The Names of God: El Roi
Meg Chaney
“The Angel of the Lord found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. He said, ‘Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She replied, ‘I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.’ Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, ‘You must go back to your mistress and submit to her mistreatment.’ The Angel of the Lord also said to her, ‘I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count.’ Then the Angel of the Lord said to her: You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction. So she called the Lord who spoke to her: The God Who Sees, for she said, ‘In this place, have I actually seen the One who sees me?’ .”
I have always loved this story. For some reason, it’s always resonated with me. Maybe that seems odd to you, but stay with me for a bit. First, let’s look at Hagar. Hagar was a slave. But not just anyone’s slave, Sarai’s. Do you recall the story of Abram (later Abraham) and Sarai (later Sarah)? They were promised that their descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky. But they were really getting up there in age, and Sarai still hadn’t had a son. So Sarai gave her slave Hagar (see, there she is!) to Abram as a second wife (can you imagine?). Hagar did become pregnant, but this is where her relationship with Sarai becomes messy. She lords her position over the still child-less Sarai, and Sarai, in turn, is pretty cruel to Hagar.
And so Hagar runs away from home.
Hagar was caught in the middle of Abram and Sarai trying to rush God’s plan. Her child wasn’t the one God had promised. But God still saw her pain. And so, God sends an angel to Hagar in the wilderness. He talks to her there, and promises that her son will have his own, great nation. Just the same, she has to go back and submit to her mistress for a season. He saw her mistreatment, and yet doesn’t immediately deliver her from it.
Hagar calls the place were the angel spoke to God “El Roi, the God Who Sees.” And then, she goes back. She’s given an amazing promise, but not immediate deliverance.
How interesting.
But isn’t it so true in our own lives? We are given these deep promises. We have deep soul truths in our lives, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll immediately see all those things come to past. Often, we go through long seasons of waiting. Long seasons of draught. Long seasons of just having to trust that the Lord is our Provider and Sustainer. Sometimes, He asks us to just keep moving. To just keep trusting. And so it’s so comforting to be reminded that He sees us, He meets us exactly where we are, in the middle of it all.
He sees you, exactly where you are today, dear one. How can I pray for you today?