Twenty years of pain. Twenty years of deceit. Twenty years is a long time to be treated so poorly. Twenty years!!!
Jacob has known about twenty years of pain.
Jacob was mistreated. Not just once, but in a significant way. It was ongoing. It was painful. It was wicked. Laban lied to him, used him, and took advantage of his trust for years. The injustice piled up. Jacob stayed quiet, worked hard, and kept moving forward with the lot in life God gave him.
It would be easy to be buried under the weight of it all. Jacob remained faithful.
While Jacob remained faithful, God saw it all.
God knows all the evil that is done against. He knows it all.
The Lord said to Jacob, “For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you” (Genesis 31:12b, NKJV). Jacob may have felt alone, but he wasn’t. He may have felt stuck, but he wasn’t forgotten. God saw it all. God saw every lie, every deception, every wrong. When the time was right, God revealed His faithfulness to Jacob once again.
You may feel like that today. Maybe you’ve been faithful, but someone has mistreated you. Perhaps it’s gone on longer than you ever thought it would. It may not even be over as you read this. You’ve tried to honor God, and yet the hurt persists.
Can I say something to you as a pastor? I’m sorry. It isn’t good. What they did was wrong. But also, remember this: God sees. Just like He saw all that was done in Jacob’s life, He sees you too. He’s not just watching. He’s ready to act.
The Bible is full of this encouraging attribute of God. In Exodus 3:7, when Israel was groaning under Egyptian slavery, the Lord said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.” Not only did God see, but He also heard and He knew. He came down to deliver them.
Then there is Hagar in Genesis 16. She ran away, hurt and mistreated, not knowing where to go. But God met her in the wilderness. And she called Him “El Roi,” the God who sees. “Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, ‘Have I also here seen Him who sees me?'” (Genesis 16:13, NKJV).
God sees, not distantly or casually, but with compassion, with justice, and with purpose. You are not invisible. What’s been done to you is not forgotten. God knows how to step in at the right time. He did it for Jacob. He did it for Israel. He did it for Hagar. And He will do it for you.
Rest in this today: The Lord sees. The Lord hears. The Lord knows. And the Lord acts.
