God has seen your life.

Waking up this morning and thinking about this title, “God has seen,” is comforting to us all, especially with all that is happening in the Middle East right now. We might not know how this will end, but God does.

We are reading through the story of Jacob fleeing from Laban, his uncle.

Have you ever done the right thing, and no one noticed?

You served quietly. You gave generously. You stayed faithful when it would have been easier to walk away. But there was no thank you. No recognition. Just the silence of being unseen.

Most of us know that feeling. And for some of us, it has gone on not for days, but for years.

“So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing. ³⁵ Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods. ³⁶ Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? ³⁷ Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us. ³⁸ “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. ³⁹ I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. ⁴⁰ This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹ It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. ⁴² If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.” ⁴³ Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? ⁴⁴ Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.” (Genesis 31 v 33-44)

The scene before us is of Laban tearing through tent after tent looking for his household gods that have been stolen by his own daughter, Rachel. She is sitting on them, and she lies about not being able to stand up.

Comical that may be, but what follows is the twenty-year frustration of Jacob spilling over before his uncle.

He knows the number of years for Leah and Rachel.

He knows the number of years for the sheep.

He knows how many times his wages were changed.

He recalls having to pay for any losses out of his wages.

He has been faithful to his uncle, but it cost him. The cost of being faithful spills out of him. The hurt of Laban not noticing what he has paid is heard in this sentence: “But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands.”  v. 42

Perhaps for you, this one thing has brought more comfort than anything – God has seen.

The good and faithful work that you have done has not gone unnoticed. Helping people that no one has seen. Enduring moments that were simply unfair. Yet you have carried on.

Through it all, there has been One who has seen it all. He has seen your faithfulness. He has never turned away. He sees even the household gods underneath Rachel!

“God has seen.” Not Laban. Not the relatives gathered around. Not anyone who could have made it easier or fairer along the way. But God. The God who sees even what is hidden underneath a camel’s saddle has seen your life, too.

God has seen what the news channels haven’t shown us. He has seen it all unfolding in the Middle East. This is who we worship today and it instils great confidence that the world may seem out of control but God knows it all.