{"id":24563,"date":"2025-03-27T21:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T21:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=24563"},"modified":"2025-03-27T21:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T21:54:14","slug":"gods-watchful-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2025\/03\/gods-watchful-eye\/","title":{"rendered":"God’s Watchful Eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel<\/a>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prayer Meeting Address given at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss<\/b> on Wednesday evening, 27th February, 2019<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b>\u201cFor I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.\u201d\u2014Genesis 31:12<\/i><\/p>\n

You may wonder whatever food you could gather from a verse like this in Holy Scripture. But, if we are given the grace to dig beneath the surface tonight, I believe we will find some precious things, especially for those who are in the path that Jacob was in; that is in the way of faith, but in a greatly tried and tested path. We sometimes sing (and the Word of God confirms it):<\/p>\n

\u201cBut grace, though the smallest, shall surely be tried.\u201d<\/p>\n

J. Kent<\/i><\/p>\n

Let me comment, first of all, on Jacob, secondly on Laban and thirdly, on Jacob\u2019s God. It is He who is speaking. \u2018I<\/i>, the God of Bethel. \u2018I<\/i>, the God of Jacob.\u2019 \u201cFor I <\/i>have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.\u201d Well, the first time we read of Jacob is when he is in the womb of his mother, Rebecca. There, even within the womb, he and his brother Esau were striving one with another. And Rebecca, godly woman that she was, goes to the Lord and asks the reason for this strife. The Lord told her. \u201cTwo nations are in thy womb…and the elder shall serve the younger.\u201d Rebecca clung to that promise. I am sure she told Isaac about it. We would not unnecessarily denigrate what went on in Isaac\u2019s tent, but, sadly, it does seem there was a partiality of Isaac towards Esau, and Rebecca toward Jacob.<\/p>\n

We know the history. The first years of Jacob\u2019s history are not pleasant. He was a cunning man. He was a supplanter. He was a man who would go to great lengths to get his own way and take advantage of other\u2019s weaknesses and so press on, taking regard of no-one but himself. That was Jacob by nature; Jacob without grace, Jacob before he was called by grace, Jacob serving himself, Jacob serving Satan. That is what he was doing. In that sense, Jacob was no better than Esau. Esau was a man of the world. Esau was a man who also had great ambitions, and also cared very little for his father\u2019s religion and his father\u2019s God. These two grew up in their own way, both in the broad road that \u201cleadeth to destruction.\u201d But, almighty God, whose purposes are from everlasting, had decreed in His eternal covenant to set His favour upon Jacob, the younger. He had determined that he would not always be a supplanter and a deceiver; one who was Satan\u2019s slave and a self-serving man. He determined to pluck Jacob as a brand from the burning and take him to Himself, and get a name for Himself. \u2018I am the God of Jacob.\u2019 We read in Psalm 146; \u201cHappy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The time comes when Isaac thinks he is about to die. He doesn\u2019t die; his time had not come. Isaac lived years after that sad and solemn scene that we will hint at in a moment. He went before the Lord in that matter. And, whenever we go before the Lord, dear friends, you can be sure trouble will ensure. \u201cHe that believeth shall not make haste.\u201d We are to walk with <\/i>the Lord, not rush on in front of Him. \u201cEnoch walked with <\/i>God,\u201d in union; the same pace that God would have him walk, the same direction that God would have him go. But, Isaac thought his end was coming and wanted to impart the eternal blessing. In his natural mind it seemed obvious it should go to Esau, even though Esau had already sold his birthright. But Isaac was determined to press on. We know what happened; how he sends Esau away to get the venison. Rebecca hears it and thinks the promise given to her concerning Jacob is about to slip from her grasp and his grasp. Something must be done by carnal minds to prop up God\u2019s word and God\u2019s way! Oh, Rebecca, where have you got to? God does not need your carnal schemes. He does not need you to prop up His way. But, she pressed on, and made Jacob a liar. Three times he tells his father: \u201cI am Esau thy firstborn.\u201d Isaac says: \u201cThe voice is Jacob\u2019s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.\u201d Isaac was confused and bewildered. In the end he was overruled in his spirit and pronounced the paternal blessing; not just the natural blessing, but Isaac looked on and on to the kingdom that God had promised to Abraham his father, and eventually the coming of the dear Son of God in that kingdom.<\/p>\n

