Genesis 27.30-33 (emphasis added)
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and [Jacob] shall be blessed.
Hear Robert S. Candlish talk about Isaac's covenant machinations and God's overruling of them by also overruling the sinful approach by which Rebekah and Jacob would seek to affect Jacob's destiny as the Covenant Line progeny (Studies in Genesis, Ch. 37):
It is on both sides a deplorable game of craft. If Rebekah is blamed, and justly blamed, for her cunning plot in favour of Jacob—let Isaac’s procedure also be duly scanned. Is the patriarch called to execute, as he believes, the last solemn deed of his earthly career? And is he to do so, not merely in the character of an ordinary parent, but in the official capacity of a priest and prophet, entitled to look for special divine inspiration in this closing act of his life? Then how does he set about it? Not openly, in the face of all his family, and with the customary observance of all the appropriate sacrificial rites; but clandestinely, without so much as communicating his purpose to the wife of his bosom. Certainly the conduct of Isaac, in seeking furtively, by an underhand manoeuvre, to secure the envied and sorely-contested prerogative for Esau, does not indicate much more of truth and integrity than we are accustomed to ascribe to the plan of Jacob and Rebekah.
Nevertheless, it was by faith that Isaac was moved to dispose of the blessing.
For, in the second place, it is chiefly in the sequel of the scene that the faith of Isaac appears. When first he discovers the imposition that has been practised upon him, the patriarch is altogether overwhelmed. And no wonder! His whole plan has miscarried. All the pains he has been taking to get the business done quietly, without the knowledge of the rival claimant and his partisan, have been thrown away. He has hurried it on in the hope that all would be over, and all securely settled on behalf of Esau, before Rebekah or Jacob could hear any surmise of what was on foot. No wonder, therefore, that when he finds himself so signally and shamefully foiled, he “trembles very exceedingly.” But through this trembling his faith manifests its power; first in the broken accents of his passionate exclamation—“Who I where is he that hath” surreptitiously got the blessing?-and next, almost before the outburst is over, in the calm language of acquiescence,” yea, and he shall be blessed” (ver. 33).
It is the very agony of faith, sorely shaken, but yet recovering itself the patriarch’s eyes are opened; it is as if a long dream were dispelled. All at once, and all around him, a new light flashes; showing the past, the present, the future, in new colours. He has been trying to overreach; but he is himself overreached. Above all, he has been “kicking against the pricks;” and he finds that to be “hard.” But now his faith signally triumphs. If he had given way to natural feeling, anger must have filled his bosom. If he had looked merely to second causes, he must have revoked his blessing on the instant, and turned it into a curse; for he could not be held bound by anything he had uttered under a mistake or misapprehension, as to the party to whom he uttered it. What has passed, he might have said, between me and Jacob is essentially null and void. He got the birthright-blessing under a false pretence. I did not really mean to convey it to him.
Isaac maintains no such plea; he owns the blessing as beyond recall.
And on what ground? Simply on the ground of its being manifestly of God.
Here is the faith of Isaac; the faith by which he “blessed Jacob and Esau.” “Let God be true, and every man a liar,” is the principle upon which now at last he acts.
There has been falsehood among all the parties concerned in the transaction; they have all been trying to forestall and overreach one another. On all hands it is a miserable confusion and complexity of deceit; and instead of the calm and holy beauty of a saint’s departing hour—a venerable patriarch in the presence of all belonging to him, and under the guidance and inspiration of his God, sealing with his latest voice the covenant and counsel of heaven—the household is scandalised by a spectacle of domestic feud fitted to shake all confidence in human truthfulness, and make God’s chosen family a very by-word for disunion and dispeace, among all the dwellers upon the earth. But for his own name’s sake, God overrules the evil for good, and on the ruins of man’s manifold lies establishes his own truth. Signally does he visit upon the guilty parties, in their after-life, the plot in which they have been concerned. But in the first instance he disconcerts the plot itself. The well devised scheme of the stealthy hunting, the hasty meal, and the secret blessing, is frustrated; and Isaac, awaking as from a dream, owns that it is the doing of the Lord! With fear and trembling he acknowledges at last the divine sovereignty, and acquiesces in the righteousness and salvation of God. He no longer resists God; he believes, the Lord helping his unbelief; and by faith he confirms the birthright-blessing anew to Jacob. He consoles, indeed, as best he can, the passionate grief of Esau; but he does not now question the divine purpose in favour of his younger son. He recognises in him the heir of the promise made to his father Abraham, and the ancestor of the expected Messiah. He sets to his seal that God is true. It was thus that “by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come (Heb. xi. 20).
