God Sees. . . God Loves. Gen. 29:31-35

God is in the process of guiding and growing Jacob. God will walk with Jacob for all of his life and will guide him to Egypt in his old age. God’s guidance of Jacob highlights one of the main themes of the book of Genesis which is that God is actively in control of His creation, His people and His plan to bring salvation to them through Jesus Christ.

God exercises His control through a variety of ways and does so even as we go about our daily lives. We demonstrate our trust in God’s control by following the path that scripture has already laid out for us regarding worshiping God, walking before Him in holiness and witnessing of the salvation He’s given us in Christ.
We do this consistently even as our Lord faithfully unfolds His plan in our lives. That plan is to rescue us from sin, slowly shape and mold our character into the character of Jesus Christ, use us to spread His gospel and make disciples and then to take us to be with Him forever in a covenantal relationship of love, grace and complete fulfillment.

We come to this episode in Jacob’s life and once more we see how God exercises His guidance and control both directly and indirectly. And beyond that we’re once more surprised to see another tender expression of God’s love, compassion and kindness. We first saw that expression when He confronted Adam and Eve in the garden. The next time was when He confronted Cain when he presented and unacceptable offering. Another time was when he appeared to Hagar when she ran from Abraham and Sarah.

This time our Lord shows His tenderness, concern and compassion to Leah, Jacob’s first wife.

Jacob saw Rachael. Jacob has a very natural, very romantic and very genuine love for Rachael.
Jacob’s love is natural in that it started when he looked at her and liked what he saw. At this point his attraction is superficial, though that doesn’t mean it’s not genuine. We’re pretty sure that if Leah had come out Jacob would not have had that kind of reaction.
Our love is natural in that it involves our senses. Now that makes sense because we don’t know everything about the person we hope to grow more in love with.

Jacob’s love is romantic. He immediately shows his feelings for Rachael by removing the stone from the well, watering her father’s sheep, giving her a kiss and weeping. Romantic love is also important in that it should convey the value we have for the one we love.
Jacob’s love is also genuine. He is willing to work seven years to secure her as his wife. And these days seemed like only a few because of his true love for her. And Jacob’s love was consistent. He didn’t play the smoke and mirrors romantic game with her and then turn it all off as soon as they were married. In fact even though she was not having children it was clear that Jacob still preferred the love and company of Rachael over Leah. He was truly in love with her and truly loved her all the years of their marriage.

God saw Leah.
The story is clear that Leah was not attractive nor given much attention or consideration. If anyone in scripture ever had reason to have low self esteem and to really believe that no one loved or cared for her it was Leah. You can imagine Leah being very much like the character Celie of Alice Walker’s novel.
Unlike her younger sister Rachael who everyone saw and paid attention to Leah is not attractive, has no suitors and left on her own would most likely be looked over and passed over. Clearly her father Laban didn’t think much of Leah. In effect he secretly sells her off in order to get seven more years of labor from Jacob. She’s little more than a pawn in her father’s get rich scheme. Jacob neither loves or wants Leah. He didn’t marry her out of love or even to get economic advantage.

Think of how this woman must have felt. Not only does she grow up knowing she’s not attractive but she’s constantly in the shadow of and probably compared to her much more attractive sister. She’s married off to a man who doesn’t want her and now is stuck in a loveless marriage.
Of all of the pitiful people we come across in scripture Leah has to be among the most pitied.

Thank God that there is a God who looked out for and loved Leah. And His love is not like the love that Jacob had for Rachael even though Jacob’s love was a genuine, committed love.

There’s an interesting repeat of the phrases recorded in vss. 10 and 31. Jacob saw Rachael’s beauty and set his romantic love on her. God saw that Leah was not loved, was not heard, was not desired and set His love on her. And it’s God’s love that eventually begins to change Leah’s whole outlook on life.

What did God see when He looked at Leah and what did that come to mean to her?

God sees her predicament.
Leah is in a marriage in which her own husband has rejected her. She was in the one relationship in which she should be accepted, wanted and made to feel valuable and sadly that was not the case. And from Leah’s point of view no one cared or even paid attention to her lot in life. And she was suffering intense emotional and psychological pain and distress.

When Leah conceives her first child she somehow knows that God is looking out for her. Though no one else sees or cares the God of the universe, the One who identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob notices and pays attention to her issue.

