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:

4882. 'And went' means life. This is clear from the meaning of 'going' as living, dealt with in 3335, 3690. This meaning of 'going' in the internal sense as living does indeed seem quite remote from or unrelated to ideas man has which constitute his thought. The reason for this is that man dwells within space and time, and with these has formed the ideas comprising his thought, such as the idea of going, advancing, setting out, sojourning, or moving on. Now because these actions occur within both space and time, and as a consequence space and time have become embedded in ideas of those actions, man therefore finds it difficult to grasp that states of life are meant. But when his idea of those actions is relieved or divested of spatial and temporal elements the spiritual reality that is meant leaps out. For in the spiritual world or heaven nothing at all spatial or temporal enters the ideas they have, but instead aspects of a state of life, 1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3356, 3404, 3827, 4814. It does indeed appear to spirits and angels that they too move about, going from one place to another, and indeed exactly in the same way as it appears so to men. All the same, it is the changes taking place in their state of life that are responsible for this appearance. To them also, no less than to men, the appearance is that they live self-dependently, when in fact they do not live self-dependently but are dependent on the Lord's Divine, the source of every spark of life. Among angels these appearances are called real ones, because they seem in all reality to exist.

[2] I have on occasions spoken to spirits about these appearances, but those who are not governed by good, nor consequently by truth, do not wish to listen when told it is but an appearance that they live self-dependently; for their wish is to live self-dependently. But in addition to showing them from actual experience that they do not lead self-dependent lives and that every advance made from one place to another is a change to, and an advance made in, their state of life, I have also told them that for them it may be sufficient for them to know no other than that they live self-dependently, and that their life would be life no more if they did not live self-dependency. It would nevertheless be better for them to know what the situation really is, for in that case they would have the truth; and if they have the truth they also dwell in the light of heaven, since the light of heaven is the truth itself which flows from the Lord's Divine. Furthermore, if the truth existed with them in this way they would not claim that good was their own, nor would evil cling to them. Angels possessing that truth do not merely know it; they also have a perception of it.

[3] Intervals of time and space in the spiritual world are states of life, and every spark of life has its origin in the Lord, as the following experience may show. Each spirit and angel sees on his right those who are good and on his left those who are evil; this is so in whatever direction he turns himself. If he turns and looks eastwards he sees the good to the right and the evil to the left. The same happens if he turns and looks to the west, and likewise to the south or the north. This is the case with every spirit or angel, so that if there were two, and one of these turned and looked to the east and the other did so to the west, each would still see the good on his right and the evil on his left. Those far removed from, even behind the backs of, those who behold them are seen in those unchanging positions. From these considerations one may deduce clearly that every spark of life has its origin in the Lord, that is, that the Lord is within the life of everyone; for in the spiritual world the Lord is seen as the Sun, the good or sheep being on His right, and the evil or goats on His left. The same is therefore the case with each spirit or angel, for the reason, as stated, that the Lord exists in every spark of life. This is bound to look like a paradox to man, for as long as he is in the world man has ideas that are formed from worldly things, and therefore from what is spatial and temporal. But as stated above, in the spiritual world no ideas are formed from what is spatial and temporal but from the state belonging to affections and the thoughts flowing from these. It is for this reason also that the intervals of space and time in the Word mean states.