Articles
A God Who Sees You
Have you ever felt that nobody sees you? They don’t see what you are going through and you just don’t feel acknowledged. There is a lady in Genesis 16 that felt that same way. In Genesis 16, we reach the point in Abram and Sarai’s story (names will be changed to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 17:5 and 15 respectfully) where we are introduced to Hagar. Hagar was an Egyptian servant to Sarai. Sarai wanted Ha-gar to have a child so that Sarai may obtain a child through her and Abram listed to Sarai and did so. When Hagar becomes pregnant, Sarai treats her harshly and this will lead Hagar to flee from Sarai’s pres-ence. Sarai’s motivation for mistreating Ha-gar was because she said in Genesis 16:5 “But when she saw that she had conceived, I was insignificant in her sight. May the LORD judge between you and me.” We aren’t told if Hagar actually did something to Sarai to make her feel this way or if it was Sarai’s possible jealousy that fueled this feeling. Whatever the case may be it isn’t something we need to know, because if it was then God would’ve put it in scrip-ture for us. What we know happened is Sarai was treating Hagar harshly and she fled from Sarai’s presence. The angel of the LORD will find her by a spring of water in the wilderness and will ask her where she is going to which she replies, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” To paraphrase verses 10-12, the angel of the LORD tells her that she will have too many descendants to count. The angel of the LORD will tell her she is pregnant with a son, and she shall name him Ishmael be-cause God has heard her affliction. Verse 12 describes the kind of man Ishmael will be. That brings us to verse 13, where we get to what Hagar calls God. Hagar calls God a name “You are a God who sees me.” This name in Hebrew is El Roi meaning The God who sees me. The well that she was at is going to be called Beer-lahairoi which means the well of the living One for He sees me.
Hagar was facing a tough situation and that’s putting it mildly. She was hurting and it’s very reasonable to assume she felt alone. If she was thinking that she was alone, that’s where she would be wrong. God saw her. The almighty God saw her in her affliction. He comforted her and she is going to end going back to Abram and Sarai. She will have her son and name him Ishmael as God told her.
God also sees you in the midst of trial. In Psalm 139, we see a Psalm physically written by King David. I would strongly encour-age you to read this Psalm in its entirety as it’s so encouraging. The first 6 verses focus on the fact that God knows all about you. He knows about you so much that it’s to a level that we can’t even comprehend as verse 6 will talk about. Verses 7-12 parallels Hagar’s story so well. There is nowhere that you can go that He isn’t, as seen in verses 7 and 12. God sees you, He cares about you, and He loves you! Jumping down to verse 17-18 it says “How precious also are Your thoughts for me, God! How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” God doesn’t just see you once and awhile. He doesn’t just think about you once in a blue moon, but you are constantly on His mind, all of us are. That’s just a piece of the greatness and power of our God. He sees you at all times and what a blessing that is.
In Psalm 33:13-22, the Psalmist writes about God seeing people. Verse 14-15 talks about how God sees all the inhabitants of the earth. That He is the one who made my heart and your heart. He understands all of our works. As we jump down to verse 18, it says “Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who wait for His faithfulness, to rescue their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.” This brings in another important aspect. Not only does God see His people, but He acts for us as well. We that trust in His name can know that He has worked in our lives and con-tinues to do so. In Psalm 27:14, David writes “Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.” The God of all things sees you and that is certain. Our God is active and that is certain as well. Our job is to wait for Him and to seek Him. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We face trials and hardships in our lives and that isn’t brand new information for anyone reading this. Hopefully this is a helpful re-minder to you this week and going forward that God sees you. God knows how many hairs are on your head as Matthew 10:30 says. God knows what you are facing, and He cares. What a comfort we can take that God sees us, He thinks about us, and He has worked and will continue to work
