8918. 'And stood afar off' means remoteness from internal things. This is clear from the meaning of 'standing a long way off' as existing remotely, in this instance remotely from internal things, since it was Mount Sinai - by which heaven and the Divine there is meant, 8805 - that they stood away from. Whether you say remotely from the Divine, or from heaven, or from internal things, it amounts to the same thing, since heaven consists in internal things. For inwardly a person resides in the light of heaven, and outwardly in the light of the world; or what amounts to the same thing, a person's soul or spirit resides in heaven, but his body in the world. Heaven is nearer the Divine than the world is, because there the Lord's Divine is what reigns and is the All in all.

Before any further consideration is given to the meaning of 'afar off', it should be recognized that 'afar off' in the spiritual sense has no regard to spatial distance but to the Divine, and so to goodness and truth. Distance from actual goodness that emanates from the Divine produces appearances of spatial distances in heaven. Angelic communities appear distinct and separate there, indeed at a distance from one another; but this notion of space between them comes about as a result of their distance from goodness and truth which emanate, as has been stated, from the Lord's Divine. This is bound to seem incomprehensible, indeed as something absurd, to many in the world. The reason for this is that a person's thoughts and ideas are based on spatial distances and lengths of time, so much so that a person cannot engage in thought without them. Consequently if you take away lengths of time and spatial distances from a person's thought he can grasp scarcely anything. Yet the thinking of angels in heaven is altogether free from anything temporal or spatial, so completely that their thoughts are a thousand times, indeed ten thousand times superior in intelligence and wisdom to man's thoughts. And what is astounding, if with them an idea of a temporal or spatial origin intrudes, shadow and thick darkness immediately overtakes their minds, because they then fall from the superior light of heaven into the inferior light of the natural order, which to them is thick darkness.

[2] The fact that there are no spatial distances or periods of time in the next life, but states instead, or that appearances of them exist as a result of variations of state in respect of goodness and truth, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 3404, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381. From this one may now see what 'standing afar off' means in the spiritual sense, namely remoteness from heaven where the Divine is, at this point remoteness from internal things, because as stated above, that nation which stood at that time a long way off from Mount Sinai was most remote from internal things. They were interested solely in outward things, and considered worship of God to consist wholly in them. That nation was also allowed to do this because they were then able to represent heavenly and Divine realities; for in order that these may be represented an outward form is necessary, and this may exist devoid of anything internal, 3147, 3670, 4208, 4281, 4288, 4307, 8588.

[3] 'Afar off' means remote from goodness and truth that come from the Lord, and so remote from internal things, in the following places as well: In Luke,

The rich man in hell lifting up his eyes saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Abraham said to him, Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass across from here to you cannot, nor can those who are there pass across to us. Luke 16:23, 25, 26.

'Abraham' here is not used to mean Abraham, for he is not known in heaven, but in the highest sense to mean the Lord, and in the relative sense to mean those in heaven who are governed by the good of love to and faith in the Lord, 1834, 1876, 1965, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3305 (end), 6098, 6185, 6276, 6804. Those in hell are said 'to see afar off' those in heaven because they are in a state extremely remote from goodness and truth. 'A great gulf' between them is the actual remoteness from good, which also produces the appearance of a gulf lying in between.

[4] Those who whenever they think rely on spatial ideas, as all people in the world do, inevitably envisage hell, and also heaven, to be a place far away from a person. But the truth of the matter is that hell and heaven are near a person; indeed they are in a person, hell being in a bad person, heaven in a good person. Everyone after death also enters that hell or that heaven he was in when in the world. But after death a change of state takes place, in that the hell which was not recognized in the world becomes recognizable, and the heaven which too was not recognized in the world becomes recognizable, the heaven being full of all happiness, and the hell of all unhappiness. The truth that heaven is within us is what the Lord teaches in Luke,

The kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.

In Isaiah,

They are coming from a land far away, from the end of heaven. Isaiah 13:5; Jeremiah 5:15.

In Isaiah,

Hear, you that are afar off what I have done; and know, you that are near, My strength. Isaiah 33:13.

In the same prophet,

I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Do not withhold. Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth. Bring forth the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. Isaiah 43:6, 8; 49:12.

In the same prophet,

Listen to Me, O islands, and hearken, O peoples from afar. Isaiah 49:1; Jeremiah 31:10.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of My people from a land far away, Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her king in her? Jeremiah 8:19.