So, Jacob leaves the tent. I wonder how he felt? In one sense, a blessing had been pronounced upon him. On the other hand, what an uneasy feeling must have arrested his bosom if he had a speaking conscience at all, that he had deceived his father in that way. Then Esau comes in, expecting to be blessed. \u2018Oh,\u2019 says Isaac, \u2018I have already blessed Jacob.\u2019 \u201cYea, and he shall be blessed,\u201d says Isaac. Oh, the bitter tears that Esau shed! And we find matters get worse. Esau determines to kill Jacob as soon as Isaac has passed away. Rebecca hears of it, and Jacob has to flee. He had to flee, dear friends, from his father\u2019s tent, from his mother and all that he had known from his earliest days and go out as a fugitive, as an alien, as a foreigner into another land; lonely, solitary and guilty with his sins staring him in the face. We might have thought when he lay down on that stony pillow at Bethel that no good thing could possibly come out of the path he had been treading. But, God will have His way. Jacob was the one to be blessed. So, dear friends, we know what happened at Bethel. The foot of the ladder was shown right near Jacob\u2019s head, and the top of it reaching up into heaven. There, that man for the first time, felt the presence of God, heard the voice of God and realised for the first time that he could not order his own ways. He needed a God to guide him, to help him, to keep him and to provide for him. And the Lord gave him that most precious promise: \u201cAnd, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.\u201d The Lord had spoken to him about the land he lay on, and, of the promised seed concerning our Saviour, in due season.<\/p>\n

But, He said: \u201cI am with thee, and will keep thee in all places.\u201d Those places, dear friends, were dictated by God for Jacob to be in. And for twenty years Jacob had to live in what we might call \u2018the school of divine discipline.’ He goes to Laban. The first time we read about Laban, who was, of course, uncle to Jacob (Rebecca\u2019s brother), is in Genesis 24, when Eliezer, that most godly man, had prayed most beautifully outside the city gate and asked that whoever would come and offer water for himself and for his camels would be the one the Lord had chosen for Isaac. Rebecca comes out, and the prayer is answered. He puts bracelets and rings of gold on her, and when she went back to her brother, Laban, we read: \u201cWhen he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister\u2019s hands…\u201d This shows us straight away the heart of this man. He was a man of the world; a man who wanted only earthly things and would go to great lengths to get them and to keep them. Laban was actually a very unsavoury character, but God had determined that for some twenty years Jacob should live in his service to learn lessons he could not learn anywhere else.<\/p>\n

When Jacob arrives there, he almost immediately falls in love with Rachel. But, he is deceived in that matter. Laban deceives him, and Leah is the one who is given Jacob to wife, though Jacob thought she was Rachel. Could Jacob say: \u2018You wicked man, Laban! How dare you deceive me like that? Oh, how evil you must be!\u2019 Friends, really his mouth was stopped, wasn\u2019t it? It was almost exactly the same thing as he had done to his own father Isaac, in a different context. He was reaping where he had sown. \u201cWhatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.\u201d Jacob had sown deceit and cunning, and he reaped it.<\/p>\n

Friends, again and again with Laban, who changed Jacob\u2019s wages ten times, he deceived him in this matter and that matter throughout those twenty years. And, we might say (our text says) God had seen all that Laban had done. God was watching. Why didn\u2019t the Lord intervene before? He could have stopped Laban the first time and delivered Jacob from this unscrupulous man. But, no. \u2018Jacob, you are to remain there. I put you there. You are to learn lessons there you could not learn anywhere else.\u2019 Jacob had to remain there.<\/p>\n

But, our text says: \u201cFor I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.\u201d We come now to the blessed point of our text: God sees, God hears. Let me just remind you of two or three passages in Scripture that encourage us in this. You will remember in the wilderness wanderings when Miriam and Aaron, two godly people, on one occasion turned to Moses and told him he was taking too much on himself and they were equal with him and should have an equal position in the nation. Moses held his peace. But we read: \u201cAnd the LORD heard it.\u201d And God dealt with it, as well. Miriam was struck with leprosy, and for some few days was banished from the camp. The Lord did heal her, but it was a solemn reproof. God heard it. Just as he was watching over Laban, God was watching over His servant, Moses.<\/p>\n

Again, the children of Israel down in Egypt: God was watching as the taskmasters beat His people. Their poor backs were bleeding under the burning sun. Those cities were being built one after another for Pharaoh by these slaves. God watched, and God saw. Stephen, in his wonderful sermon in Acts 7 tells us: \u201cI have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them.\u201d But, God waited. Jeremiah tells us in Lamentations 3: \u201cO LORD, Thou hast seen my wrong: judge Thou my cause.\u201d The point I want to make, dear friends, is threefold in this part of our text. First of all:<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a single shaft can hit,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Till the God of love sees fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

