The God Who Sees
Have you found yourself in a desert feeling thirsty and wondering why God hasn’t shown up? You are in good company because the Old Testament character Hagar felt the same way.
Hagar isn’t typically mentioned as one of the heroes of the faith but rather a scandalous side note in the story of Abraham and Sarah’s pursuit to have a child. After many years of waiting, they took matters into their own hands, and the maidservant of Sarah, Hagar was offered to Abraham to have their child.
However, when Hagar was found to be pregnant, Sarah became jealous and began to mistreat her, so she was forced to flee her camp.
Genesis 16:13 picks up with Hagar alone and helpless and hiding near a spring in the desert. I love Hagar’s response to God finding her: “You are the God who sees me.” Hagar is the first person in the Bible to use “another name” for God. In particular, she uses the name (in Hebrew) El Roi. The name literally means the God who sees me.
Though Hagar and her unborn child were out of sight and out of mind, the eyes of the LORD were upon her. Hagar gives us an important truth about our own visibility under the gaze of a loving God who sees beyond what others cannot. No matter how lonely and desperate our situation is, God sees us right where we are, and He won’t leave us.
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