Genesis 27:22
And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
Blind Isaac could not see who stood before him, so he tested him by touch and caught the mismatch of Jacob's voice with Esau's hands, because Jacob had covered his hands with goatskins to pose as Esau and take the blessing by fraud. The fraud was a joint plan in which Rebekah remembered God's word that the older would serve the younger, yet instead of trusting God to fulfill what was already Jacob's by promise, she pressed Jacob into deception until he agreed. That attempt to gain by human scheming what God would have given in His own time and way showed lack of faith and was never prompted or approved by God. The deception was guilt before God that left Jacob as supplanter until it was set before him and repented of, and though Satan used it to accuse him and demand his destruction, upon repentance it was pardoned and replaced with peace. Every deed reacts upon the doer, so the fraud reaped Esau's hatred, flight, and twenty years of exile in which Jacob was himself defrauded, and it teaches that God will not connive at such devising and that sins must be confessed and forgiven beforehand or they will destroy confidence in the time of trouble.
Jacob Deceives Blind Isaac
Isaac could not see who stood before him because his sight was failing, so he tested the visitor by touch to determine his identity. The voice sounded like Jacob's while the hands felt like Esau's, and he noticed that mismatch between voice and hands. The hands felt like Esau's because Jacob wore a disguise, with goatskins on his hands, to pose as Esau. By that disguise he obtained by fraud the blessing intended for Esau, and the deception succeeded.
The fraud was a joint plan in which Rebekah recalled God's word that the older son would serve the younger. Instead of trusting God to fulfill His purpose in His own time and way, she persuaded Jacob to use deception until he agreed. God did not prompt or approve that devising, though He was fully able to provide for Jacob after His own methods.
The birthright and blessing Jacob seized by fraud were already his by God's promise. God was fully able to fulfill that promise despite discouraging circumstances, and Jacob could have received it by trusting God rather than by a wrong course. His lack of faith that God could fulfill His purpose led him to resort to fraud to gain what was already promised to him.
Guilt, Exile, and Pardon
The attempt to secure what God had promised by deceit showed lack of faith in His promises and was neither prompted nor approved by Him, for by human scheming was sought what He would have accomplished in His own time and way. God was fully able to provide for Jacob after His own methods despite discouraging circumstances. The lasting good of the blessing did not hang on the trick nor on the privileges commonly belonging to the firstborn, but on God and on conduct, for He would bless and prosper Jacob if he loved and feared Him, and would bless Esau on the same terms, while rejecting either son for wickedness and disregard of Him and His commandments.
The fraud was sin and guilt before God requiring sorrow and repentance, and the name Jacob, meaning supplanter, stood as a reminder of that deception until the error was clearly set before him in his crisis of wrestling. That guilt became Satan's ground to accuse him, to claim the right to destroy him, and to discourage him by forcing a sense of guilt upon him. Jacob learned that God is merciful, and casting himself upon mercy he pointed back to his repentance and pleaded for deliverance, and his sin as supplanter and deceiver was pardoned, ending doubt, perplexity, remorse and self-condemnation with the sweet peace of reconciliation.
What a person does results from what he is, the experiences of life are the fruition of thoughts and deeds, and every deed reacts upon the doer. So the deception reaped its harvest in his brother's hatred and deadly threats, in flight for his life as a fugitive and twenty years of exile in which Jacob himself was wronged and defrauded and at last forced to find safety in flight, and in a second harvest when the evils of his own character cropped out in his sons.
Knowledge that the long exile was the direct result of his sin, with the reproaches of an accusing conscience day and night, made the return from Padan-aram in obedience to God's direction very sad and full of misgivings as the hills of his native land appeared. The memory of the deception brought crushing self-reproach and terror when Esau approached with warriors for revenge, leaving mercy from God through prayer as his only hope while he still did everything on his part to atone for the wrong to his brother and avert the danger, and troubling him with fear that he had forfeited God's protection. Only because Jacob had previously repented did God hear his later prayer in his night of wrestling and mercifully preserve his life from Esau, and without that repentance He could not have heard him and preserved him, for the God who forgave him could also move Esau's heart to accept his humiliation and repentance.
Faithfulness and Final Lessons
God has not changed, and He will not connive at selfishness to carry out His plans nor work with any devising or planning after the example of Jacob and Rebekah deceiving Isaac to gain the advantage, for God did not prompt that deception and was fully able to provide for Jacob after His own methods, and the spirit of rivalry behind it should never have lived. Commandment-keeping people must therefore cleanse mind and heart from conniving at evil and underhand dealing to obtain the advantage of brethren, because that unholy work hurts and finally ruins every soul who engages in it. Yet even thus there is hope, because God heals, leads, and restores comfort and peace.
The same kind of deception seen when the voice revealed who truly stood before Isaac while the hands pretended otherwise is practiced when men in high places of trust use deceptive reasoning to bind the freedom of others. They handle men as machinery to be harnessed and driven, show partiality and hypocrisy, and pervert right principles by selfishness and covetousness. They grasp all they can regardless of their own agreements and the disappointment and wrong to others, seek to rule as lords over God's heritage, and present the decisions of their councils as the voice of God while turning away from obeying God's word.
The story proves that sins must be repented of and confessed beforehand, because unconfessed sin would destroy confidence in God during a time of trouble, while sins already confessed and forgiven are blotted out and cannot be brought against the faithful. Had Jacob not repented of his fraud in coming to Isaac pretending to be Esau, God would not have heard his prayer afterward or mercifully preserved his life, but because he had repented God heard him and preserved him. In the time of trouble, if unconfessed sins were to rise before God's people while they are tortured with fear and anguish, they would be overwhelmed, despair would cut off their faith, and they could have no confidence to plead with God for deliverance.