By Heather Scarborough
There are moments in life when we may feel overlooked, mistreated, or forgotten. We may find ourselves in circumstances we did not choose, facing consequences we did not create, or suffering in ways others do not understand. People may fail to recognize our affliction, misunderstand our responses, or remain unaware of what we are enduring. In those moments, it is tempting to question whether anyone truly sees what we are going through. In Genesis 16, we encounter a woman in precisely such a situation. Her name is Hagar, and through her encounter with the LORD in the wilderness, we learn something profound about the character of God: He sees us, and His faithfulness does not depend upon ours.
Hagar was an Egyptian servant in the household of Abram and Sarai. Because Sarai had not borne children, she gave Hagar to Abram as a wife, hoping to build a family through her. Rather than waiting upon the LORD’s promise concerning an heir, Abram and Sarai pursued their own solution. After Hagar conceived, tension arose between the women. Genesis 16 describes Sarai’s harsh treatment of Hagar and Hagar’s subsequent flight into the wilderness. Hagar was caught in a situation shaped by the decisions of others, yet she was the one who experienced the resulting affliction.
This account reveals the consequences of human decisions made outside of trusting God’s timing and purposes. God had promised Abram descendants, yet the waiting provided an opportunity for human reasoning to take precedence over reliance upon His Word. Sarai’s proposal and Abram’s agreement did not cancel God’s promise, but their decisions brought painful consequences into the lives of those involved.
We must recognize how easily we can do the same. When God’s timing does not align with our expectations, do we trust what He has said, or do we attempt to accomplish His purposes through our own wisdom? When we grow weary of waiting, do we remain obedient to His Word, or do we justify our choices because our circumstances seem to demand another way?
Good intentions do not make disobedience harmless, and impatience does not give us permission to take matters into our own hands. Our choices matter, even when we cannot immediately see their consequences. We are responsible for how we respond to God’s Word, particularly when obedience is difficult.
Yet this is not where Hagar’s story ends.
In the wilderness, the angel of the LORD finds her beside a spring of water. He calls her by name, asks where she has come from and where she is going, and addresses her circumstances. Hagar is not described as searching for God. Scripture tells us that the angel of the LORD found her. He speaks to her personally and acknowledges her affliction. Her suffering has not placed her beyond His attention.
The angel of the LORD instructs Hagar to return to Sarai and submit to her authority, and He gives her a promise concerning her son, Ishmael. This instruction belongs to Hagar’s particular circumstances and God’s purposes in the biblical narrative; it should not be treated as a universal command that someone experiencing mistreatment must return to an unsafe situation. What we should recognize is that the LORD addresses Hagar personally, acknowledges her affliction, and speaks concerning her future.
Hagar’s response is remarkable. Genesis 16:13 tells us, “She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me’” (NIV).
The name El Roi expresses the truth Hagar recognized through this encounter: the LORD sees her. She is not merely a servant caught in the conflict of another household. The LORD addresses her as an individual. He knows where she is, knows her circumstances, and speaks to her there.
Consider the broader story. Abram and Sarai had acted according to their own plans, and their decisions had brought suffering. Their failure to wait upon the LORD did not cause His promise to fail. God remained faithful to His word concerning Abram’s descendants, and He also addressed Hagar and made promises concerning Ishmael. Human failure did not overthrow God’s purposes.
God’s faithfulness is rooted in His character, not in the perfection of ours. This truth should humble us, not make us careless. We will sometimes grow impatient, rely upon our own understanding, and choose what seems right to us rather than what God has said. When we do, we must not defend our choices, shift responsibility, or use our circumstances to excuse disobedience. We must acknowledge our sin, repent, and return to trusting His Word.
God’s faithfulness is not something we earn through obedience. Nor does His faithfulness mean that our disobedience has no consequences. We are called to obey because He is worthy of our trust and obedience. When we fail, His character remains the standard by which we recognize our failure and to which we must turn again.
This truth reaches deeply into the heart. Sometimes we are the ones who have been wronged; at other times, we have contributed to the very circumstances that cause us pain. Sometimes both are true. We may be suffering because of another person’s sin while also needing to acknowledge our own. El Roi sees the whole truth. We cannot hide our wrongdoing from Him, but neither must we pretend that the wrong done to us does not matter.
