Genesis 27:33 Commentary and Bible Study

Isaac instantly realises that God has overruled. He has been deceived, and that was wrong, but God has allowed it to happen, and he has been overruled; he has been wrong all along, and he begins to shake with the realisation. ‘And Isaac trembled very exceedingly’, the Hebrew says something like, very excessively, ‘and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison?’, but he would not allow his mind to be changed. One can imagine that in the strength of his emotion, he lost control of his limbs so that in a state of shock he was unable to prevent this great display of agitation. The cause of it was the realisation that in spite of his carefully laid plans he had been thwarted. But the deepest cause of shock to him was not that he had been thwarted by Jacob but by the Lord. This was partly the trembling of conviction of sin. He had tried to do this thing furtively and had in effect tried to steal the blessing from God for the wrong son. He had attempted to keep it from Rebekah and had acted contrary to her wishes and to the oracle given her when the twins were still in her womb. He had also acted contrary to the character of the two sons, for Esau had already shown himself to be a godless man, taking two heathen wives to the distress of both his parents. Isaac had indeed been tricked into blessing the wrong son. He later no doubt discovered everything that had been done by Rebekah and Jacob. But how could he be angry with them when he needed to be most angry with himself and when the Lord was certainly on their side in this matter.