You may have heard of the "heavenly Canaan," by which we mean - what? Yes, heaven, where the angels live. The land of Canaan in this world stood for or represented heaven in the other world. The word "Canaan" in the Sacred Scriptures therefore is a sign of heaven, or signifies it. Canaan was a beautiful mountainous land, with the clear sea of Galilee, the river Jordan, with snow-capped Mount Hermon, with the famous mountains Moriah and Zion, where the city of Jerusalem was, with hills full of vineyards, olive-yards, fig-orchards, with plains that had oak groves, with Jericho, the city of palm trees, with springs, and wells, and brooks, etc. This mountainous, fruitful land stood for heaven because the angels live on mountains and hills and because what is heavenly (like love to God, and love for the neighbor) in people on earth is of a high and exalted character.

But Egypt is a low-lying, flat land, with very rich soil, but with no beautiful mountains. Being flat and low, many canals can be cut leading out from the great river Nile, so that the land can be easily watered; and, as a rule, crops of wheat, spelt and barley grow very abundantly.

Now, if the mountainous land of Canaan represented heaven where the angels are, and the heaven in human beings - that is, the high and lofty, heavenly loves in them - what do you suppose the low, flat land of Egypt represents? It represents something good, but lower down than heavenly loves, namely, all that children learn in the way of knowledge about God, the Lord, about His Word, and about heaven. You may be said to be in Egypt because you are learning to know things from the Word. The more you learn to know from the Word, the more grain is growing in your Egypt. The seven years of plenty mean all the holy days and hours during which you learn knowledges from your parents and your Sunday-school teachers, and from your own reading of the Word. But the Lord tells you that while He cares for you so that you shall have so many holy years in which to gather up knowledges about your spiritual life, a time will come when you may not be interested so much in learning, as you are now, and so He provides that the knowledges that you learn now shall be gathered up and put somewhere in storehouses in your mind, where you may not see them except when the Lord permits. Just as Joseph gathered up the grain and kept it in storehouses where the people could not get at it without his permission. For, you will remember, that Joseph stood for, or represented, the Lord.

Pharaoh called Joseph, "Zaphnath-Paaneah," which means, "One who makes known hidden things and the future." That is what the Lord does. He makes known what will come in your future life, and for this reason he wants you to learn just as much as you possibly can about Himself, about the Word, about heaven, and about the life you should lead as true New Church people.

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