J. Ryland<\/i><\/p>\n

If God\u2019s people have to deal with a man like Laban, the Lord is watching. The Lord knows. And, the Lord will have the last word. That is the first thing.<\/p>\n

Secondly, God permits these trials to go on for as long as He sees fit, till the fire has done its work and until the rod has accomplished that which God intended it to accomplish. And, if you try to escape that rod before God\u2019s time, you will only make the rod heavier and sharper. \u201cBe still,\u201d He says, \u201cand know that I am God.\u201d \u201cSit still, My daughter.\u201d \u201cBe still.\u201d \u201cStand still.\u201d The Lord will bring you out in due time, but at the moment; \u201cif need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.\u201d \u201cFor I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third thing is \u2013 oh, precious thought! God felt it. God feels for His dear people. We sometimes sing that hymn (one of my favourites):<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all thy distresses thy Head feels the pain;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet all are most needful; not one is in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n

J. Grant<\/i><\/p>\n

Every pain you feel, every load you bear, every ache in your poor heart and every sigh is known to Him. In fact, the dear psalmist, David, says: \u201cPut Thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?\u201d Our tears are preserved for a day of rejoicing. \u201cThey that sow in tears shall reap in joy.\u201d \u201cWeeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, why I have to take this subject tonight, I know not, except I believe the Lord laid it on me for tonight. And the first lesson is for anyone who is in this path, where they perhaps feel an injustice and want to try and put it right with carnal means. Friends, lay aside all those carnal means and all those schemes you have to try and give \u201cAn eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.\u201d Humble yourself under God\u2019s mighty hand. In due time; in God\u2019s time, He will bring you out. He brings Israel out of Egypt in His <\/i>time. He brings Jacob out from Laban\u2019s oppression in due time. He brings Jeremiah up out of the dungeon where he said those words: \u201cO LORD, thou hast seen my wrong.\u201d And, friends, He is still the same God today as He was then.<\/p>\n

Let us look at it a little more deeply, because there is another lesson here. In a sense, Laban represents all that is of the flesh. Laban was a very fleshly man. Paul tells us, in writing to the Galatians, when speaking about the conflict between Ishmael and Isaac (it was the same conflict that was between Laban and Jacob) that he that was of the flesh was persecuting him that was of the spirit. And that may be known outwardly in your walk. The very fact you have made a stand for Christ\u2019s sake, or you have refused to lie when you have been asked to do so, perhaps. I think of our late friend, Mr James Oliver Pack, who preached in this pulpit many times. He had a very high position in a boot and shoe company, White and Co, Northampton. (They still exist, I think). He was one of the managing directors. One Friday, one of the other directors (who was actually his uncle) called him into the office and asked him to sign a letter. But Mr Pack refused. He told his uncle: \u2018There is a lie in it. I cannot and I will not sign it.\u2019 For some time after that, Mr Pack suffered at work because he would not sign that letter. He told me that what he suffered under that man he could not tell. He made his life so awkward. But, when that uncle was dying, he called Mr Pack to his bedside and told him: \u2018Oliver, you were right, and I was wrong.\u2019 \u201cI have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.\u201d Friends, God can make the crooked straight and the rough plain. God can break iron bars and brasen gates. God can deal with Labans so that His Jacobs come out in due season.<\/p>\n

But, look at it spiritually. Every child of God has two armies within. The Word of God tells us so. The Song of Solomon: \u201cWhat will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.\u201d That is what Rebecca felt when Esau and Jacob fought in her womb. And the child of God has two armies within. He still has his flesh; it is strong, it is determined, it wants its own way, its wants its own will and it always has something to say about the path that you are in. But, if you are born again by the Spirit, there is another nature diametrically opposed to the old. What the old loves, the new nature hates. What the old nature hates, the new nature loves. There will never be compromise between them. They will always be at each other\u2019s throats, in one sense (I use that expression carefully). They cannot be reconciled. And I want to encourage someone here tonight according to the language of our text. There is someone here, I believe, who is suffering greatly under the old nature. It is dragging them around hither and thither. \u2018Oh!\u2019 you say, like good Samuel Rutherford, \u2018Oh that I had not a myself!\u2019 \u2018If only I could be humble, patient, submissive, quiet, holy and unworldly!\u2019 And yet you find the very opposite working in your poor bosom. You would <\/i>be different. You are like Paul in Romans 7. \u201cFor the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.\u201d \u2018Lord, is there any hope for one like me?\u2019 \u201cI have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.\u201d Friends, He sees the conflict you are in. He knows what is going on deep, deep down in your heart. He knows what that sigh means, what that groan means, what that tear means. He says: \u2018I have seen it. And, what is more, not only have I seen it, I will come to your aid.\u2019 What did we sing in that precious hymn, quoting Isaiah 42?<\/p>\n