In the same prophet,

O Jehovah, You have planted them, and they have also taken root. You are near in their mouth but far away from their heart. ¹ Jeremiah 12:2.

In the same prophet, I am a God near at hand, and not a God afar off. Jeremiah 23:23.

In all these places 'afar off' means remote from good.

Footnotes:

4288. These same verses which have been explained so far also have regard to the Jewish and Israelitish nation which is called 'Jacob' in the Word, as stated and shown above in 4279. In the sense which is being called the internal historical the words 'Let me go, for the dawn is coming up' mean that the genuine representative role would depart from the descendants of Jacob before they entered into the representatives connected with the land of Canaan. The nature of that nation has been shown above, namely that among them no internal worship existed, only external worship; that is to say, they had become cut off from the heavenly marriage, and therefore no Church could be established among that nation, only that which was a representative of the Church, see 4281.

[2] But one must know what a representative Church is and what a representative of the Church is. A representative Church exists when internal worship is present within external, but a representative of the Church when no internal worship exists even though external does so. In both cases they observe very similar external practices, that is to say, they follow similar ordinances, laws, and commands. But in the representative Church external things correspond to internal so that they make one, whereas in a representative of the Church that correspondence does not exist because external things are either devoid of internal or else at variance with them. In the representative Church celestial and spiritual love is supreme, but in a representative of the Church bodily and worldly love is supreme. Celestial and spiritual love constitutes the internal itself, but when no celestial or spiritual love exists, only bodily and worldly, that which is external devoid of what is internal exists. The Ancient Church which existed after the Flood was a representative Church, but that which was established among the descendants of Jacob was merely a representative of the Church. But to make the difference between the two quite plain, let it be illustrated by examples.

[3] In the representative Church Divine worship took place on mountains because 'mountains' meant celestial love, and in the highest sense the Lord, 795, 1430, 2722, 4210; and when they held worship on mountains they were in their own holy place because they were at the same time abiding in celestial love. In the representative Church Divine worship also took place in groves because 'groves' meant spiritual love, and in the highest sense the Lord in regard to that love, 2722; and when they held worship in groves they were in their own holy place because they were at the same time abiding in spiritual love. When they held Divine worship in the representative Church they used to turn their faces towards the rising of the sun because 'the rising sun' too meant celestial love, 101, 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643. And when they looked up at the moon they were again filled with holy reverence because 'the moon' meant spiritual love, 1529-1531, 2495, 4060. And the same applied when they looked up at the starry sky because this meant the angelic heaven or the Lord's kingdom. In the representative Church they had tents or tabernacles in which they held Divine worship, and this was holy worship because 'tents' or 'tabernacles' means the holiness of love and of worship, 414, 1102, 2145, 2152, 3312. And countless other examples could be mentioned.

[4] In the representative of the Church Divine worship did indeed take place at first on mountains and also in groves. The practice also existed then of turning to face the rising of the sun, as well as that of beholding the moon and the stars. There was likewise worship in tents or tabernacles. But because their external worship was devoid of internal - that is, they were governed by bodily and worldly love and not by celestial and spiritual, and so worshipped the actual mountains or groves, and also the sun, moon, and stars, as well as their tents or tabernacles - those practices, which had been holy in the Ancient Church, were now made idolatrous by those belonging to a representative of the Church. They were therefore restricted to the same place and practices for them all, that is to say, to the mountain on which Jerusalem and at length Zion stood, where from the temple they beheld the rising of the sun, and also to one tent for them all, called the tent of meeting, and ultimately to the ark in the temple. They were restricted to these things to the end that a representative of the Church might come into being when they practiced what was outwardly holy. Otherwise they would have rendered holy things unholy.

[5] From these examples one may see what the difference is between a representative Church and a representative of the Church. In general, one may see that members of the representative Church communicated with the three heavens, and that they did so in things of an interior kind, for which external ones could serve as the foundation on which they rested. But those who belonged to a representative of the Church did not communicate with heaven in things of an interior kind. Yet the external things to which those people were limited were nevertheless able to serve as the foundation for interior ones. The Lord's Providence in a miraculous manner enabled this to be so, for the reason that some kind of communication might be established between heaven and mankind through what was a semblance of the Church. For without any communication of heaven with mankind by means of some kind of Church the human race would perish. But what the communication is like when it takes place through external things devoid of any correspondence with internal ones cannot be stated briefly. In the Lord's Divine mercy a statement is to be made about this later on.