Sermon – El Roi, The God Who Sees Me

Sermon – El Roi, The God Who Sees Me

Scripture - Genesis 16:1-11 “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)

So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!” Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.

The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied. The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.” And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress.”

Introduction: The book of Genesis tells about different people who heard directly from God. God spoke face to face with Adam and Eve in the Garden. He spoke to Noah and gave him instructions about building the Ark. Then you can see how God spoke with Abram and made a Covenant with him.

In this lesson, we are going to look at Hagar, a woman who never thought God would take notice of her. Hagar was not an important person. She was not wealthy. She was not full of faith. In fact, her only claim to fame was that she ended up in the middle of a big, ugly, complicated, mess. Hagar, a displaced and mistreated slave, first called God "El Roi," meaning "The God Who Sees Me," in Genesis 16 after fleeing from Sarah's cruelty and feeling abandoned in the desert. God responded to her suffering, not her prayer, revealing Himself to her and giving her the assurance that He had seen her affliction. This encounter provided Hagar with strength and the knowledge that she was not alone, but rather seen, known, and understood by God.

Hagar’s story is not a pretty one. But we can learn some important lessons from her story in Genesis chapter 16. The story of Hagar teaches us that God does care for us: He heals our broken hearts, gives us an identity and a hope but also, God's promises are true and He will keep them. The story of Hagar reminds me that God cares for those who are broken, hurting, and suffering.

After ten years of futile waiting upon God, Sarah became convinced that she would never bare any children to Abraham. She opted for a last resort and followed the general custom of the day, which was adopted in similar circumstances. She asked her Egyptian servant Hagar to bear a son with her husband in surrogate fashion. According to the law, the child that Hagar bore for her mistress would eventually become Sarah’s. While Hagar was pregnant, she began to flaunt the advantage that she had over her mistress, resulting in tremendous tension between these two women. As a result, Hagar could not handle the conflict any longer; she fled into the desert where she was met by the angel of the Lord.

Think with me about her situation: She was away from her family. She was away from her friends. She was alone and without shelter, food, water, help, or sustenance. She had none of the things she needed. Then the Lord’s angel appeared to her and rescued her. There are two first in this text: This is the first time the term, “the Angel of the Lord” is used in Scripture. Normally, this term is associated with the appearances of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Secondly, Hagar refers to God as “Jehovah Roi” or the God who sees me. God reveals himself in a brand-new way, and Hagar, the least likely person receives a brand-new revelation of God. This is an indication that everyone is important to God and that God is not willing that any should perish. There are several lessons to be learned from this text.