I came across an interesting fact the other day. There are over 70 different names for God in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). What’s so fascinating is that the greatest commandment in the Torah starts with “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God …” You would think if He is one God, then He would have one name. Yet the Hebrew people found they needed many different names to adequately describe this one God. While we could learn a lot from this, I want to focus on one name in particular.
It is found in the story of Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave (Genesis 16). Sarah could not have children. So she made Hagar sleep with her husband Abraham and have a child by Hagar instead. When Hagar got pregnant, she developed an attitude toward Sarah. This made Sarah very angry. So Sarah convinced Abraham to exile Hagar.
Now Hagar finds herself alone in the wilderness, pregnant, rejected, and facing death. In this time of desperation, God comes to her, hears her cry, sends her back to Sarah and promises to bless her. From that moment on Hagar used the name “El-Roi” when she spoke of God.
“El-Roi” means “the God who sees me”. What a remarkable name! Sometimes we feel so small and insignificant. Other times, it seems like everything is going wrong and nobody, not even God, seems to care. Perhaps we feel what we do has no meaning, or serves no purpose. We become just another grain of sand on the beach, lost in the crowds, and so alone.
But then we hear this name, “El-Roi”. He is the God who sees me. He sees me when I feel invisible. He sees me when I feel alone. He sees me when everything is wrong. He sees me when everyone else ignores me. He sees me when I feel insignificant, worthless, fulfilling no purpose. … He sees me … He sees me … and he whispers to my spirit the truth that I am significant in His eyes, that He is aware of my situation and desires to bless me even when everything seems cursed.
Maybe today, you find yourself in one of these situations. If so, hear His Spirit whisper deep within your heart, “He is the God who sees me. And He cares.”
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