stand before God’s only begotten son as told us in 2nd Psalm (verse 7).
Now, possibly the most profound book of the Bible…were it not John—-I think John is, but scholars believe it’s Hebrews—-but I like John, because I love all of it. But after Hebrews, the unknown author makes the statement that “in the last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (1:1). Now he goes right on and makes the statement, “To what angel did he ever say, ‘Thou art my Son, today I begotten thee?’” quoting from the same 2nd Psalm. The next verse is this, “Or to what angel did he say, ‘I will be to you a father and you shall be to me a son’”?—-quoting the 2nd Psalm, the 7th chapter, that 14th verse (Heb.1:5). He’s only quoting the same thing concerning David, for these words on both occasions are addressed to David. The 2nd Psalm is David’s psalm, “And the Lord said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.’”
Now, the prophet comes and tells David that this is what the Lord said to him: “Go to my servant David and say unto him, ‘When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your son after you, who shall come forth from your body. I will be his father, and he shall be my son’” (verse 12). He brings right out of you…and you are the being he’s bringing out. For in you Olam is buried, and Olam is the youth. Olam is the one questioned by the king, “Whose son are you, young man?” What did he answer? “I am the son of your servant Jesse” (1 Sam. 17:56,58). Jesse is I AM. So it’s all self-begotten being. There is nothing but God in the world.
So God became as we are that we may be as he is. And his ultimate revelation in this world is God the Father. So the heart of God is the heart of a father, and if he’s a father, there must be a son. So in the end of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, “A son honors his father. If then I am a father, where is my honor?” (1:6). You turn the page over and you come right in to the fulfillment of it in the New Testament. So he’s asking the question in the very last book, the 39th book, “A son honors his father. If then I am a father, where is my honor, where is my son?” And you go right into the fulfillment of all the promises: “So all the promises of God find their yes in him” (2 Cor. 1:20). And so everything said of Jesus Christ you are going to experience, everything from the beginning to the end. That’s the unveiling and fulfillment of God’s promise, God’s plan in this world.
So when you go home, you read it and see who you really are. You’re the apple of God’s eye. Bear in mind, in Hebrew that little word apple means, literally, “the little man of the eye.” Just as you look into a friend’s face and look right into his pupil and see yourself in miniature, that’s what God saw when he looked at you, he saw himself. He’s going to make you in his image, but he has to take you through everything. He is power, infinite power; takes you through that first, El Shaddai. Then he takes you through every one, Elohim, the Elohim, Adonay, ___(??), all of these are names of God. And he brings you up to the very end: his last name is Father. When you come to the very last name of Father, he has to reveal it. You just can’t say “Father”…am I a father of a dead child? No! This is the God of the living, not the dead. So where is my son? If I am a father, then bring me my son, for I am the God of the living. Then he brings the son and here is David of biblical fame. And you realize that David is not what the world believes David to have been at all. His mission is spiritual. Here is eternal David buried in the mind of every child born of woman. But he has to go through all of the furnaces, as God looking into the apple of his eye expands it and expands it and expands it until finally he reaches the form of God…can’t leave him that little tiny thing. So the prophet must one day stop asking, “How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” And then God repents. Well, the word repent in Hebrew and in Greek really means “a radical change of attitude.” I will change my attitude radically as I now look into the same eye. Changing my attitude of mind, looking at the same eye, I see myself differently. And so I change it. I change it and my Jacob begins to expand towards my image. Then, finally, he reaches the infinite degree that I am, and therefore David appears. David bears witness of my fatherhood and he is my eternal son.
Now let us go into the Silence.