Episode #214 Part 1: What Does It Mean to Be Seen by God? – Names of God

Hey friends, it's Jen. We're starting a new series here on Good God Talks, still getting to know God and getting to know Him better through His names. As many of us are familiar with, there's a lot of different names that are given to God in the Bible. These names have continued in different ways into worship songs and parts of our vocabulary.

There are three different aspects that I encourage you to consider as we go through this series here. Relationship, role, and reputation. When God shares one of his names with us, or when someone in the Bible gives God a name.

That is done in light of one or multiple of these aspects. It's demonstrating an aspect of relationship, of closeness and proximity and the intimacy of experiencing God in a certain way.

It also speaks to the role that that person got to experience God playing in their life and how he cared for them and how he used his power and his strength for their good. It also speaks to his reputation, similar to how we talk about someone's reputation preceding them, that's what we're talking about in these names of God.

I'm actually going to take two episodes to explore each of God's names that we're talking about in this series. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but we're going to take the first episode to look at when that name is introduced in the Bible and to pay closer attention to the person who was interacting with God at that time.

God had something he wanted to speak to each of them.
God had a way he wanted to show up in their lives.
And in the context of what we're looking at in this series, God wanted to show his name, his reputation to that specific person at that specific time for a reason.

And so with each of these names of God we're going to spend the first episode looking at how God is on display and what that could have meant for that person. And then the next episode, we're going to take it a step further to talk with God about what that means for us.

And the first name of God that we're going to look at is El Roi, the God who sees.

I'm going to read for us from the story of Hagar, which is recorded in Genesis chapter 16.

And I'm actually going to give you our question for today before I read, and then again at the end, because we're practicing looking for God on display and looking for what this would have meant for the person. In this case, Hagar, as she interacted with our living God.

Abram and Sarai are not yet named Abraham and Sarah. And as a couple, they were barren. They had no children, even though God had already told them that he was going to make Abram into a great nation. Taking matters into her own hands, Sarai offers her servant, Hagar, to Abram with the hopes that she would be able to bear children through Hagar and this was not the way that God told them that this promise would be fulfilled. Hagar becomes pregnant. And when she does, she begins to treat Sarai with contempt and in response, Sarai begins abusing her.

And as I read, here's a question I encourage you to ask God,

God, what do you want to emphasize to me about how you were there for Hagar?

So picking it up in verse seven,

“The angel of the Lord found her [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.’ The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress and submit to her.’ The angel of the Lord also said to her, ‘I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.’ … 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 16:7-10,13)

The phrase, the angel of the Lord that we see here in verse seven, is considered by many theologians to be a theophany, which is a physical manifestation of God before Jesus was born on earth as a human.

So we're in Genesis, a long time before the New Testament, and Hagar is able to see God physically in front of her.

And her response is to name him El Roi, the God who sees me.

God didn't have to show himself physically to Hagar in order for him to see her, but he wanted her to see him seeing her.

Considering El Roi, the God who sees in this way, it cultivates gratitude in me for what he did for Hagar. He showed that she was not alone. That in a wilderness place, she was not without hope. God met with her there and demonstrated that he knew her. Knew what he was asking of her and knew the good that he had ahead of her.

If I picture Hagar like she was my friend, someone I knew and loved who was on the run because she was being abused and mistreated, in a time where she could have felt alone and in despair. And God showed up for her?! Physically, tangibly, to show her that he saw her, the one who others had discounted. That brings such gratitude in my heart,

And each time we do this, when we notice God as the main character of the story, when we reflect on how He shared Himself with the person or the people who were there, it grows our awareness of Him. It grows our awe of His good reputation, and it allows us to know Him better.
And so here's that question one more time as we close out the episode. Keep talking with God about this.

God, what do you want to emphasize to me about how you were there for Hagar?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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