The Names of God (El Ro'i)

The Names of God

El Ro'i (EL raw-EE)

The God Who Sees Me

I am so excited about this particular session on the Names of God.  How magnificent is the Name El Ro'i, (The God Who Sees Me).  Yahweh (The I AM), El Elyon (The Possessor of All Things), is also the God of Hagar, the God that she had heard about now became the God who saw her and came to comfort her in her greatest need and time of misery.

How do we have a God so wonderful?  We do not even deserve for Him to listen to our smallest whimpers and yet He will not only allow us to be present in His sight but He will make His Presence known to us.  Wow, I don't know how that affects you, but I just feel the need to raise my hands in praise and fall to my knees in worship.  Our God is truly an awesome God.

As we journey a little further into Genesis, we find Sarai, Abram's wife doing what many of us do, moving ahead of God, flailing a little in our faith, trying to make God's plan happen according to our schedule.  Abram has now been living in Canaan for approximately 10 years and Sarai, his wife, has not been able to bear him any children.  God had promised Abram a few chapters back that his seed would number the sands of the earth and yet he still did not have a son to call his own and to carry on his name.

Now Sarai had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.  Sarai came to Abram on day and suggested that since she was not able to give him a son, that he should take Hagar as his wife and let her be the seed of his inheritance promised by God.  Abram agreed to this plan and took Hagar to be his wife.  He did lay with her and she did become pregnant.  This should have please Sarai because her plan seemed to be coming to fruition.  However, just when we think that God's plans are not greater than our plans or his thoughts higher than our thoughts, we take matters into our own hands and run aground.  God's ways are altogether better than our ways and His timing is impeccable.

Hagar is now pregnant and presumptuous, Sarai is enraged with jealousy, and Abram is in between a rock and a hard place.  Now Sarai in her jealous rage mistreated Hagar and told Abram that he would have to choose between her and Hagar because there was not room for both.  Abram, looked at his more than disgruntled wife and gave her permission to dispense with her maidservant as she wished.  At this point the mistreatment of Hagar became so extreme she decided to run away and that she did.

Now 'The Angel of ADONAI found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the road to Shur, and said, 'Hagar!  Sarai's slave-girl!  Where have you come from , and where are you going?  She answered, 'I am running away from my mistress Sarai.'  The angel of ADONAI said to her; 'Go back to your mistress, and submit to her authority.'  The angel of ADONAI said to her, 'I will greatly increase your descendants; there will be so many that it will be impossible to count them.'" (Genesis 16: 7 -10)

This is the first appearance or mention of an angel in the Hebrew scriptures.  The NLT version of the Bible states "The angel of the LORD..."  This phrase is referred to as a Theophany.  A Theophany is a manifestation of God, in the Old Testament, that is visible to humans.  God showed himself to Hagar, he was visible to her, and he let her know that he is the God who sees, the God who hears, the God who cares for the broken-hearted and for the unborn.  God reassures Hagar that she will bare a son, and he instructs her to give him the name of Yisma'el [God pays attention], because truly God did "pay attention" to her strife and to her misery.  God let her know that Yisma'el, would be the father of many and that he would be as a "wild donkey" always in battle with his kinsmen. (Genesis 16: 10 - 12)

"So she names ADONAI who had spoken with her El Ro'i [God of seeing], because she said, 'Have I really seen the One who sees me [and stayed alive]?'  This is why the well has been called Be'er-Lachai-Ro'i [well of the one who lives and sees]; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.'" (Genesis 16: 13 - 14 CJV)

Now Hagar listens to and obeys what God has spoken to her.  She returns to the house of Abram and Sarai and submits herself to her mistress.  Hagai eventually gives birth to a son just as God had promised and Abram called his name Yisma'el.  At the time of Yisma'el's birth Abrams was 86 years old.

What an incredible journey we have been on today.  We learned that God manifested himself to Hagar in a form that she could see and comprehend with her own eyes.  We learned that ADONAI, the Great I AM loves us so much that even in the misery and mess of our own wanderings and sin he will come to us and comfort us and forgive us.  We may still have to suffer some consequences of our own persistent will and disobedience, but don't let Satan fool you, God does not leave us there to suffer alone.  If you are a child of the King you can be sure that he hears you and he sees you, He is El Ro'i!!


Before we leave this study today I would like to point out a few interesting facts:

     **El Ro'i is only mentioned one time in the Bible
     **God only gave himself one name: Yud-Heh-Vav-Hey.  This is the very sacred Name of God and is not to be used casually; in fact in the Old Testament only the High Priest could say this sacred Name and then only in the Temple in the Holy of Holies.  Yet, God allowed the people in History to give Him descriptive names to identify more clearly His Holy and wonderful characteristics.
     **There was a marriage between one of Abraham's grandson's and one of Yisma'els daughters.  It happened to be one of these Ishmaelite's traders (also called Midianite merchants) that transported Abraham's great grandson, Joseph into slavery years later.  (Genesis 37:26-28)

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for being exactly that, our Heavenly Father...the One who sees, the One who hears, the One who cares and the One who forgives.  Thank you for your Holiness and your Justice, thank you for your tender Grace and your wonderful Mercies.  Thank you for loving us, so small, so frail and yet you know the number of the hairs on our heads and you knew us before we were knit in  our mother's womb.  Guide us in your perfect way, lead us away from temptation, and lift our faces toward you in wonder, praise and glory.  Amen and Amen

Sources:

1.  Ann Spangle, "The Names of God"
2.  God's Word Translation: "The Names of God Bible"
3.  The NLT Translation:  "The Transformation Study Bible"
4.  David H. Stern Translation:  "The Complete Jewish Bible" (CJB)