El Roi, God who sees (Genesis 16)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon, June 7 2009

Genesis 16:13, "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."

When I read the Bible and consider people like Enoch who walked with God, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Judges like Deborah, queen Esther, or Ruth, the psalmists like Asaph and even David, or Paul and the other apostles, when I consider these great people of faith and how they had experienced God breaking into their lives with power, deliverance, blessing, and purpose in life, I feel kind of insignificantly small. By seeing them, hearing them, responding to them, acting on behalf of them, God has personally stepped into each of their lives and allowed them to walk in his light, his salvation. God blessed and protected them; he made his face shine upon them, was gracious to them, turned his face toward them, gave them peace and bless them (Numbers 6:24-27). In the Bible story line, these are all big characters and God saw them through in their lives.

I know that I am not insignificant to God. I know that. But, there are times when I feel small. Do you ever feel this way about yourself, small, invisible, and unnoticed? After all, in the grand scheme of human history, likelihood of any of us making into the top 100 list of anything in the world is quite remote. Surely, wouldn’t God pay closer attention to the big name Christians like Billy Graham, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Nancy Demoss, Beth Moore…

The truth is our God has commanded, “Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike,” (Deuteronomy 1:17), “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great but judge your neighbor fairly,’ (Leviticus 19:15), “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism” (James 2:1). And, Deuteronomy 10:17-18 says this about God, “For the LORD [Yahweh] your God [Elohim] is God [Elohim] of gods and Lord [Adonai] of lords, the great God [El], mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.”

Psalm 94:8-9 says, "Take heed, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Does he who implanted the ear not hear?  Does he who formed the eye not see?" The LORD [Yahweh] knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.” Psalmist likens fools, the wicked as senseless ones who see not with their eyes and hear not with their ears, unlike the LORD [Yahweh] who sees and hears us, who knows us.

If there were ever doubts in your heart if God sees you, if God notices you, I would like you to come away from today’s message that God sees you, God notices you even when you don’t feel like he does see you and notice you. Listen to these passages that talk about Yahweh who sees.

• Proverbs 15:3, "The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good." 
• Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
• 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him..."
• Exodus 3:7, "The LORD said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.  I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.'"

1. When long spiritual journey towards obedience gets diverted by your sinful shortcuts…

Last week, we touched on the story of Abraham and Sarah in learning God’s name, El-Shaddai, God Almighty of all-sufficiency from Genesis 17 and briefly touched on chapter 16. Today, I would like us to revisit and consider the story that is unfolded in Genesis 16.

My goal in life is to foremost be the one who would finish the long spiritual journey blamelessly and purely in obedience to Christ’s mercy and grace; yes there will be shortcomings and sins along the way, but as a forgiven sinner, I want the trajectory of my spiritual journey to be that of constantly being purified, sanctified in upward curve in growing obedience and affection for God. I want to lead my wife, my children to the same goal. I want to lead you to this long spiritual journey toward obedience.

The problem happens when you and I get diverted from this long spiritual journey toward obedience by shortcuts we take. That’s what happened to Abram and Sarai in Genesis 16. In chapter 15, Abram had an amazing experience; God came to reaffirm his covenantal promise to Abram by a vision and physical demonstration. Genesis 15:12 says, “As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep…” and it says in 15:17, "When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoke firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.  On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram..." You would think that this would have cemented Abram’s long spiritual journey with firm faith in God’s all-sufficiency.

But, what we see in chapter 16 is Abram and Sarai being distracted and diverted from their long spiritual journey toward obedience by their choice to take sinful shortcut. You know the story from last week how Sarai urged Abram to take the shortcut by having a child through her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar. Hughes suggests that Sarai's intervention and Abraham's agreeing to her, their shortcut may have delayed God’s promise for them for 13 years.[1]

Who is the principal person to be blamed for taking this sinful shortcut? According to Genesis 16:5, Sarai seemed to think that Abram was to be blamed; she said, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering… May the LORD judge between you and me.” Of course the whole truth is that Sarai needed to take responsibility for her own failure. But, speaking of the principal responsibility, Sarai was right in that it was Abram’s responsibility to lead his wife towards blameless and purity. Speaking of families, I am directly responsible for the wellbeing of my wife and my children. We men must learn to take the attitude of Moses’ successor, Joshua’s attitude in Joshua 14:15, “… as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD [Yahweh].”

