Names of God 3. El Roi

                   Names of God 3. El Roi

  As we go through the names of  God, progressively revealed through scripture we come to El Roi - the God who sees. We find this in Genesis 16 in the story of Hagar but before that we see it in Exodus 3. You might say, "wait a minute, isn't Genesis before Exodus?" Yes, but in a chronological way, not an authorship way. You remember, Moses writes Genesis. How? He wasn't there so God meets with Moses, Numbers 12:8, and Moses writes the book of the law during Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. So when Moses writes about El Roi, he has already met Him in Exodus 3:7 "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt" and Ex. 32:9, "I have seen these people... they are a stiffnecked people" ( in regard to the golden calf) so as he pens the account of Hagar he introduces, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, El Roi to us.
  
   Here is Genesis 16
    Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
⁶ “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
⁹ Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
¹¹ The angel of the Lord also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
    and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
    for the Lord has heard of your misery.
¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man;
    his hand will be against everyone
    and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
    toward all his brothers.”

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(El Roi).” ¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

  A bit of a disclaimer - my wife taught this this week- so I am quoting her as best as I can because she was awesome.
    God sees.
       1. Yet... He doesn't interfere with our free will or choices. God promised Abram a child through his genes but not necessarily through Sarai's so they decide to help out God through polygamy and slavery. This was not God's plan yet He allowed it to happen. He sees yet usually doesn't stop us because free will is so valuable to Him. God can't truly get pure love from us unless we can choose to love Him. That's why He put the tree in the garden even though He knew it would cost Him His Son. This is why Calvinism grates me so much... but that is another blog.
      2. God sees the future .... If I was God, I would have let Hagar die; after all, have you heard of Al Queida? Have you heard of ISIS? Arabs have been the bane of Israel's existence and this child is the father of the Arabs. However, His ways are above ours. He is letting things play out for some reason. Who knows, could this all it will possibly be instrumental in bringing back the return of Christ?
     3. God sees people everywhere yet uses imperfect people - like us. Isn't it nice that God "found" a nobody like Hagar and saved her life and made of her a great nation. God picked a woman like Sarai who would laugh at God's promise, who would put her husband in the arms of another woman then blame him, that would send a pregnant woman into the desert to die, that would tell a slave woman she had to have sex with someone...  God chose a wimp like Abram who wouldn't stand up to his wife but let her do to Hagar whatever she wanted even though Hagar was carrying his child! This was our Father of faith? And God chose you, with all your flaws to represent Him to the world
    4. God sees us and counsels us when we want to run. He says,
        Remember who you are
        Remember what you've done (own your slice as Andy Stanley would say)
        Running is not the answer
        Go back and deal with it - submit
   5. God saw Hagar and sent her back into a situation where nothing was changed. Don't you think he should have said, "Go, Abram wants you back", "Go, Sarai's heart has softened towards you. God uses trials to change us. See James 1:2-7
        Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
      God sees, yet keeps us in the trials because it is meant to strengthen our faith, give us perseverance, and make us mature and complete
     6. God sees - and this is the bottom line and the coolest thing - and doesn't deliver us because He is not interested in our comfort but our character. He is going to meet us in the midst of these. The Angel of the Lord - the preincarnate Jesus- meets the lowly Hagar. She is the least unworthy (if there is such a thing) of people in the Bible to receive a Theophany yet she does. And what does she say? "I have seen the God who sees me and lived to tell". God, El Roi, is the God who sees, yet through His grace and mercy also allows us to see Him, and unfortunately the best glimpses of Him are in times of trial. A glimpse of Him allows us to go back into our situations even though nothing has changed, with a whole new attitude and hope. The author of Hebrews says

    Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16

     We have a High Priest who doesn't promise to get us out, but in the midst of trials promises to give us more of Him as seen in the beatitudes also.

   Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted. Matt.5:4

 Haralan Popov wrote a book called "Tortured For His Faith" and in it he recounts one of the times where in his dark cold cell without food or stimulation for days he thought his life would end as he could take it no more. Just as he was about to give up he recounts,

"A light glow began to shine and a warming sensation filled the cell and enveloped my weakened, starved frame. I felt strong arms around me, cradling me in the arms of Christ Himself."

     Here are a list of verses you might want to look up in regard to God seeing and write next to it what God sees and the result and application to you that He sees.

    Gen. 6:5,12

     Gen. 29:31

    1 Kings 21:29

    1 Chron. 21:15

   2 Chron. 12:7

   2 Chron. 16:9

   Ps. 10:11

   Ps.  14:2

   Ps. 33:13

   Ps. 53:2

   Ps. 94:7

   Ps. 102:19

  Ps. 138:6

  Ps. 139

  Isa. 11:3

   Isa. 29:15

  Isa. 58:3

   Lam. 3:50

   Jonah 3:10

   2 Thes. 1:5-10

 I'm having a hard time coming up with a song for this but there is this old Dallas Holm song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNyzrtz7KPk

   If you can come up with a better one (and there has to be), leave a comment.