El Roi- For An Audience Of One. Series

Did you notice in here… (and I didn’t fill in the gaps)… that the ’Angel of the Lord’ finds this lass? Yet later she says ’I have seen the Lord who sees me’?

- this is obviously more than a normal Angel

o (angel= ’messenger’)

- the ’angel of the Lord’ was another expression for God Himself

- so, God comes and seeks her out. ’Comes down’

Maybe you don’t realise that. The Bible is filled with ’God coming down’. Walking in the garden. Seeking people out. Asking questions. Appearing to people: hiding in winepresses (Gideon), in danger of fire (S,M&A)… and waiting for the Messiah to come

- God appears on earth and seeks men/women out. Jesus.

In fact- I think this is Jesus, here: He’s the messenger of YHWH

He watches- but not dispassionately. Passively.

He visits in person… and He KNOWS! God knows what it’s like

Illustr: You know the shortest verse in the Bible? Jn 11:35. "Jesus wept". Let me read you the verses before it. It’s in the context of His best friend, Lazarus, dying:

JN 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 "Where have you laid him?" he asked.

"Come and see, Lord," they replied. JN 11:35 Jesus wept. JN 11:36 Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" JN 11:37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

What struck me this week was that bit ’deeply moved and troubled’

- literally He is angry. "Enraged in Spirit". And He’s angry with death… and its sting. The pain of life. Listen to the definitive commentary on this (BB Warfield) "It is death that is the object of His wrath, and behind death him who has the power of death, and whom He has come into the world to destroy. Tears of sympathy may fill His eyes, but this is incidental. His soul is held by rage: and He advances to the tomb, in Calvin’s words, "as a champion who prepares for conflict The raising of Lazarus thus becomes not an isolated marvel, but… a decisive instance and open symbol of Jesus’ conquest of death and hell… not in cold unconcern but in flaming wrath against the foe… He has felt for us and with us in our oppression , and under the impulse of these feelings has wrought out our redemption.

No way is this disconnected, dispassionate ’watching’. God KNOWS. Feels. Enters in. Was… is…became MAN

THE GOD WHO WATCHES

So, here’s my final, closing point.

God watches- and so it’s Him we’re trying to please

- not out of fear. "thou, Lord, seeest me!"

o although I guess any motive is better than none

o it does say we will all have to give an account of our lives to Him.

" (whether we think He exists or not, whether we serve Him now or not- every person will stand before Him, bow the knee and answer for their life)

o but that’s an immature motive… fear

- It’s love: for His engagement with us. For Him sending His Son to show us what He’s like… and to die a horrible death to conquer death, pay the price, ransom us from a meaningless life and the power of the devil