In the Bible, Egypt represents knowledge and the love of knowledge. In a good sense that means knowledge of truth from the Lord through the Bible, but in a natural sense it simply means earthly knowledge to be stored up and possessed. And even knowledge from the Bible is not always good: If we learn them with the goal of making them useful, then they are filled with angelic ideas. But they lack purpose when they are learned only for the sake of knowing things or for the reputation of being learned. So Egypt is a place you go to learn things, but to become heavenly you have to escape the sterile "knowing" and journey to the land of Canaan, where the knowledge is filled with the internal desire for good. It's interesting that when Egypt was ruled by Joseph, it was a haven for his father and brothers. This shows that when a person's internal mind rules in the land of learning, they can learn much that is useful. But eventually a pharaoh arose that didn't know Joseph, and the Children of Israel were enslaved. The pharaoh represents the external mind; when it is in charge the excitement and self-congratulation of knowing can reduce the internal mind to a type of slavery. The mind - like the Children of Israel - ends up making bricks, or man-made falsities from external appearances.

228. THE POWER OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN

That angels have power cannot be comprehended by those who know nothing about the spiritual world and its influx into the natural world. Such think that angels can have no power because they are spiritual and are so pure and unsubstantial that no eye can even see them. But those who look more interiorly into the causes of things take a different view. They know that all the power that a man has is from his understanding and will, for apart from these he is powerless to move a particle of his body. The understanding and will are his spiritual man. This moves the body and its members at every command. For whatever the man thinks, the mouth and tongue speak, and whatever he wills the body does; also giving strength when desired to do so. A man's will and understanding are ruled by the Lord through angels and spirits. So also are all things of his body, because these are from the will and understanding; and if you will believe it, without influx from heaven man cannot even move a step. That this is so has been shown me by much experience. Angels have been permitted to activate my steps, my actions, and my tongue and speech, as they would, and this by influx into my will and thought; and I have learned thereby that of myself I could do nothing. They said afterwards that every man is so ruled, and that he can know this from the doctrine of the Church and from the Word. For he prays that God may send His angels to lead him, direct his steps, teach him, and inspire in him what to think and what to say, and other like things. Yet when man thinks within himself apart from doctrine, he says and believes otherwise. These things have been said to make known what power angels have with man.