Genesis 27:3

Esau had not only disposed of his birthright, he had also socially disqualified himself from heirship by marrying a Canaanite. Isaac knew this, and it was, as we read, a "grief of mind" to him. Yet even this did not remove Esau from the place he had held in his father's affections for so many years… So, right to the end, Isaac clings to the son he loved. His natural affection was so strong that he overlooked every divine hint, and every act of Esau's that should have moved him to a different course. Here he comes before us in a truly humbling light, as a believer always does when nature runs unchecked.

Sadly, it was not something new that Isaac loved Esau. He loved him not simply as his son, because of his natural boldness, but because venison suited his taste. Rebekah, meanwhile, loved Jacob. His character had the same traits of the flesh as hers — Syrian craft and selfishness. But neither of them was lukewarm about the divine promise.

Isaac was a very wealthy man. He had never "endured hardness" as his father had done. He was what we call a "soft" man. He had slipped into the habit of luxury and self-indulgence. "Savoury meat, such as I love" are words completely unworthy of a saint of God. Like Noah, his son's fall was largely due to his own self-indulgence.

Despite Esau's wrong marriages, and despite God's word that Isaac's older son would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), Isaac was ready to give his chief blessing to Esau. We are told in verse 1 that his eyes were dim. No doubt his spiritual eyes were dim too, because he let his natural appetite take precedence over the revealed will of God.

Here we find the aged patriarch Isaac standing, as it were, at the very door of eternity. The earth and nature are fast fading from his view. Yet he is taken up with "savoury meat," and about to act in direct opposition to the divine counsel by blessing the elder instead of the younger… If Esau had sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a dish of venison. How very humbling!

He was about to perform the last religious act of a patriarchal priest. And he calls for wine and strong drink — the food of mere nature — to stir him up and fill him for the service of the temple! Terrible abomination!… We may all be aware how much of nature stains our holy things. We can mistake the excitement of the flesh for the easy, strong current of the Spirit. We may notice this in times of fellowship. But that should be our sorrow. We confess it as evil and weakness, and we watch against it.

But God will subdue nature, unjudged nature, and in Isaac too! And more than that. God's ways are so perfect and complete that He will use the very indulgence that had twisted Isaac's mind and judgement as the direct tool to discipline him. God lets him be deceived. The "savoury meat" turned his mind from sound judgement; and the same "savoury meat" makes him act, without knowing it, according to the will of God.

Let us delight in the wisdom of His ways. He overruled a partiality of the flesh that would have made His Word void, and He secured His purpose, however faulty the people were who remembered it. They turned to unworthy tricks to correct the wrong and secure His promise. So each of them came under His righteous chastening for their crooked scheming. God loves dearly, but He rebukes and chastises.