AC 1459, 1460 - A Famine in the Land

AC 1459, 1460

And there was a famine in the land.
And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there;
because the famine was grievous in the land.
(Genesis 12:10)

"There was a famine in the land,"
signifies a scarcity of knowledges 
as yet with the Lord when a child;
"and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn,"
signifies instruction in knowledges from the Word;
"Egypt" is the memory-knowledge of knowledges;
"to sojourn" is to be instructed;
"because the famine was grievous in the land,"
signifies much scarcity in His external man.

. . . During childhood the knowledges in a person
never come from that which is interior,
but from the objects of the senses,
especially from the hearing.
For, as before said,
there are in the external man receiving vessels,
called the things of the memory,
and these are formed by means of knowledges --
as everybody may know --
the internal man flowing in and helping;
consequently knowledges are learned
and are implanted in the memory
in accordance with the influx of the internal man.
Thus also was it with the Lord when He was a child --
for He was born as are other men
and was instructed as are other men --
but with Him the interiors were celestial,
which adapted the vessels
for the reception of the knowledges,
and in such a way that the knowledges
should afterwards become vessels to receive the Divine.
The interiors with Him were Divine,
from Jehovah His Father;
the exteriors were human,
from Mary His mother.
So it may be seen that with the Lord,
equally as with other men,
there was in His external man, 
during His childhood,
a scarcity of knowledges.