Scripture: Genesis 16:13
So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
In mid-January I was reading in the book of Genesis, and this verse caught my attention in a way it never had before. I knew I wanted to do a little more digging into this verse later, so I wrote it in my “Mindless” App and went on about my business. Last week I decided to revisit this verse and I began to discover the power of the name of God, El Roi, the God who Sees.
But first, let me give you a little background information leading up to this verse.
Hagar, Egyptian slave to Sarai, found herself in a plot that rivals any melodrama on television. In our story we find Sarai deciding to take matters in her own hand because she believes that she and Abraham are too old to have a baby. Sarai convinces Abraham to marry Hagar as his second wife so that Hagar will become pregnant and have a son to fulfill the promise God made to Abraham. Abraham listens to Sarai and reasons that this is a good idea and marries Hagar. The drama intensifies when Hagar becomes pregnant and begins to look down on Sarai who is still without child. A jealous, angry Sarai turns to Abraham and tells him this is his fault. Abraham tells Sarai that Hagar is her servant and she has the power and authority over her. Sarai treats Hagar harshly, and Hagar flees into the wilderness to escape.
This is where we meet Hagar, pregnant, lonely, tired, downcast, sitting beside a spring of water in the wilderness on her way to Egypt. Then the Angel of the Lord finds Hagar and asks her where did she come from and where is she going? Hagar told him that she was running away from Sarai. The Angel tells Hagar to go back to Sarai and to submit humbly to her authority. Then He tells her that her descendants will be “greatly multiplied and too many to count”. Next, He begins to tell her about the son she is carrying. He tells her to name him Ishmael which means God hears because the Lord heard her distress and paid attention to her suffering. He then goes on to tell her that Ishmael will be a man that is continually fighting and that he will live in defiance with his brothers. After listening to the Angel of the Lord, Hagar realizes exactly who she is talking to. She calls him by name, “El Roi, the God who sees.”
Oh My Goodness! I love it when I “see” something in a whole new way.
We have a God who sees us! He sees our struggles, he knows our pains, he hears our cries, He is the God who Sees All.
There are several good life lessons or “take aways” to learn from this story. Here are just a few:
- Patience: Don’t get ahead of God. Sarai knew that God had given them the promise of a child. Instead of waiting on God to fulfill His promise in His time, she decided to help God. I AM SO GUILTY of this very thing—ok, so I didn’t encourage Ben to take on another wife, but you know what I mean. I have also tried to help out God and like Sarai, I too discovered that this is a very bad idea that caused us some financial pain in the past. Our take away is to “be still and wait”. When God gives us a mission, He will make it happen in His time not ours.
- Fleeing from our problems doesn’t make them disappear. Just like Hagar, I too have tried to run away from an issue instead of facing it and dealing with it. The problem with running away is that the “problem” still exists, and eventually you have to take care of the situation. I don’t know if you caught the directions given to Hagar, but she was told to return and “submit humbly” to Sarai. Basically, she was told to make her wants and desires lower than God’s plan for her life. Ouch! That can sometimes be difficult for us to do. I know when I got the cancer diagnosis, I had to deal with the death of the dream that God put in our hearts. I found myself questioning God and what He was allowing to take place. Then came the sweet act of submission. I realized that God was allowing something to take place in my life that I could not figure out the purpose, but I could submit my desires to walk with great trust within His plan for my life.
- We all have a God who Sees. God knows our every feeling, our heartaches, our battles, our fears. He sees us! Your problems are not too big, too bad, too ugly for the God who sees. The beautiful ending to this story is that he doesn’t just “see” the problem and know about it. He gave very specific directions to Hagar. He helped her in her distress by acknowledging her pain and her fears and then He clearly gave her a plan of how to face her problem. We too can call out to El Roi when we are facing the impossibilities in our own life. He has a plan and a solution for each one of us, we just need to be willing to look to the one who “sees” for the answers.
I know there are more life lessons in this story, but I want to take the time to share an amazing song and short film that made its debut last week. If you know me well, then you know I am a huge Nicole C. Mullen fan. I was watching a live Facebook post and she started talking about a song that she was getting ready to release. Guess what it is called? “The God Who Sees”. Y’all, I just can’t sometimes!
Kathie Lee Gifford and Nicole C. Mullen have been working in partnership on this beautiful song and short film. I’m including links to both because they are so powerful.
My challenge to you today is to listen and see what the God who Sees may be saying to you.
Let me know what you think,