\u201cA bruis\u00e8d reed he never breaks,<\/p>\n

Nor will he quench the smoking flax.\u201d<\/p>\n

S. Stennett<\/i><\/p>\n

What a mercy! And again, another word in Isaiah\u2019s prophecy towards the end of that blessed Book: \u201cWhen the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.\u201d \u201cI have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.\u201d The Lord is watching. For the moment, as Peter says, \u201cye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.\u201d But, that is not the end of the matter. We read in the prophecies that Moses made, concerning Jacob\u2019s sons; we come to the prophecy concerning Gad: \u201cGad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.\u201d The Hebrew expression for \u2018a troop\u2019 is a marauding band. Just like Laban! Just like Pharaoh\u2019s taskmasters: a marauding band! Cruel, vicious and powerful! But, that is not the end of the matter. \u201cA troop shall overcome him: but <\/i>he shall overcome at the last.\u201d The end is absolutely certain, as it was for Jacob.<\/p>\n

Yes, blessed be God, He knows the path you are in. \u201cBut He knoweth the way that I take:\u201d says Job, \u201cwhen He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.\u201d He permitted Satan to try Job with those cruel disappointments and discouragements. Job had to suffer the loss of possessions, the loss of his family, the loss of even his wife\u2019s understanding, the loss of the friendship of his three friends: the Lord saw it all. In the end, He dealt with it all. \u201cI have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.\u201d But, the Lord has the last word. Revelation 22: \u201cI am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, if you know what I am talking about tonight, you will need an Almighty God to come to your aid. You need the God of Jacob to come to your aid as He did with Laban, and with other foes Jacob had. You say: \u2018But I am not worthy of it!\u2019 Was Jacob worthy of it? Not a scrap. It was all mercy. He says so later on: \u201cI am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed unto Thy servant.\u201d \u2018But, I have a God.\u2019 \u201cThe God of Jacob.\u201d Oh, bless God if you have that God tonight, dear friend!<\/p>\n

Laban will not have the last word. Your old nature will not have the last word. Satan will not have the last word. That cross you are under; that crook in the lot, that thorn in the flesh: it will not have the last word. God <\/i>will have the last word. We read that lovely word in Job: \u201cThe righteous also shall hold on his way;\u201d the very thing, poor friend, you thought you could not do today, didn\u2019t you? You were so oppressed by this conflict and so weary of the battle. \u2018Lord, will I ever get to the end?\u2019 \u201cThe righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.\u201d \u201cClean hands.\u201d What does that mean? You wait the Lord\u2019s time, until He put His hand to the work. Jacob learned the folly of dirty hands, didn\u2019t he? But he proved what God\u2019s hands could do. And they can, my dear friends. There is nothing too hard for the Lord. And, when He arises for the help of His dear people, then He will have the pre-eminence. You will look on, and you will say: \u201cThis is the LORD\u2019S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

One last thought. Just remember those words that Paul speaks in the epistles, speaking of our God. \u201cVengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.\u201d We are not skilled enough to take the sword of vengeance. If there is one here tonight \u2013 I know not, you may be in this path of oppression in your actual pathway. You are tending to take up \u201cAn eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.\u201d Friends, lay it all aside. Leave the Lord to take up the matter. When He takes it up, you can be sure He will deal with it infinitely better than you can. You say, \u2018What am I to do then?\u2019 Psalm 37 verse 5: \u201cCommit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.\u201d And, in bringing it to pass, don\u2019t forget what both Rachel and Leah said to Jacob: \u201cWhatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.\u201d Humble obedience. Yes. The Lord makes the way. \u201cWhen He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them.\u201d They tread in the steps of the Good Shepherd.<\/p>\n

May God add His blessing.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may wonder whatever food you could gather from a verse like this in Holy Scripture. But, if we are given the grace to dig beneath the surface tonight, I believe we will find some precious things, especially for those who are in the path that Jacob was in; that is in the way of faith, but in a greatly tried and tested path. We sometimes sing (and the Word of God confirms it):<\/p>\n

\u201cBut grace, though the smallest, shall surely be tried.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":480,"featured_media":22558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1728],"tags":[1227],"class_list":["post-24563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gerald-buss","tag-spiritual-assurance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24564,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24563\/revisions\/24564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}