What’s In A Name?, Pt. 6: El Roi
Genesis 16:11-14 11The angel of ADONAI said to her, “Look, you are pregnant, and you will give birth to a son. You are to call him Yishma‘el [God pays attention] because ADONAI has paid attention to your misery. 12He will be a wild donkey of a man, with his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, living his life at odds with all his kinsmen.” 13So she named ADONAI who had spoken with her El Ro’i [God of seeing], because she said, “Have I really seen the One who sees me [and stayed alive]?” 14This is why the well has been called Be’er-Lachai-Ro’i [well of the one who lives and sees]; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
Psalm 139:7-12 7Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I lie down in Sh’ol, you are there. 9If I fly away with the wings of the dawn and land beyond the sea, 10even there your hand would lead me, your right hand would hold me fast. 11If I say, “Let darkness surround me, let the light around me be night,” 12even darkness like this is not too dark for you; rather, night is as clear as day, darkness and light are the same.
Matthew 26:33-34 33 “I will never lose faith in you,” Kefa answered, “even if everyone else does.” 34 Yeshua said to him, “Yes! I tell you that tonight before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”
Luke 5:21-24 21The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim began thinking, “Who is this fellow that speaks such blasphemies? Who can forgive sin except God?” 22But Yeshua, knowing what they were thinking, answered, “Why are you turning over such thoughts in your hearts? 23Which is easier to say? ‘Your sins are forgiven you’? or ‘Get up and walk’? 24But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He then said to the paralytic, “I say to you: get up, pick up your mattress and go home!”
I didn’t finally submit my life to the Lord until I was 42; it was 1988 and I was a mess. More about that another time. But in all of the previous years, from a time of awareness until then, I thought of God as being ‘out there’ somewhere and watching. When my mom died, I extended that thought to her thinking, “I’d better not sin, mom will see.” In both cases I thought that watching was of the disinterested, half-hearted sort and that care was a very minor component.
But this is not the case with God. El Roi means the ‘God who sees’ or the ‘God who is watching’. I rather like this name of God because it implies God is interested. Consider these verses:
Romans 8:27 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
Jeremiah 17:10 10“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
Hebrews 4:13 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
When I considered God to be some sort of deistic being who was off creating again on some other planet I was wrong. Aren’t we interested in the lives of our children? So also is God interested in the lives of his. Scripture is filled with instances of God coming down, or walking in the garden, or seeking people out, or asking questions, or appearing to people. Just before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he noticed Mary and others weeping at the loss of their friend, and John 11:33 mentions how Jesus was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. These are not the actions of a disinterested God. No, they show that God wants to be with us and help us through our struggles and even show emotional understanding.
It is helpful to know that El Roi doesn’t really mean look at but means understands. And that is really important. These days the world is about as disinterested as a thing can be. We all have friends, and whether few or many, they all say they are interested in our lives. That’s true to some degree, but not fully, because all of them have lives and distractions of their own and only a finite amount of time can be devoted by one human being to another. Having recently lost my wife, I am single now and while I spend time alone, I am not lonely. But nonetheless I need to know people care. I think most people have those feelings.
That feeling of divine understanding reaches its ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. On some level at least He came to the planet to help his children overcome their difficulties. He fully understands. Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is our great High Priest who is able to empathize with our weaknesses and we can therefore approach God’s throne of grace with confidence in our time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16). And Psalm 46 tells us that “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).
So when we are in those places of sorrow, when we see the world going to hell in a handbasket all around us, when we see destitution even in our own country, when we see evil rulers in other countries selling their own people into sexual slavery, when nearly every street corner seems to have a placard-waver on it, then that is the exact time when we should go to YHWH El Roi for comfort.
Huffman, E. (2005). Retrieved from https://www.El Roi- For An Audience Of One. Sermon by Ewen Huffman, Genesis 16:1-15 - SermonCentral.com