Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are [d]God Who Sees”; for she said, “Have I not even here [in the wilderness] remained alive after [e]seeing Him [who sees me with understanding and compassion]?”  Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi (Well of the Living One Who Sees Me); it is [f]between Kadesh and Bered. (Genesis 16:13-14).Genesis

16:13 Heb El roi; God never sleeps, He sees, He is aware, He is the great Omnipresent God.

 

Have you ever wondered if God was really there?  So, many times in the midst of a crisis  God seems distant, absence and down right unconcerned about our problems.   At times it feels like you are facing the battle alone. However, I would like to share a story about a remarkable woman name Hagar, who probably felt the same way after being rejected and scorned by Abraham and Sarah. Even though, many today remember Hagar as the scorn mistress of Abraham,  The Lord  saw Hagar and her name lives on today as the woman who saw God and her God saw her!

In the midst of a crisis pregnancy, God sees Hagar and her unborn child, and offers hope. Hagar enters a relationship with God that reshapes her identity and her perspective of her circumstance. She is no longer just a slave, but an heir to God’s promise. There, beside the well, she proclaims, “You are the God who sees me…

The Egyptian bond woman of Sarah who bore a son, Ishmael to Abraham (Gen. 16:1-16).  After waiting ten years for God to  fulfill his promise to give them a son.  Sarah presented Hagar to Abraham so he could father a child by her, according to the custom of the day. Sarah’s plan and Abraham’s compliance demonstrated a lack of faith.

When Hagar became pregnant she mocked Sarah the fled into the wilderness, where at the well on the way to Shur, she encountered an angel of the Lord.  The angel revealed Ishmael’s future to Hagar – that his descendants would be a great multitude.  Tradition has it that Hagar is the ancestress of all the Arab peoples and of the prophet Muhammad.  Hagar  called the well Beer Lahai Roi.  “The well of the Living One who sees me.”

When Hagar returned to Abraham’s camp.  Ishmael was born and accepted by Abraham as his son.  But when Ishmael was 14 Isaac, the promised son was born.  The next year Ishmael mocked Isaac at the festival of Isaac’s weaning.  At Sarah’s insistence and with God’s approval, Hagar and Ishmael were expelled from Abraham’s family. Abraham grieved for Ishmael, but God comforted him by revealing that a great nation would come out of Ishmael.

Hagar and Ishmael wandered  in the wilderness until their  water was gone.  When Hagar laid her son under the shade of a bush to die, the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar and showed her a well.  This is a beautiful picture of God’s concern for the outcast and helpless.

He knows my everything and He still loves me the same., experience

the forever love of God! M.T.