Kent Hughes says that shortcuts do not promote God's purpose.[2] He also calls Genesis 16 as "the first marital triangle in biblical history."[3] Shortcuts have consequences. Taking shortcut meant to treat Hagar as merely an object, a possession with no choice for self-determination as a maidservant. Taking shortcut meant having a child not of promise, but of their own making. Taking shortcut meant delayed fulfillment. Taking shortcut meant the lasting consequence that is still felt even today; evidenced by the conflicts in the Middle East between Muslims who are the descendants of Ishmael, a child of the shortcut and the Jews who are the descendants of Isaac, a promised child.

I want you to notice that there is no mention of God breaking into the scene where Abram and Sarai took their shortcut in bearing a child through Hagar. Sarai mentioned God in 16:2, but it only showed how her perception of God was all wrong. God didn’t break into the scene until later time with Hagar. God didn’t show up when Abram and Sarai were taking the sinful shortcut. When we allow our long spiritual journey towards finishing the race be diverted by taking shortcuts, we don’t see God at work. We become fools who cannot see and who cannot hear! If we don’t see God working in our life, if we don’t think God sees us or notices us, we must consider that it might be because we’ve been taking sinful shortcuts away from the path of long spiritual journey with God.

Long spiritual journey towards obedience involves daily remembering who God is, what he has done, what he is doing in your life today and what he will do through Bible reading and prayer. If you are not reading God’s word daily, if you are not talking to him daily, throughout each day, it is unlikely that you would remember your Elohim, your Creator, your Yahweh, the holy and relational Redeemer, El-Shaddai, God Almighty of all-sufficiency and El-Roi, God who sees you. You don’t read God’s word and you don’t talk or listen to him, then you become a senseless fool who forget God who sees you. When you in your senselessness forget God who sees you, you will take shortcuts. When you take shortcuts and divert yourself from the long spiritual journey, you will reap painful consequences as Abram and Sarai did. Nobody can force you to read God’s word, to talk and listen to God. It is your responsibility to seek God’s dwelling, his presence by reading his word, talking and listening to him daily.

2. El Roi God who sees

As I have mentioned to you already God’s presence was conspicuously absent when Abram and Sarai took the shortcut. But, I want you to notice how God broke his silence and showed up for Hagar.

A Slave: Metropolitan Museum of Art 2009-1998 B.CE. Painted Wood, 44 1/8 inches tall, Tomb of Mekutra, Thebes Dorman 1987:28.

The Chief Steward and Chancellor Meketrê, or Mehenkwetrê, was buried at Thebes, in the hillside to the south of the mortuary temple of Mtuhotep II.

Wooden statues of the slaves who worked his estate were recovered from his tomb. Hagar, who was the Egyptian slave of Sarah, may have resembled this slave of Meketre.[4]

Yes, it is true that Hagar massed up by letting her pride get in the way when she despised Sarai as we see in Sarai’s words in Genesis 16:4. In the ancient culture, having children, especially having sons was a mark of success for wives. And, for this Sarai was deemed a failure.[5] Having conceived Abram’s child while her master Sarai wasn’t able to, instead of remaining humble, in pride, she looked down on Sarai. And, Sarai knew it and it roused angry jealousy.

Yes, it is true that Hagar became proud. But, it is also true that Sarai mistreated Hagar. Sarai needed to own up to her part in creating the massy martial triangle. In her anger, jealousy, harshness, Sarai went about to make Hagar life miserable. The problem wasn’t Hagar really. The problem was Sarai herself along with Abram taking the shortcut. The problem was her unconfessed sin which manifested in jealousy and anger.

What did Abram do? Genesis 16:6, “Do with her whatever you think best.” If I paraphrase it, I could imagine Abram saying something like, “Well, I don’t know! I don’t really care what you do with her. You deal with her since you told me to have a baby with her!” Ouch, here is Abram again taking the back seat instead of taking responsibility to lead his family!

Anyway, dejected, pushed out and unloved, Hagar saw no other way out then to flee. That’s what we do when we don’t have God in the picture. When conflicts arise, when you and I don’t have the ongoing close connection with God, the last thing we will try to do is to become peacemaker; without God, we either attack like Sarai did or we take off, avoid like Hagar did.

