The God Who Sees Me – El Roi

So far, the names of God we have reviewed appear a multitude of times in Scripture. But some of the names used for God don’t appear very many times in the Bible. That’s true of the name we are looking at today: The God Who Sees Me, El Roi. It only appears one time, but that one time tells us a lot about the character of God.

El Roi appears in Genesis 16:13, and it was spoken by an unlikely character. Here is the story:

Abraham and Sarah, while very old, were told they would have a child—their first child. Even though they did not seem to believe it was possible at first, they apparently started buying into the idea that there might be a way, because they started trying to figure out how they could make it happen. Their brilliant plan was for Abraham to sleep with Sarah’s servant, a woman named Hagar (Genesis 16:1–3). Provided that Hagar got pregnant with a boy, they would then take that child to be their own and finally have an heir. The plan worked in that Hagar did get pregnant and did have a son (Genesis 16:4). But as is often true when we compromise on our integrity, the situation was not as rosy as they hoped. Sarah started to hate Hagar as soon as she found out Hagar was pregnant, and she treated her so poorly that Hagar ran away (Genesis 16:6). Out in the wilderness, God spoke to Hagar, promised to multiply her offspring, and said that her son’s name would be Ishmael, which means “God hears” (Genesis 16:10–11).

Wherever you are right now, our Lord is the One who sees you.

Stop for a moment and put yourself in Hagar’s position. Hagar was a slave. She was not part of the family. She didn’t have the right heritage. And she was a woman. Women did not have the same social standing as men. Hagar was a person who had no rights and was out in the wild because that seemed like a better place to be than the place where she was being abused. So when God spoke to her, it was significant. She responded by saying, “You are El-Roi,” and asked, “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?” (Genesis 6:13, emphasis added). Hagar thought she was alone, but she learned that she was not. Moreover, the One who saw her wanted to bring her blessing.

Wherever you are right now, our Lord is the One who sees you. He sees you at work, where your feelings of “There has to be more than this” have left you dissatisfied. He sees you at home, where you try everything you can to distract yourself from how overwhelmed you feel. He even sees you when you’re in the places you shouldn’t be, trying to escape what you know you just can’t tolerate anymore. He knows you and wants to be known by you. If you already have a relationship with God, remember the gift you have in knowing the One who knows you more intimately than anyone else. If you don’t already have a relationship with God, ask Him today to make Himself clear to you and help open your eyes to see how present He is in every moment of your life.

And if you have any questions about how to grow in your relationship with God, feel free to reach out to us at experiencecc.com.