Once her first son is born Leah calls him Reuben because the Lord had looked upon her affliction. But she still has some growing to do. Leah is now aware that God has her in mind, but she’s still hoping to find identity, dignity, meaning and satisfaction in Jacob’s love.

Now we know that God saw our affliction. What was that affliction? It was the affliction of our sin. And out of His love God moved to deal with that affliction by sending His Son to live a perfect life for us, to die a sacrificial death for us and to rise from the grave for us. Knowing that God has already demonstrated such love for us gives us confidence to know that He sees and cares about all the other issues of life that affect us.

This also should motivate us to see the affliction, misery and suffering of those in and around our community. While our needs and issues are important and we want to address them we cannot have a church that turns a blind eye to the needs of those around us. That’s one of the reasons we faithfully support the work of FVI.

One last thing about this. Our church is setting up ME groups which I’ll talk more about next week. One of the purposes of the ME groups is to see to it that everyone is cared for. To put it another way one of the reasons for the ME groups is to make sure that everyone who is apart of our fellowship is seen, noticed and cared for by our fellowship.

God hears her pain.
Out of her distress Leah cried out to the Lord. And who else is she going to cry to? Jacob has rejected her, her father merely used her and her sister is in competition with her.

Where do we turn when the very ones who are supposed to listen and be aware of us turn a deaf ear? Leah’s second pregnancy confirmed for her that the Lord was in fact listening to her as she cried out in her distress. And like Leah we too can cry to Him for strength, endurance and healing in our time of stress and distress. This is what David did in the beginning of Psalm 61.

Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; 2 from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, 3 for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. 4 Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah Ps. 61.

Leah cried out and knew that the Lord was not only aware but was actively listening to her distress and yet she’s still focused on earning her husbands love. She still locates her value and worth in her ability to produce children and through them to gain the feelings Jacob has for her sister.

And I know all of us can identity with Leah in one way or another. We want others to love us and many times we do things in the hopes of earning their love. And sometimes we’re even tempted to believe God operates that way. That there is something we can do that will insure that He will start and keep loving us. But that’s not the case. God’s love for us is an unconditional love, it’s a redemptive love and it’s a perpetual love. Why? Because anyone who has believed in Jesus Christ is loved by the Father with the same kind of love He has for His One and only Son. And since it’s a love we didn’t earn in the first place there’s nothing we can do that would ever cause God to take it away from us. This is one of the issues Paul addressed when he wrote Romans 8:31-39.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
" For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hearing the cries of God’s people is another reason of our ME groups. They will be safe places where you can share the concerns of your heart, mind and soul. Places where your brothers and sisters will pray for you knowing that we all struggle with one thing or another.

But let’s not forget that we have a community that is also crying out. There is so much anger, frustration and pain in our community with almost no outlet. Let’s rise up and be a people willing to listen to the cries of our community. Let’s do so so that they will know that when the cry out to the Lord for salvation from sin that He will hear, answer and grant forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ.

Time in the Jacob household moves on and it becomes pretty clear to Leah that even bearing a second male child isn’t enough to win Jacob’s affection. So she conceives and bears a third child and believes that this is it. Surely the third time is a charm, finally her husband in law will actually become her husband in fact and join or become attached to her emotionally. But that doesn’t happen. As Levi is weaned and begins to grow Leah discovers once again that Jacob’s affections belong to Rachael and only Rachael.

It’s sometime after the third child that Leah begins to see the One who see, hears, knows and loves her.

And it’s here where we see the progression of God seeing Leah’s predicament to hearing Leah’s pain and at this point in her life becoming Leah’s praise. Notice in the passage how after the first three children Leah thoughts are squarely focused on Jacob. In fact it doesn’t even seem that she loves the children outright as much as she hopes that the children will secure his love.

But note what scripture says after the fourth child. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, "This time I will praise the Lord." Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.

God becomes Leah’s praise.
Here at least for a time Leah sets her heart, mind and soul on the Lord as and end in and of Himself. I’m not sure how many years the children were apart but it’s likely that they were at least a year to two apart which meant that it took Leah a few years to grasp this.

Why is she praising God?

Perhaps she praises because she knows that though others looked past and rejected Her that God did not. Leah may not have mattered much to others but she mattered to the Lord. Her feelings, her situation and her person was important to Him.

