EL ROI
Genesis 16:1-16
This is an attribute of God that strikes at the heart of loneliness and hopelessness. What do you do when you feel alone? Abandoned? Forgotten by everyone? Where is God? You ask. Does He know what I’m going through? Does He see? El Roi: Yes, He is the God who sees. He isn’t asleep, unaware of all the circumstances. He sees. The first and only time we meet El Roi is in a desperate situation. We find Him telling Hagar to go back and deal with a bad situation. Hagar fled from Sarai into the wilderness. She is mistreated, she is abused and scared. Yet the Lord comes to her and comforts her and promises to take care of her Gen. 6:13.
Do you want a God like that – a God who sees you in your trouble who will look after you? He is your El Roi (Ps. 139:7-12). In Hagar’s case the LORD shows that He cares for her. When the Lord sees – He cares! Gen. 29:32; Ex. 3:7. The God who comforted Hagar in the desert is the very same One who delivered Israel from Egypt. He has not changed and He will deliver you also and act on your behalf.
Knowing God as El Roi is very important. To realise that God sees you regardless of the trial or trouble you are going through emphasises God’s nearness in your life. El Roi saw you when you were in your mother’s womb (Ps. 139:16). Nothing is hidden from God, He sees everything (Heb. 4:13). The LORD looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth (Ps. 33:13-14); and His eye is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death……(Ps. 33:18-19).
We see El Roi in the New Testament as well. Nathanael discovered Him when He asked Jesus how He knew Him. And Jesus replies, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Jesus tells us that God knows when a sparrow falls to the ground and that you are more valuable than sparrows (Matt. 10 :29; Luke 12:6-7). El Roi is near you – He is not far from you. He will “strongly support those whose hearts are completely His” 2 Chr. 16:9.
MEDITATION: God sees me, He cares for me; therefore He will deliver me from my troubles.
