This Changes Everything
She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.” -Genesis 16:13
Most of God's names in the Bible are names He identified Himself as. Sometimes, though, individuals who encountered God would call Him by a new name. I searched the Old Testament to find some of these names and I found that most of the time these new names for God were actually the names of altars or places dedicated to the Lord. I’m no Hebrew scholar, so I could be reading it incorrectly, but even Abraham’s famed “Jehovah Jireh” is the name of the place where God provided a ram to spare his son’s life.
In Genesis chapter 16, in the middle of a strange story, an Egyptian slave named Hagar gives God Himself a name. This is one of my favorite stories in all of scripture.
Hagar is a slave belonging to Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Sarah cannot have any children, so she convinces her husband to take Hagar as his concubine and have a baby with her. However, once Hagar becomes pregnant, the Bible says she “despised Sarah.” We don’t know all that entails, though the Hebrew translation indicates she “thought lightly” of Sarah, or began to view her as trivial. As a result, Sarah becomes jealous and mistreats her servant girl.
Hagar decides to flee Sarah’s cruelty, running away to the wilderness. And there, when she’s given up hope, is where God meets her. The angel of the Lord asks her what she is doing, and Hagar admits she’s running away from her mistress. And though my first thought is to think Hagar’s escape is justified, God sends her back to Sarah. But He doesn’t send her back without hope.
The name God tells Hagar to name her son, Ishmael, means “God hears.” He tells her that her son will become a great nation, implying a promise of protection and blessing of the Lord. It won’t be easy, but God will be with Hagar and Ishmael. There’s a lot more to unpack in this passage than we can go into in depth here, so be sure you check it out on your own!
David Guzik’s commentary on this passage reads,
“After meeting with El Roi (You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees), Hagar knew that if God could be with her in the wilderness, He would be with her in having to submit to Sarai also. It’s as if Hagar said to God, “You have looked upon me, and now I can look upon You.” That face-to-face relationship with God transforms.”
Hagar knew God saw her, valued her enough to meet with her in the wilderness when she’d given up hope, and cared for her even though she was considered a foreigner. Not only that, but she was a woman, which in that time and place meant she wasn’t much at all. To be seen by God as a foreign woman was no small thing. In fact, Hagar is the only woman in the entire Bible who named God. Because of this, she was able to go back into a difficult situation. She returned to Sarah. She bore Abraham’s son.
Sometimes God doesn’t take us out of the difficult situations in our lives.
Sometimes the healing doesn’t come.
Sometimes God asks us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Sometimes we pray for years for the return of a prodigal with little evidence that God hears our pleas.
Sometimes the court battle feels interminable and hopeless.
Sometimes the illness is chronic with no alleviation.
Sometimes we feel lonely, abandoned, and forsaken.
Sometimes we don’t seem to have enough to make ends meet.
Whatever you are facing today, you don’t have to go it alone. I know that sometimes sounds glib and naive, but please hear me on this: God asked Hagar to go back. And she did. Not because she was particularly strong or trusting, but because she saw God for who He is: the God who sees. The God who hears. The God who cares.
That same God is the God we serve here and now. To know that God sees us changes everything.
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As a Christian writer, I have a strange dilemma. I want people to read the words I write. I want them to be encouraged by what I’m doing. I want to grow my audience. Sometimes, it’s downright discouraging to see the minimal impact my writing really has.
But on the flip side, I don’t ever want my writing to be about me and my own self-aggrandizement. I want people to be encouraged and read what I write, but never to the extent that they neglect the word of God. I don’t want my audience to come to me for the words of eternal life when God is the holder of all that is good. The point is to guide people to dig out more of God’s truth for themselves, to enter into community with Him and others. In some ways, the job of a Christian writer is almost to make oneself obsolete. Or so it feels.
But God sees me. He understands this struggle, the war between my own selfish fleshly desires and the spiritual hunger He’s given me. He sees the words I write. He sees every tear I cry. He sees my faithfulness in showing up week after week when the progress doesn’t look the way I wanted it to.
I am no longer a nameless peasant approaching the throne of the powerful King of the universe—I am His beloved child.
And friend, that’s why I can keep showing up. Because He sees me. He knows me. He cares about me. And if He would deign to look upon me in all my flawed humanity, that means I can look up to Him and matter. Because He sees me for who I truly am and still chooses me and loves me, how could I not run towards Him? I am no longer a nameless peasant approaching the throne of the powerful King of the universe—I am His beloved child.
When Hagar encountered the Lord, she was changed. She realized that God cared about her and that changed everything. Friend, do you know that God cares about you? Do you know He went to the cross to rescue YOU? Do you know that He walks alongside you every day? Do you know that He is faithful and that one day, you will see Him face to face and He will wipe all the tears from your eyes (Revelation 21)? Because that is a promise from the God who sees you.
