“So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” — Matthew 20:16
At first glance, this statement from Jesus sounds like poetic justice—divine favour for the underdog. But look deeper, and you’ll see something more exact, more mysterious: a spiritual law governing manifestation.
It’s not about injustice being righted.
It’s about Your I AM's creative order stated in Genesis 2:24, where the visible yields to the invisible, the elder serves the younger, and the end is assumed before the beginning.
This is what Neville Goddard called “living in the end.”
And the Bible is full of it.
Divine Reversal Is Divine Order
Throughout Scripture, one pattern repeats itself:
Leah and Rachel
Adam and Jesus
In every pair, the second rises above the first—not to punish the first, but to fulfil the promise.
This is not mere reversal—it is evolution.
It shows that manifestation is not chronological.
It’s imaginal.
The world sees what comes first.
God honours what comes from within.
Laban: The Old Pattern Trying to Force the Old Order
Laban, the father of Leah and Rachel, symbolises the old pattern—the stubborn external order that attempts to control and impose itself on manifestation.
And Laban said, In our country we do not let the younger daughter be married before the older. - Gen 29:26-26
When Jacob desires to marry Rachel, Laban deceives him by giving him Leah, the older daughter, first.
This is a powerful spiritual metaphor:
Laban is the resistance of the old order, trying to force the first-born pattern before the new can emerge.
Jacob represents the reader learning to assume the end.
Leah represents the stage where attention is still caught in old patterns.
Jacob realises this imposition is a block to his promise.
So, he decides to move away—to break free from Laban’s old pattern and control.
Only after serving seven more years is Jacob finally able to receive Rachel, the beloved younger daughter, symbolising the new imaginal promise.
This shows the spiritual law that the old order must be recognised and decisively left behind before the new can be fully embraced.
Jacob’s departure is an act of breaking free from the imposed old way and choosing the new pattern—living in the end rather than being bound by appearances.
Jacob and Esau: What the Law of Assumption Teaches
Esau is born first—rugged, physical, earthy.
Jacob follows—quiet, inner, imaginal.
Esau represents the reader before they have learned to direct attention—focused on the visible, the immediate senses.
Jacob represents the reader who has begun to understand the law of assumption—persistent in imagination, aware of the invisible.
This is not preference.
It’s process.
Your imagination must overtake your senses if you are to manifest your promise.
What is seen (Esau) must yield to what is assumed (Jacob).
This is living in the end.
Manasseh and Ephraim: Fruitfulness Comes Before Forgetting
When Joseph brings his sons to his Father for a blessing, he places Manasseh—the firstborn—at Israel’s right hand.
But Israel crosses his hands.
“I know, my son, I know… but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he.” (Genesis 48:19)
Manasseh means “forgetting.”
Ephraim means “fruitfulness.”
Manasseh represents the stage of the reader focused on clearing the past.
Ephraim represents the stage of assuming and living the desired state before the past is forgotten.
Neville put it plainly:
“Dare to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled.”
The forgetting follows the fruit.
The release follows the assumption.
The healing follows the wholeness you dare to live now.
Benjamin and Joseph: The Beloved of the End
Joseph is a dreamer. A forerunner. The imaginative man thrown into a pit but destined to rule.
But his beloved is Benjamin, the youngest.
The one born last.
The one who nearly kills Rachel, Joseph’s spiritual counterpart, preceding David in formation.
Because Benjamin represents the new birth—the last thing to appear, but the first in affection and meaning.
He symbolises the thing you treasure most:
- The final result
- The desired state
- The completion
He is the child of sorrow who becomes the child of the right hand.
What appears last is what your soul loves most.
This is the blessing of living in the end: You treasure the thing not yet seen, because you already hold it imaginatively.
Saul and David: The Law of Assumption in Action
Saul, as an evolution of Cain, represents the reader caught in old habits, old thinking, and resistance to imagination.
David represents the stage where the reader assumes victory, loves fully, and persists in faith.
“And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul.” (1 Samuel 18:3)
The world may see Saul as king first.
But the one who assumes the promise (David) will inherit the kingdom.
This shows the law of assumption: You must persist in imagining the desired outcome before the world recognises it.
Adam and Jesus: The First and Last
Adam represents the reader in their initial, unformed state—before imagination is fully recognised.
Jesus represents the reader who has assumed the end and lives it fully, regardless of external appearances.
“the firstborn of every creature… the last Adam… a life-giving spirit.”
The world says, “prove it, and then we’ll believe.”
Jesus says, “believe, and it will be.”
His ministry models living in the end:
- Feeding the five thousand with thanksgiving before the bread multiplies.
- Calling Lazarus out before the stone is moved.
- Saying “It is finished” before the world saw what He finished.
Neville’s Law: Assume the End, Reverse the Order
Neville didn’t invent this.
He interpreted it. He remembered it.
He showed us that what the Bible portrays symbolically, we are meant to live literally—within.
To live in the end is to:
- Bless Ephraim before Manasseh
- Believe Jacob over Esau
- See Benjamin as the beloved
- And walk as your chosen self (Christ) before the world ever knows your name
“To be transformed, the whole basis of your thought must change. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled and continue feeling that it is fulfilled until that which you feel objectifies itself.” — Neville Goddard