Pregnant, driven out in misery, nothing to look forward to, she wandered in the desert near a spring. I wonder what Hagar was thinking as she wandered away. I don’t know, but I am sure she felt crushed, broken and lost, trying to make sense of what was happening to her life and to her child. And, this is precisely when according to Genesis 16:7-8, “The angel of the LORD found Hagar.” And, there he spoke to her, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” To this she replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.” Hagar was then told to go back to Sarai and to submit to her.

Do you see what’s going on here? God showed up through his angel to brokenhearted Hagar. Psalm 34:18 says, "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." True to his word, it wasn’t Hagar who found God, it was God who found her and spoke into her life. She felt like nothing, unloved, noticed… and here was God speaking through his angel, “You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD [Yahweh] has heard of your misery.” Ishmael means God hears. Every time she or anyone called her son, Ishmael, she now could remember how God who sees met her. She was not unnoticed, unloved, uncared. God saw her; he noticed her. God saw her in the desert by the spring. God heard of her misery. And, God showed up and he spoke into her life for healing. And, he laid out a path to restore her by revealing himself to her as God who sees, God takes notices people like Hagar who feel unnoticed, forgotten and abandoned, who feels invisible, small and insignificant with broken hearts.

Perhaps, you think that it is strange that God would have her go back to Sarai who mistreated her. But, do you remember what I said about why she was fleeing the conflict? Without ongoing intimate connection with God, we have no resource within us to become peacemakers. Hagar ran out of steam without God. Now, having met God, instead of continuing on the path of pride, bitterness, depression, she now could choose the path of humility, restoration, and hope.

1 Peter 2:18-20 says, "Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh... if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God." What we see here is God who is more interested in developing Christ-like character in us then having the problem go away. God who sees us is God who will see us become like Christ. God knows that the best way to develop long suffering, Christ-like humility is not the path that leads us away from conflicts, but staying in conflicts and to become humble peacemakers with his help. Barnhouse writes, “If we seek to change our circumstances, we will jump from the frying pan into the fire. We must be triumphant exactly where we are. It is not a change of climate we need, but a change of heart. The flesh wants to run away, but God wants to demonstrate His power exactly where we have known our greatest challenge.”[6]

Genesis 16:13 tells us that she gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her, “You are God who sees me,” El-Roi, God who sees! And, the well where she met the angel of the LORD was called as Beer-lahai-roi meaning the well of the Living One who sees me.

Genesis 16:15 tells us that Hagar returned as was told. And, we see that Abram gave the name Ishmael. Hagar returned and told Abram her testimony of meeting Yahweh, El-Roi, God who saw her and who told her to return and submit to Sarai. Abram recognized that indeed her encounter was a genuine meeting with God, so he named his son as given to Hagar by the angel of the LORD, Ishmael, God who hears.

3. Conclusion

Here is what I want you to remember today.

• Read and pray everyday to remember El-Roi, God who sees you. Without daily reminder of God through reading of his word and communing with him, you will forget God is El-Roi, God who sees you. When you forget El-Roi, you will take shortcuts while relying on your own self-sufficiency instead of relying on God Almighty, El-Shaddai, your God of all-sufficiency. When you take shortcuts instead of waking in the long spiritual journey towards obedience and trust in Christ, you will face consequences as Abram and Sarai did. Yes, when you turn, God will be there for you, but you will still have to deal with the consequences of having taken shortcuts as Abram and Sarai did.
• God is far more interested in developing Christ-like character in you then to have your problems go away. When you are caught in conflicts, trials, difficulties, understand that El-Roi notices you, he cares for you, he sees you. God who sees you will come and work in you so that you will know joy in Jesus Christ regardless of circumstances you may find yourself.

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[1] R. Ken Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing. Good News Publishers, 2004. p. 243.

[2] Ibid., p. 243.

[3] Ibid., p. 237.

[4] Don C. Benjamin, The Old Testament Story; An Introduction, Fortress Press, 2004.

[5] Ibid., p. 238.

[6] Donald Grey Barnhouse, Genesis: A Devotional Exposition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984