Justice from the Margins — Our Bible App

Day 1 of 8: I see God, but does God see me?

So she named the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You are El-roi [the God who sees]],’ for she said, ‘Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?’ Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi [well of the Living One who sees me]…”
—Genesis 16:13 (NRSV)“

Hagar has the distinction of being the first person in Scripture to name God. She calls him “the God of seeing” or “the God who sees” because she looked upon God and lived. Hagar, a young Egyptian girl who served as Sarai’s slave, met God after she had run away from her mistress.

We learn at the beginning of Genesis 16 that Sarai was unable to conceive children, so she gave Hagar to Abram so that she might get pregnant and bear children who would become Sarai’s. The scriptures indicate that there was a decade between the time that Sarai hatched her plan and the time that Hagar was given to Abram (Genesis 16:2-3). The narrative seems to imply that Hagar was a child when she started working for Sarai, and so Sarai had to wait until Hagar was of childbearing age before she was given to Abram.

Hagar was likely a teenager when she was brought into Abram’s bed and became pregnant. The power dynamics of this situation ensured that Hagar was unable to provide enthusiastic consent, let alone have agency over what happened to her body. She was merely a container for Sarai’s maternal ambitions. Understandably, she became contemptuous toward Sarai, who then responded with more abuse.

When Hagar met El-roi, she had run away from her abusers, but he told her to go back to them, and he would essentially reward her for her obedience. Why would God do such a thing? If God truly saw Hagar and her situation, why would he tell her to go back to a situation where she was being mistreated?

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God knew what Hagar was going through. Indeed, the Hebrew text of 16:11 seems to indicate that God not only knew but also listened “toward” her affliction and accepted the request implicit in her pleas. In other words, El-roi listened to the cries of affliction from an oppressed woman.

God responded to Hagar’s cry by promising that she would have many offspring, which meant that she would one day have power. The oppressed slave-girl would become the matriarch of nations; a promise that echoes God’s promise to Abram. God promised to lift Hagar from her lowly estate, but she would have to be oppressed a little while longer before coming into her power.

It would be all too easy for us to become angry with God for sending Hagar back to her oppressors. Indeed, God’s command for Hagar to return to her oppressors is troublesome. God does not give his rationale for sending her back, but it’s safe to say that a single, pregnant, fugitive slave woman would have struggled to survive in the wilderness. God was not endorsing the way that Abram and Sarai treated Hagar by sending her back; he was ensuring Hagar and Ishmael’s survival and securing the fulfillment of his promise to her.

Hagar was faced with a quandary: she could guarantee her survival by remaining in an oppressive situation, or she could struggle in the wilderness with her dignity intact.

Hagar’s quandary is all too familiar to those of us who live life on the margins. Survival often means swallowing a bucketful of indignity because the power dynamics of a situation prevents pushback. Oppression can drive us into the wilderness and cause us to question if God sees our struggle. Like Hagar, we have the opportunity to put our trust in the God who sees.

El-roi, the God who sees. You see our struggle and you hear the cries that arise out of our affliction. We lift our concerns to you trusting that they are in your sight and that our affliction would not be in vain. We pray that you would lift us from our lowly estate and that you would put those who harm us to shame. El-roi, you see the people who live on the margins of society:the poor, LGBTQ+ persons, undocumented persons, disabled persons, those struggling under the weight of racism, and every other person. Would you listen toward our affliction and deliver us.

Ally Henny

Day 1 of 8: I see God, but does God see me?

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