Perhaps she praises because she’s discovered that the one person who didn’t merely want to use her had demonstrated a tangible and tender loving kindness to her. Think about this for a moment. Leah is in a dysfunctional family in which her father used her to swindle the labor of her husband, her husband basically uses her to bear children because the wife he really loves can’t, and even her sister for some reason wants to use her as a rival to build up her own self-worth even though she already has Jacob’s love.

Everybody wants to use Leah and in the process cause her to feel like nothing except the Lord. He’s the only one who doesn’t need to use Leah to accomplish His will and yet the only one showing her authentic love, care, concern, compassion, dignity and humanity. And God continued to do this even though after the first three children she still didn’t really seek to be satisfied in Him.

This is why this short episode in the life of God’s people is so precious and special.

Leah is in many ways just like all of us regarding salvation. Like Leah there was nothing within us that would have caused God to love us. God didn’t set His love on us because we were spiritually lovely, beautiful or desirable.

Also like Leah nothing we did could have ever earned God’s love for us. Leah bore son after son after son and still did not win Jacob’s affection or loving attention.

Finally, like Leah God has loved us. He has loved us unconditionally, redemptively, persistently and permanently. God’s showed His love for Leah by giving her children. He has shown His to us by giving up His Son. And it’s this Jesus who being the eternal Son of God was born of the virgin Mary. He grew up and lived like any other man and in so doing saw the pain, frustration, sorrow and distress of His people.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37  Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Are you feeling harassed and helpless by your life or the situation your in? Don’t worry the same Jesus who saw a wife who was harassed and helpless sees you.

Jesus heard the cries of those who were afflicted and paid attention to them.

And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49 And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you." 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight." 52 And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
Mk. 10.

The same Jesus who heard the cries of Leah the unloved and Bartimaeus the blind will hear and listen to your cry.

But more than that Jesus has become attached to us. Here’s what I mean Jesus came into the world for the specific purpose of joining our fate. Because of our sin and rebellion we had earned God’s fair punishment for our sins. Jesus came into the world to die for those sins. He joined us in our humanity, experienced life as we experience it, faced temptation as we faced it and even though He never sinned nor did anything deserving of death He so attached Himself to us that He suffered death for us.

By loving us this way Jesus has given us a reason to praise, thank and worship Him now and forever. Jesus who is descended from the tribe of Judah is our praise. Why? Because among other reasons Jesus is the one who truly brings us soul satisfaction.

Why do we praise?

We praise because in Jesus we know that we have worth. We are of greatly valued and treasured because the Creator, Lord and King of the universe want us to surround His throne in eternal worship, fellowship and love. In Jesus we are wanted.

We praise because in Jesus we know that our lives mean something. By His grace we play an important role in the expansion of His kingdom and will enjoy a reward for our service to Him.

We praise because in Jesus we enjoy the lavish, unconditional, sacrificial, persistent, permanent, tender, affectionate, faithful and redemptive love of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

We praise because in Jesus we belong to Him and His people forever. Though we might be lonely at times we are never alone. We have His presence with us and He has brought us into His family. And in His family we are loved, accepted and belong.

We praise because in Jesus our sins have been washed away. And that is the big deal. Yes, our lives down here might even be filled with distress, pain and sorrow and yet that sorrow and grief while excruciating is nothing compared to an eternity of punishment for our sins. We praise because Jesus has loved us and free us from our sin by His blood.

Finally we praise because we have Jesus. And when we have Him we have enough. And that's why we want to proclaim and promote this Jesus to our community. We want to preach a Jesus who sees and who loves.

Questions for Reflection:

Are you following God's revealed will by consistently striving to live according to what scripture says? If not why?

Are you in pain or distress this morning? If so do you know and believe that the Lord knows about and sees your pain?

Do you cry to the Lord in your distress? Are you willing to go to Him and literally cry out your pain to Him?

How are you handling your disappointment? How are you dealing with the fact that some things you’ve longed for for so long haven’t worked out the way you hoped or planned? How do you respond to God who has seen your distress, heard your cries of pain and yet still the very issue that pains you remains?

Has Jesus become our praise as an end in and of Himself or is our worship still controlled by our circumstances?

To Him Who Loves Us...
Pastor Lance