It was a moment of rebellion, especially for a slave. Genesis 16 records for us the plight and flight of a young slave. Anger and attitudes in the home where she served escalated to the point of her fleeing from her mistress into the wilderness. Hagar was wrong, but she had also been used. She was just a slave, and had few allies and little hope. We can imagine the consequences of a runaway slave, and wonder if these came to her mind as she rested at a well. She could run from her mistress, she could run from her master, but Who was this now appearing to her at the well? She will later name the well Lahai-roi, meaning “the Living One who sees me.”
Since Eden, this scenario has been repeated by all women and men as people of all ages seek to flee the consequences and judgment of personal sin. “All have sinned,” the ancient Scripture records, and all seem to forget the truth and reason of another ancient text: “He that formed the eye, shall he not see?” (Psa 94:9).1 But what grace that, among the billions, God sees this slave! He knows her name. He sees all people great or small, powerful and those in slavery. He even sees the son in Hagar’s womb whom she herself could not see. He sees her affliction. He sees her position. He sees her condition. He is even now the living God who sees everyone.
This meeting at the well becomes a moment of revelation as she quickly understands that He is more than just One who sees her. He tells her what she knows about herself and what she doesn’t know. He knows her past, her present troubles, and clearly sees the character and experiences of her unborn son. In revealing all this, He also reveals Himself. He is not just the living God watching women and men from a distance, but also the loving God who reveals Himself to running rebels with His love and grace. He is the ultimate authority and the source of life and lasting joy. It is a wonder of grace that God reveals Himself to save mankind from a course of destruction and loss. While creation and the Scriptures reveal God to us, the full display of the living God is seen in His Son Jesus Christ. The apostle John writes, “In this was manifested [revealed] the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1Jn 4:9). Christ and His cross reveal God and the means for all to be reconciled to Him.
In His comprehensive knowledge and authority, God tells Hagar to return and submit to her mistress against whom she had rebelled, and thus comes a moment of response. How would you respond? As hard as it must have been, remarkably Hagar obeys the God who revealed Himself to her. Today El Roi, the Living God who sees me, requires a response from all, as Paul proclaimed in Acts 17:30: “God … now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son. How have you responded?
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV.
