El Roi God Who Sees the Woes of the People

Bible Passage:  Genesis 16:1-14

I. Introduction

1. Sarah is unable to wait for God’s promises to come true (Verse 1)

2. Abraham fails his spiritual leadership over his wife (Verse 2c)

3. Both Sarah and Abraham take matters into their own hands and function outside of God’s plan (verse 4)

4. God had far better plan than the one Abraham and Sarah devised

II. Predicaments of Hagar

1. Hagar was a slave girl and thereby economically powerless (16:1)

(a) Hagar was a foreigner
(b) An outsider
(c) Had very little or “no” rights

2. She was serving in a dysfunctional family (16:2 Sarah functions like Eve)

3. Hagar was taken for granted by her masters— she was used to promote her owner’s interest (16:3-4)

4. Sarah mistreated Hagar (16:10)

5. Hagar became ALMOST a single parent (22:14 an absentee father)

6. Hagar underwent verbal abuse: “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac” (22:10)

III. Providences of Hagar

1. God witnessed Hagar’s pain and intervened—God is not an uncaring, partisan God (16:7)

2. Hagar tells the truth “I am running away from my mistress Sarai” (16:8)

3. God shows a means (a blueprint) to solve her predicament (16:9-12):

(a) Prior to meeting with God, she had taken her own course of action
(b) It looks like that God wanted her to face her problem, not running away from it
(c) God’s blessing would begin when she obeyed (blueprint) what God told her to do despite her situation

4. Like Moses, Elijah, and Job, Hagar sees God (16:9-12; 22:17-19)

5. Like Abraham, she receives a divine promise (16:11-12)

6. She names God as “El Roi” (16:13-14 El Roi “God who sees me”)

7. “Divine seeing” caused a process for Hagar’s flourishing (16:15)

8. One does not solve his problem by running away from it (principle)

IV. Jesus and the invalid in John 5 [Jesus sees a helpless man in need]

1. John 5:6 “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

2. The man was helpless

(a) I have no one to help me (verse 7)
(b) Invalid for thirty-eight years (verse 5)

3. Jesus takes the initiative (divine initiative) and asks the question “Do you want to get well?” (verse 6)

(a) Jesus is establishing that first step toward wholeness is becoming aware of it
(b) Jesus is probably testing the man’s willingness

4. The man is healed completely

Take Away

God sees (which includes cares) you wherever you are currently