27 So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.
Jacob came so close to getting caught he could smell it. His blind father calls him close as the final test of his identity, the smell test. What I find wonderful is the Hebrew word for treachery and the word for his garment are exactly the same word. Only context tells you which is meant. We know that Isaac trembles when his other son comes in from hunting and presents his food. He wonders whom he has already blessed with the blessing of the inheritance. So, we know the word means garment here, but there are many words that could have been used to describe his clothing. God wanted this word used to point out the connection between the sin and the act. Years ago Jacob had started the process that brought him to this day. He had listened to his mother who hatched the particulars of this deception. He was standing before his father wearing his brother’s clothes. He had goat’s hair on the back of his neck and his arms. And the very thing that helps him pull off the deception is named treachery. The very garment he is wearing, the thing that seals the deal with his father has the name treachery, deceit. And the author uses this word rather than the many other words for clothing, thus making the subtle point with the readers and hearers. An example in English would be the phrase “a run in her stockings.” She went for a run in her stockings and she got a run in her stockings. The meaning of the word “run” is clear to an English speaker; she went jogging and ruined her nylons. But the same word is used with both meanings. Jacob continues his life of deceiving. His day of reckoning is coming. You can’t run from sin forever. Sin will give you a run for your money. And it will catch you.
The Arnold Journey 