A God Who Sees - El-roi

[Servant Boy]

http://wp.me/pHJ5y-gq

Genesis 16:2,4-9,13-15 So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the LORD
has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid;
perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the
voice of Sarai... He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she
saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight.
And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my
maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was
despised in her sight. May the LORD judge between you and me.” But
Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her
what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and she
fled from her presence. Now the angel of the LORD found her by a
spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are
you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my
mistress Sarai.” Then the angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to
your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority”... Then she
called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God who
sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing
Him?” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is
between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called
the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

We continue with Abram, who was found righteous in the sight of God,
and note a new trial in his life. Sarai was barren and frustrated
about not being able to provide Abram a child even though God had
promised Abram that he would be the father of the nations.

Sounds like a problem we often encounter when we are waiting on the
Lord for an answer to prayer and our reaction when there seems to be
no answer.

Abram is obedient to his wife rather than his God but in washing his
hands off from taking responsibility for his actions, he confuses us
and Sarai's actions make us all the more concerned as to God's justice
for the underprivileged.

Do we serve a just God and is his response fair?

There are many similarities and many differences between the Christian
faith and that of Muslims. We both draw from the same ancestry and the
offspring of Abram creates the great divide because the Muslims draw
their lineage from Ishmael whereas Christians draw it from Isaac,
Sarai's firstborn.

To make things clear, we have to recognize first that Sarai and Abram
acted in their own selfish desire to show that they genuinely heard
God's calling on their lives and Abram became the father of the
nations. However, God was not a part of the decision.

Hagar's response to Sarai after conceiving Abram's child is not
unfamiliar because she felt she had the right to Abram as she was
united with him in flesh and carried his seed.

Sarai's response to Hagar was harsh but she was not to blame because
she had used a surrogate mother to conceive a child and Hagar's
response to her after the conception was not as she expected.

God's response to Hagar when she was by the well was comforting
because He showed that He was concerned about her well-being and would
provide her the justice she deserved, one that Abram and the
generations that followed after him would never be able to forget.

The lesson we learnt today was that when we submit our requests to God
in prayer, we need to wait for His response, which is always the right
one for us, and live in obedience to Him or we will face the
consequence of our actions.

Also, we meet El-roi, the God of my vision, for the first time here.
El-roi is the name Hagar calls God with because He saw her humiliation
and answered so powerfully. God sees us, understands our situations
and responds but for that to happen, we need to be able to come before
Him with our situations and humiliation and we can be assured of God's
fair response.

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Psalm 139:1-12 O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything
about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts
even when I'm far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at
home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even
before I say it, LORD. You go before me and follow me. You place your
hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit! I
can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are
there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings
of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your
hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the
darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even
in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright
as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.