4719. 'And he said, I am looking for my brothers; tell me now, where they are pasturing [the flock]' means knowledge of what the situation was and what their state was - in line with the meaning of these words in the proximate sense, which is, What the situation was with those teaching from faith, and his knowledge of their state. For 'brothers' means those who teach from faith, 4712; 'looking for (or seeing) their peace' means what the situation was with them, 4712, 4713; 'where' means the state, for in the internal sense everything denoting place means state, 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321; and 'those pasturing [the flock]' means those who teach, 343, 3767, 3768, 3772, 3783.

1382. People inevitably confuse Divine Infinity with infinity of space. And because they do not conceive of infinity of space as anything other than nothingness, as indeed it is, neither do they believe in Divine Infinity. The same applies to Eternity. They cannot conceive of it except as an eternity of time, but it is manifested continually by means of time to those who dwell within [space and] time. The true idea of Divine Infinity is instilled into angels by their being instantaneously under the Lord's view with no intervening space or time even if they came from the ends of the universe. And the true idea of Divine Eternity is instilled into them by the fact that thousands of years do not appear to them as a period of time, almost as if they had lived for only a minute. Both ideas are also instilled by means of the fact that the present with them includes past and future together. Consequently they have no anxiety about things of the future, nor do they ever have any idea of death, but only of life. And so their whole present includes within it the Lord's Eternity and Infinity.