EL ROI - Thou God seest me

*The story of Sarai and Hagar is not unfamiliar to us. And the emotions that Hagar that Hagar experiences also are not unfamiliar to us. We all have gone through similar emotions in our lives. In this portion of Scripture Hagar meets God,

*"And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi", which means "a well of the Living One Who sees me".

Let's briefly recount what has brought Hagar to this place:
**Sarai is without children and is impatiently awaiting the Lord to fulfill His promise to Abram (Genesis 15:5), when God tells Abram that his seed will be as innumerable as the stars. Sarai's impatience and lack of faith in God's promise, leads to not waiting on God's timing and ultimately a wrong decision. We know that she gives her maid, Hagar to her husband to bear children. Hagar conceives and then Sarai's sin escalates to further dimensions.

Hagar, having conceived despises Sarai. Two women, one man..and Abraham, who also is not without fault in all of this...he was afterall given the promise of seed directly from God, but he chose to listen to his wife, and when faced with the consequences of the sin and wrong judgments, he then tells her to do what she wants to do about Hagar. Not Abram's shining hour of faith. We can see many lessons that we could discuss here today in this situation, but that's not our intent for today.

*Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar, Hagar flees to the desert. It is here where Hagar will encounter, The God Who Sees Her, EL ROI.

APPLICATION: This same EL ROI sees us also. He know the number of the hairs of our head. He knows all of our circumstances, past, present and future. He knows Who we are ...that is, that person we are when we are alone in our closet, alone where no one else is and sees us as we are. To pray to EL ROI would take a great deal of humility on our part to confess to an All-Knowing God that we acknowledge our shortcomings and limitations.

For, it is when we humble ourselves to the Lord that He is able to repair our vision of the circumstances we are going through. We can pray and ask EL ROI to help us fasten our eyes on Him and to help us to trust in HIS VISION for our lives.

Returning to Genesis 16...Hagar is in the desert. What must she have felt? Perhaps, anguish, desperation, destitution? Feelings not unlike those we might have gone through at some point in time. A feeling of being in a wilderness and sometimes, it is a wilderness of our own making.

*In Hagar's wilderness, Hagar encounters the LORD by a fountain. He begins to get her attention by asking her questions. Where have you come from? Where are you going? Certainly, God knew all of this already, yet in asking Hagar the questions, Hagar has to stop and think about his questions and face truth: She is fleeing.

APPLICATION: Sometimes when we go through trials, testings, the Lord has to stop us and get our attention as well. Sometimes, we get so involved in the problem or the circumstances, that we leave the Lord out of the solution. In a sense, fleeing the Lord's wisdom. If the Lord gets our attention, we can refocus and more importantly, we can HEAR HIM.

*He also gave her a promise in verse 10 of multiplying her seed exceedingly. God also told her about herself: ".she was with child, that she would bear a son and also his name would be called Ishmael, which means, "God hears". (v. 11, says, "because the LORD has heard thy affliction.") Hearing all the things God had to say to her, concerning her present circumstances, and the promises for the future, Hagar, not only was in a place of hearing God, she was listening to what God had to say. She evidently believed God. She took God at His Word. Hagar put what she heard from God into action...evidence of her belief.

It was at this fountain of water, (vs. 7), this well that Hagar praised God and declared, that now she knew the name of the God Who Sees her, she called Him, El ROI. In verse 14, she named the well, Beer-lahai-roi which means "a well of the Living One who sees me." (Ryrie notes on v. 14)

APPLICATION: It is when we also take action on what we say we believe, that we too exhibit faith. Our fountain or well, is Jesus, the Living Water. We have refreshment of His Water always in our hands, in His Word. We need to hear His Still Small Voice as we come to Him in prayer. Let's ask Him to increase our faith.

El ROI is a God, so watchful, that He is said to note when even the smallest sparrow falls to the ground...this same God is the ONE that watches over each one of us today...whether we recognize His Presence or not...He is always present with us.

* We need to discipline ourselves to practice the presence of Christ...that is, acknowledge and believe that He is always with us. To believe means taking action; the action of trusting and relying on Him. We need to rely and trust that He knows who we are, that He knows where we've been and where we are going.

*God wants to answer our prayers, YES, as evidenced in His Promises to us:

In 2 Chronicles 16:9 it tells us that "the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him."

There are many promises gives us. Let's look for them as we read His Word. Perhaps, even jot them down in a notebook as the Lord speaks to us.

*Like Hagar, let us humble ourselves before a Holy God, confess our shortcomings and ask Him, EL ROI, the One Who Sees us as we are, to cleanse us that we might approach Him with hearts and hands that are clean. Matthew's promise is that "we shall see Him."