El Roi: God Who Sees Me

 

God Who Sees Me

Shame,  compromise, adultery, jealously, rejection, hopelessness. Would God step into such  a mess? Well, step in He did, and revealed my favorite Name: El Roi, God Who Sees Me.

Genesis 16 tells the story of Hagar, Sarah’s maid, who became entangled in Sarah’s drama. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was in her 80s and childless. In Biblical times, society believed a childless woman was cursed by God. So, in her shame, rather than turn to God, Sarah decided to do it her way. Perhaps a little adultery would be the solution.

Sarah forced Hagar to sleep with Abraham, and she became pregnant with his child. Sarah planned to claim the baby as her own. Of course, Hagar had no choice in the matter. After all, she was just a slave. Sounds weird, but in that day, claiming the child of a slave as your own was common practice. It wasn’t God’s plan, but everyone else did it, so why not?

Once Hagar was pregnant, her relationship with Sarah nosedived. Hagar rubbed the pregnancy in Sarah’s face, and Sarah became insanely jealous.

Finally, Hagar fled into the wilderness; death was better than Sarah’s cruelty. She was broken, without hope, waiting to die. But the Lord had other plans. When she was in desperate darkness, she heard a voice, “Hagar, where have you come from, and where are you going?” Can you imagine how frightened she was? A voice from out of nowhere called her by name.

Hagar answered God – she was truthful, to a point. She told Him she ran away from her cruel mistress, but she didn’t tell Him why. It didn’t matter; He already knew.

God promised Hagar that the son she was carrying would be a powerful man, with descendants too numerous to count, although his life would be full of hostility and hatred. Perhaps the future of her son didn’t sound wonderful, but it was better than feeling him die within her body.

Then God told Hagar to go home and to be a faithful servant to Sarah; the last thing she wanted to do. She was to return to a terrible circumstance and to do her best, regardless. The joy of knowing her son would live, balanced with the hardship of returning to slavery under Sarah seemed difficult, but she was willing.

The remarkable part of this story is that Hagar recognized it was God who spoke to her. God Himself was aware of a slave’s circumstance and stepped in to assure her. Before she headed back to Sarah’s tent, Hagar proclaimed that, in the desert place, she had met the God Who Sees Me.

God Who Sees Me. Why would God reveal Himself to a broken, rejected slave when He didn’t speak to Sarah? Perhaps, when God looked at Sarah’s heart, He saw one who knew Him but stubbornly refused to seek Him. He knew she was set on her own plan and wouldn’t concern herself with His will. As always, when we, like Sarah, wrap compromise, adultery, and jealously in one package, we get a disaster.

When God looked at Hagar’s heart, He saw one desperate for help, a soft heart He knew would respond to Him and obey Him. He didn’t look on her status or circumstance or even her behavior. God revealed Himself to her because she was open to His voice.

What love God shows to us! No matter who we are or what we’ve done, He calls us by name. He calls us when we don’t deserve His attention. He speaks with love when we deserve His anger. He plays no favorites. All He looks for is an open heart.

Do you have a heart open to God’s voice? How precious is it that God knows your name?

No matter your situation, remember God sees you. He sees you in the wilderness places of your life. He sees you when you feel surrounded by darkness. Be assured, you are never beyond His reach.

          How does knowing God sees you bring peace into your circumstances?