Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
I have strong material. Here is the commentary:
An old man sits on his bed, too blind to make out the faces of the two boys in front of him. Scripture treats this as the high point of Jacob's faith: his eyes fail, yet the blessing he gives is exactly right.
Fading Sight, Fading World
The dimness is not only physical. The world Jacob had clung to is slipping out of his hands, and the loss turns out to be a gain.
Hamilton SmithJacob — the man of nature — is weakened by age and sickness. The world he had clung to so tightly is fast fading from his view. His eyes are dim with age (verse 10). But his natural strength weakens and his natural sight grows dim. Everything on earth is fast slipping from his grasp. So he rises above the loss of all earthly joys and finds in God his only trust and unfailing resource.
What goes out at one window comes in at another. Writers note the exchange directly: as one kind of sight closes, another opens.
Hamilton SmithIf heavenly things are opening to him, earthly things are fading from him. And so it is he no longer thinks of the sorrows by the way, but of the goodness of God that had never forsaken him.
Dim Eyes, Clear Faith
Jacob had spent most of his life relying on his own cleverness. The failure of his eyes marks the end of that method — and the start of a better one.
F. B. HoleWhen Rachel died Jacob was still in full strength; now his natural strength was gone, his eyes were dim, so that he could not even recognise the sons of Joseph. In his days of vigour he had too often walked by the sight of his own eyes; now at the close he begins to walk and act by faith and not by sight, and at the same time he realises the exceeding kindness of God toward him.
The same point is put as a reversal: the shrewdness that once served him has drained away, and what replaces it is sharper.
The Christian's FriendDim as to his natural eye, but clear-sighted by faith, he guided his hands knowingly. Jacob had used his own natural shrewdness in many ways in his past life. But now, as his natural powers fade, faith is very keen in discerning the ways of God.
Seeing Better Than Joseph
Here the gifted son is the one who cannot see.
William KellyJoseph does not know God's purpose for his sons. He lets his natural desires govern him. He places the elder son in front of his dying father's right hand, and the younger in front of his left. So Joseph would have had it; but not so Jacob. His eyes were dim with age, but in this he was clearer-sighted than Joseph after all. No one ever saw more clearly than Joseph. Yet Jacob, dying, sees the future with a steadier and fuller gaze.
Gift alone does not produce such insight.
The Christian's FriendIt needs an exercised soul, as well as a spiritual gift, to see clearly the way of grace. Joseph stands far above his father Jacob in both gift and moral worth. But Jacob had been well sifted, and had learned by experience his need of grace.
An Echo of Isaac's Bedside
Jacob is now in his father's position: old, blind, and blessing sons. But the two bedsides end differently.
C. H. MackintoshIsaac's eyes were dim, so he could be deceived, and they set about doing so, instead of looking to God, who would have completely frustrated Isaac's purpose to bless the one whom God would not bless — a purpose rooted in nature, and in very unlovely nature, for "Isaac loved Esau," not because he was the firstborn, but "because he ate of his game."
Jacob had once used his father's blindness against him. Now he is the blind one.
William KellyJacob clear, where Isaac had been dim; Jacob clearer than Joseph, who until now had seen into divine things more deeply than any other man of God. What deep self-judgment must have passed through Israel's spirit as he reviewed the blessing he had once stolen by his own trickery!
Loved Before They Were Seen
The kiss and the embrace in this verse go to boys Jacob has never seen.
J. G. BellettHe adopted them before he saw them. He gave them the place of the firstborn in the family while he had not yet looked on them, for his eyes were dim with age. All the desire of his heart had been toward them while they were still unknown to him. So when the blessing does come, it comes with all its value. They may know that their adoption had been the delightful theme of the father's counsel and promise, the subject of his thoughts and affections before he made it known to them.
Summary
- Fading. Jacob's dim eyes mark the world slipping out of his grip. At that very moment he finds in God his only resource.
- Faith. The shrewdness Jacob once relied on has faded. In its place, faith reads God's ways with a keen eye.
- Clearer. Blind Jacob reads God's purpose better than his gifted son Joseph. Gift is not enough on its own; Jacob had also learned by experience his need of grace.
- Reversed. Isaac's dim eyes made him easy to trick, and the son he meant to bless was the one God would not bless. Jacob's dim eyes do not stop him blessing the right one.
- Loved first. Jacob adopted these boys and gave them the firstborn's place before he ever saw them. The embrace only showed what his heart had already settled.