These picturesque words are part of one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible the dying Jacob's prophetic blessing of his sons. Of these sons, there are two over whom his heart seems especially to pour itself Judah, the ancestor of the royal tribe, and Joseph. The text contains in vivid metaphor the earliest utterance of a very familiar truth.
I. Strength for conflict by contact with the strength of God is the lesson it conveys. The word here rendered "made strong" might be translated "made pliable" or "flexible," conveying the notion of deftness and dexterity rather than of simple strength. It is practised strength that He will give, the educated hand and arm, master of all the manipulation of the weapon.
II. The text not only gives the fact of Divine strength being bestowed, but also the manner of the gift. What boldness of reverent familiarity there is in that symbol of the hands of God laid on the hand of the man. A true touch, as of hand to hand, conveys the grace. Nothing but contact will give us strength for conflict and for conquest. And the plain lesson, therefore, is See to it that the contact is not broken by you. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses,p. 72.
References: Genesis 49:23; Genesis 49:24. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. i., No. 17; I.Williams, Characters of the Old Testament,p. 67.