Nevertheless, it was by faith that Isaac was moved to dispose of the blessing.
For, in the second place, it is chiefly in the sequel of the scene that the faith of Isaac appears. When first he discovers the imposition that has been practised upon him, the patriarch is altogether overwhelmed. And no wonder! His whole plan has miscarried. All the pains he has been taking to get the business done quietly, without the knowledge of the rival claimant and his partisan, have been thrown away. He has hurried it on in the hope that all would be over, and all securely settled on behalf of Esau, before Rebekah or Jacob could hear any surmise of what was on foot. No wonder, therefore, that when he finds himself so signally and shamefully foiled, he “trembles very exceedingly.” But through this trembling his faith manifests its power; first in the broken accents of his passionate exclamation—“Who I where is he that hath” surreptitiously got the blessing?-and next, almost before the outburst is over, in the calm language of acquiescence,” yea, and he shall be blessed” (ver. 33).
It is the very agony of faith, sorely shaken, but yet recovering itself the patriarch’s eyes are opened; it is as if a long dream were dispelled. All at once, and all around him, a new light flashes; showing the past, the present, the future, in new colours. He has been trying to overreach; but he is himself overreached. Above all, he has been “kicking against the pricks;” and he finds that to be “hard.” But now his faith signally triumphs. If he had given way to natural feeling, anger must have filled his bosom. If he had looked merely to second causes, he must have revoked his blessing on the instant, and turned it into a curse; for he could not be held bound by anything he had uttered under a mistake or misapprehension, as to the party to whom he uttered it. What has passed, he might have said, between me and Jacob is essentially null and void. He got the birthright-blessing under a false pretence. I did not really mean to convey it to him.
Isaac maintains no such plea; he owns the blessing as beyond recall.
And on what ground? Simply on the ground of its being manifestly of God.
Here is the faith of Isaac; the faith by which he “blessed Jacob and Esau.” “Let God be true, and every man a liar,” is the principle upon which now at last he acts.
There has been falsehood among all the parties concerned in the transaction; they have all been trying to forestall and overreach one another. On all hands it is a miserable confusion and complexity of deceit; and instead of the calm and holy beauty of a saint’s departing hour—a venerable patriarch in the presence of all belonging to him, and under the guidance and inspiration of his God, sealing with his latest voice the covenant and counsel of heaven—the household is scandalised by a spectacle of domestic feud fitted to shake all confidence in human truthfulness, and make God’s chosen family a very by-word for disunion and dispeace, among all the dwellers upon the earth. But for his own name’s sake, God overrules the evil for good, and on the ruins of man’s manifold lies establishes his own truth. Signally does he visit upon the guilty parties, in their after-life, the plot in which they have been concerned. But in the first instance he disconcerts the plot itself. The well devised scheme of the stealthy hunting, the hasty meal, and the secret blessing, is frustrated; and Isaac, awaking as from a dream, owns that it is the doing of the Lord! With fear and trembling he acknowledges at last the divine sovereignty, and acquiesces in the righteousness and salvation of God. He no longer resists God; he believes, the Lord helping his unbelief; and by faith he confirms the birthright-blessing anew to Jacob. He consoles, indeed, as best he can, the passionate grief of Esau; but he does not now question the divine purpose in favour of his younger son. He recognises in him the heir of the promise made to his father Abraham, and the ancestor of the expected Messiah. He sets to his seal that God is true. It was thus that “by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come (Heb. xi. 20).
