The strength God gives to his Josephs is real strength! Not empty boasting. Not fiction. Not the kind of strength people talk about but that evaporates like smoke. This is true, divine strength.

Why does Joseph stand against temptation? Because God gives him aid. There is nothing we can do without the power of God. All true strength flows from "the mighty God of Jacob."

But notice—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." Do you see it? God puts his hands on Joseph's hands. He places his arms on Joseph's arms. Just as a father guides his child's hands to teach him, so the Lord teaches those who fear him. He puts his arms upon theirs.

Marvelous condescension! God Almighty—Eternal, Omnipotent—stoops from his throne and lays his hand upon the child's hand. He stretches his arm along Joseph's arm to make him strong! Can you imagine it? The hands that flung stars into space now steady trembling human hands.

And this strength is covenant strength, for it is ascribed to "the mighty God of Jacob." Wherever you read of the God of Jacob in Scripture, 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—everything we have flows to us from that wellspring through the covenant. If there were no covenant, we would fail indeed, for all grace proceeds from it, as light and heat from the sun. No angels ascend or descend except 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, shot at you, wounded you. But still your bow abides in strength! Be sure, then, to ascribe all the glory to Jacob's God.