1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.

2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:

3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;

4 And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.

We previously read about when Ishmael had been born, but not Isaac, and God promised to Abraham that Sarah would yet have a child of her own. Abraham had thought that was incredulous, and suggested God just take all of the covenanted blessings and bestow them upon his current son, Ishmael (Genesis 17:17-18). But God rejected that plan, assuring Abraham that the covenant must pass on to an as-of-yet unborn child, and from that point on Abraham seems to have accepted God’s word on the matter, even though Isaac was the second-born.

It is interesting that Isaac, a second-born who received the covenant blessing from God, did not realize that the same selection needed to occur upon his own sons. For some reason he was not aligned with God’s purposes in this matter as his father had been. It is especially strange that he is not open to this arrangement after he saw Esau defy the Lord’s commandments by marrying two strange wives that were outside of the covenant.

Was it because Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob (Genesis 25:28) that he was unwilling to entertain the thought of giving his choicest blessings to the younger? As today’s verses state, Isaac’s eyes seem to be dim on the matter, and not only in the physical sense.