Pointing to Jesus

Genesis 16:13-14a- 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.” Therefore the well was called Beer- lahai- roi.

Jehovah El Roi is another one of God’s names, and it means The God Who Sees Me. It was a name that Hagar, Abraham and Sarah’s Egyptian servant, called God when she left Abraham and Sarah’s home.

The story of Abraham,  Sarah, and Hagar is found in Genesis 16. It begins with Sarah being barren. She had no children, so she gave her servant Hagar to her husband Abraham to sleep with so she could have children by her. Hagar conceived and began to treat Sarah with contempt and looked down on her. She regarded her as insignificant because Sarah was barren. Because of this, Sarah begins to treat Hagar badly- so badly that Hagar flees their home.

The angel of the Lord finds Hagar at a spring and tells her to go back to Sarah and submit to her authority. He also told her that He would greatly multiply her descendants. He then told her she would bear a son and to name him Ishmael and tells her what kind of person He would be.

Hagar then calls Him the Lord who sees. She recognized Him and His character. She also obeyed Him, and she did go back to Abraham and Sarah’s home. She realized that God saw her in her distress and difficult situation and came and spoke to her.

We can trust that God sees us as well. He sees us in our difficulty and distress as well. It’s who He is. It’s His character.  He knows and understands us, and we are important and valuable to Him. Look at what the following verses say about how He sees us.

Psalm. 139:1-18-O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.

Matthew 10:30-31-But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Nothing happens to us that God doesn’t see or know about. Nothing escapes His notice. He knows us and wants to be known by us. We never have to wonder or doubt that He sees and knows us. We matter to Him. We can rest assured and fully trust that He loves us and cares about every situation we face because He is our Jehovah El Roi– The God Who Sees Us.

Many blessings,

Desiree