El Roi: The God Who Sees
So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
Genesis 16:13 ESV
I was 30 weeks pregnant, with a 3-year-old daughter, when the Air Force decided we needed to move from Boston, our first duty station, to Ohio. We had just started feeling settled, but it was time to start somewhere new—as is often the case in the military.
While my husband was busy with his new job, my days were long as I worked to make our new place our home. Taking care of my daughter, all while preparing to have a baby in a new town where I didn’t have a doctor and didn’t know anyone, was hard. We were blessed, however, to find a new church right away, so I was making new friends, but the loneliness was still prevalent.
I remember very clearly the morning I was sitting in our ugly green chair doing my Bible study on the names of God. That morning, I was reading about God’s name El Roi, which means the God who sees. Wham! My heart jumped, my pen skipped, my world shifted. God is El Roi. He saw me as I sat in that chair. He saw me as I struggled with loneliness. He saw me with my big belly waiting for my baby to be born. He saw me as I wondered who we would get to watch our daughter when the baby came. He saw it all. He saw me.
We first hear of God’s name, El Roi, in Genesis 16. Hagar calls Him that as she is in the wilderness, having fled because of the hardship she was dealing with from Sarai. The Lord found Hagar there in the wilderness and spoke words of promise to her. Her response was to call the Lord “a God of seeing” (verse 13). She called Him “a God who sees me.” There she was, alone after being used in a scheme to get God’s plan to move faster. There she was in the wilderness with great uncertainty about what was to come of her and her baby. And El Roi showed up.
When we learn God’s names, we learn about His character, His attributes, and His ways. By learning God’s name, El Roi, I learned there is nothing hidden from His sight (Hebrews 4:13). The words of David in Psalm 139, which declare that darkness is not dark to God (verse 12), take on a whole new meaning when you realize it is because God is a God who sees—even in the dark.
No matter where we find ourselves, God sees us. No matter the struggles we face, God sees them. He sees us on our good days and our bad days. He sees us when it seems no one else does. He is El Roi, the God who sees.
Questions For Reflection:
What does it mean to you to know God as El Roi, to know that He sees you where you are?
How does knowing God sees you in your struggles help you endure them?