Genesis — Chapter 27

AND WHEN ISAAC WAS OLD, AND HIS EYES WERE DIM, AND HE COULD NOT SEE, HE CALLED ESAU HIS ELDER SON. — Isaac was 137 years old, having been blind for some years. Note the meditation on patience (Lapide citing Vitas Patrum extensively): the saints welcomed and bore blindness and infirmity joyfully as a means of mortification and purification. Didymus of Alexandria was blind for 80 years yet became the most learned Scripture scholar of his age. Isaac bore his blindness for 43 years until death.

AND JACOB WENT NEAR, AND KISSED HIM. AND ISAAC SMELLING HIS GARMENTS, BLESSED HIM, AND SAID: BEHOLD THE SMELL OF MY SON IS AS THE SMELL OF A PLENTIFUL FIELD WHICH THE LORD HATH BLESSED. — Isaac's blessing of Jacob: the great prophetic blessing covering temporal goods (v. 28: dew of heaven, fatness of earth, abundance of corn and wine) and spiritual dominion (v. 29: peoples serve him; tribes adore him). Allegorically: Jacob's garments smelling of the field = the garments of human nature put on by Christ, fragrant with the grace and virtue infused in it. Anagogically: the blessing of Jacob = the blessing of Christians with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3).

AND HE SAID: RIGHTLY IS HIS NAME CALLED JACOB, FOR HE HATH SUPPLANTED ME A SECOND TIME. — Esau's bitter lament on learning Jacob has taken his blessing. \"Jacob\" = supplanter (from Hebrew aqeb = heel, since Jacob grasped Esau's heel at birth). The name now becomes a term of reproach. Yet Lapide notes: Jacob's deceit, while materially false, was ordered by divine providence and covered by Rebecca's action — God using human instruments to accomplish His eternal decree (the elder shall serve the younger, Gen. 25:23). The spiritual sense: Jacob = the Gentiles, who supplanted the carnal Jews in God's blessing.