Spurgeon: February AM
* 02/22/AM
"His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."
--Genesis 49:24
That strength which God gives to His Josephs is real
strength; it is not a boasted valour, a fiction, a thing of
which men talk, but which ends in smoke; it is true-- divine
strength . Why does Joseph stand against temptation? Because God
gives him aid. There is nought that we can do without the power
of God. All true strength comes from "the mighty God of Jacob."
Notice in what a blessedly familiar way God gives this
strength to Joseph--"The arms of his hands were made strong by
the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." Thus God is represented
as putting His hands on Joseph's hands, placing His arms on
Joseph's arms. Like as a father teaches his children, so the
Lord teaches them that fear Him. He puts His arms upon them.
Marvellous condescension! God Almighty, Eternal, Omnipotent,
stoops from His throne and lays His hand upon the child's hand,
stretching His arm upon the arm of Joseph, that he may be made
strong! This strength was also covenant strength, for it is
ascribed to "the mighty God of Jacob ." Now, wherever you read
of the God of Jacob in the Bible, you should remember the
covenant with Jacob. Christians love to think of God's
covenant. All the power, all the grace, all the blessings, all
the mercies, all the comforts, all the things we have, flow to
us from the well-head, through the covenant. If there were no
covenant, then we should fail indeed; for all grace proceeds
from it, as light and heat from the sun. No angels ascend or
descend, save upon that ladder which Jacob saw, at the top of
which stood a covenant God. Christian, it may be that the
archers have sorely grieved you, and shot at you, and wounded
you, but still your bow abides in strength; be sure, then, to
ascribe all the glory to Jacob's God.