Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Apple of His Eye”

25 Apr 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.