Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt (Genesis 42:1). He saw it — but the midrash immediately pivots to a verse from Proverbs: "The ear that hears and the eye that sees — the Lord has made them both" (Proverbs 20:12). Why? Because the organs of perception are themselves the subject here, not just the grain.
The rabbis made a curious argument: the ear and the eye are the only organs that will not be judged at the final reckoning. Not because they are innocent — but because they cannot help what they perceive. The eye sees what is not good for a person; the ear hears slander against its owner's will. But the hands that steal, the feet that run to evil, the mouth that speaks falsehood — these are volitional. The person could have chosen otherwise. The eye and the ear are receptors. The rest of the body is agency.
This is the distinction Jacob embodies: he saw the grain in Egypt and acted on what he saw by sending his sons. He did not close his eyes to practical reality in favor of theological abstraction. God had made his eyes to see — and the grain was real, and the famine was real, and his grandchildren would die if he did not act. The divine management of the universe does not override human perception and response. It works through them. Jacob saw because God made eyes that see. And then he sent his sons, because God also made hands that act.