Being fully known by God calls us to honesty. We cannot use the suffering we have experienced to justify the sin we commit in response. Nor should we allow guilt over our own failures to convince us that God is no longer worthy of our trust. The proper response is to bring our hearts into the light of His Word, confess what is sinful, receive correction, and walk in obedience. We do not have to choose between acknowledging our affliction and taking responsibility for our actions. Before the God who sees, we can do both.
Hagar’s story continues in Genesis 21. After Sarah gives birth to Isaac, she asks Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Abraham sends them into the wilderness of Beersheba with provisions. When their water runs out, Hagar places Ishmael under a bush and moves away, unable to bear watching her son die. She weeps, and the situation appears hopeless.
Genesis 21:17 tells us that God hears the boy crying. God speaks to Hagar, tells her not to be afraid, and directs her attention to the boy. Then God opens her eyes, and she sees a well of water. He preserves their lives and remains with Ishmael as he grows.
Once again, Hagar is in the wilderness, facing circumstances she cannot resolve through her own strength. The God who saw her in Genesis 16 hears her son in Genesis 21. Her distress is not beyond His reach, and the wilderness is not evidence that He has abandoned them. God acts according to His purposes and provides for their survival.
The passage does not tell us that Hagar’s life became free of hardship. It does not promise that every painful circumstance will be reversed or that every prayer will be answered as we desire. It shows us that Hagar and Ishmael were not forgotten and that God’s purposes for them continued.
This distinction matters because we can confuse trusting God with expecting Him to give us a particular outcome. We may earnestly desire relief, restoration, reconciliation, or an immediate answer to prayer. We should bring those requests to the LORD. But faith does not require us to presume that He must act according to our expectations. It calls us to trust His character even when we cannot understand His ways.
This is where El Roi becomes more than a comforting name. It becomes a matter of the heart.
It is easy to say that God sees us when life unfolds as we hoped. It is more difficult when suffering continues, when others seem to prosper despite their wrongdoing, when our own failures bring painful consequences, or when we cannot see how God is working. In those moments, we must examine what is shaping our understanding of Him. Are we interpreting His character through our circumstances, or are we interpreting our circumstances through what He has revealed about Himself?
Our feelings are real, but they do not determine what is true about God. Our understanding is limited, but His knowledge is not. We must not invent explanations Scripture has not given us or assume that every hardship has a specific purpose we can identify. Instead, we return to what the text reveals: the LORD sees, hears, speaks, and acts according to His purposes.
Because God sees us fully, we have no reason to conceal our failures from Him. He knows our motives, fears, compromises, and attempts to control what we have been called to entrust to Him. We cannot hide behind our suffering, our intentions, or the failures of others. Yet neither do we need to surrender to despair when we recognize our sin. We can confess it honestly, turn from it, and seek to walk faithfully before Him.
The same truth should shape the way we regard others. If God sees the afflicted, we should not be content to overlook those who suffer around us. We must listen carefully, respond with compassion, act justly, and take responsibility for the ways our decisions affect others. Knowing that God sees does not excuse human indifference or wrongdoing. It reminds us that our actions matter before Him and that those we overlook are not insignificant.
Hagar’s testimony ultimately directs our attention beyond herself to the God who revealed Himself to her. Her story does not promise that every wilderness will end as we hope. It reveals the character of the LORD, who is not ignorant of human affliction and whose purposes are not defeated by human failure.
When Hagar stood in the wilderness, she was not invisible to God. When she faced another desperate situation, God heard and provided. Abram and Sarai’s failures had real consequences, but they did not make God unfaithful to His promises.
El Roi: the God who sees me. He sees our affliction, and He sees our hearts. He knows the wrong done to us, and He knows the sin we must confess. His faithfulness is not permission to remain disobedient; it is a reason to trust Him, repent when we fail, and continue walking according to His Word.
We may not see the whole picture, but we can turn to the God who does. Our circumstances do not define His character, and our failures do not determine whether He remains faithful. The wilderness is not hidden from Him. We are not hidden from Him. And when we cannot understand what lies ahead, we can return to the truth Hagar declared: He is the God who sees.
