07-26-2026 - ¡A GOD WHO SEES AND IS HERE! - EL ROI'. - GENESIS 16:13 - EZEKIEL 48

    MESSAGE BY  PASTOR ROB INRIG

      FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.

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I invite you to pray and make this prayer personal, and for whoever needs support in difficult times, we mention the names of those who are in need, and also pray for the members of the family and friends.

You can also mention the name in need.

(Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G,  Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara’s mom H, Margarita G,  Rosy Ch, Patricia L, Lina J, Manuel D, Silvia H, Magda-, Miguel H.L, Alicia G, Margarita G, Brianda M, Maria Elena C, Alejandro M,

Natalia M. Oscar N.D, Luis Carlos V, Alicia R.)

I ask for your healing over every part of my life – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I ask that you make me strong and resilient for the days ahead. I know that you have a great purpose

for those who believe in your name.

Help me not to allow the distractions and struggles of my days to weigh me down to the point of exhaustion. I know that your desire is for me to live this life abundantly and free. And my greatest desire is to reflect your love and light to a world that so desperately needs your hope.

For those I love who are facing cancer or a hard diagnosis, I pray for your covering of healing and grace. I pray for your strength and your great peace to fill their lives, reminding them that you are close. Thank you, nothing is impossible with you. Thank you for fighting for us, and you are bigger than anything this world throws our way.

I lean fully on You, Lord, for You alone are able. We love you; We need you this day, and always.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

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In Gen 2:18 God says, It is not good for the man to be alone, speaking to the basic need we have to be known, to be seen.  While it can be difficult for us to be misunderstood, challenging to be misrepresented, frustrating to be misinterpreted, insulting to be misbelieved, it is devastating to be considered invisible.  To be unseen, unknown, uncared for.

As soon as we are able to walk, Look at me comes naturally to us.  We entertain, do the crazy or constantly say the repetitive, all in an effort to say, Don’t miss that I’m here. In today’s expressions, online ‘likes’ our way of stating, ‘I’m to be seen. I have worth others should know’. 

In the Old Testament we read of a woman who for years lived unvalued and unseen.  And then, through actions not chosen by her but done to her, her life changed from servant to ‘someone’.  I’m speaking of Hagar.  We’re not told whether years of disregard and mistreatment had planted resentment in her but it wouldn’t be surprising if it had.  Others making decisions about who she was to be, what she was to do, she not having a voice.  And so as we first meet her, she is living a life others had decided for her, she a slave.  In this case, someone to bear another’s child.  

Used like this, powerless to have any say over her life, it’s not surprising that disdain for others swirled within. Soon that disdain no longer hidden when she looked at the woman who couldn’t deliver a child, passed her along to her husband like some goods in order to accomplish what she couldn’t.  

How Hagar viewed Sarai before becoming pregnant is anyone’s guess but she’s once aware  she’s going to deliver Abram’s much wanted baby, the disgust she has for Sarai is undisguised obvious, Hagar treating Sarai with contempt.  

The word used for what Hagar felt has the idea of oppress.  Though we’re not told, it’s not hard to guess how some of this plays out.  Hagar, now with the currency of youth and the arrival of this child, has large currency of worth - she will deliver the heir.  In our culture, the birth of an heir is significant; in her culture, critical. She now  holding what she believes are the perfect coins to qualify her to be elevated to a person of worth.  Not just worth, but because of this child she believes herself of more worth than the woman she once served.  This putting herself in the position attitudinally of making the other small or as the word has about it - to have them crouch down and in that act, make herself greater.  She believing she had attained a power, earned a power that could be used for her benefit.  

Because that’s what disdain does - making the other, lesser: doing it with words, doing it in attitudes held, doing it by impressions passed on, doing it in overt actions employed.  Making ourselves larger by making the other look smaller.  

In her foolishness, Hagar had come to see herself as more than who she was while seeing Sarai as far less than who she is.  

Hagar probably not alone in misunderstanding her worth. Sarai was probably doing the same, wondering who she is.  Unable to give Abram this child, Sarai’s grief would already be hearing the voices of not enough and ‘less than’, ‘why her and not me?’, within herself.  Then seeing these displayed on the face of the one who was to serve her, the one who would have flaunted that she bore the child, would have been excruciatingly hard to bear.  

Though Hagar might have taken momentary satisfaction, those joys are fleeting, because Sarai has had enough of the looks and the clipped verbal comments.  Hagar forgetting that attitudes and words of disdain always catch up with you.   They shape and distort.  They isolate and distance.  They destroy relationships and sever connections.  If disdain remains long enough, it hardens into attitudes that drive behaviour.  Behaviour that usually destroys.  

Which is what Hagar soon discovered, Sarai treating her harshly.  No wonder.  Hagar forgetting that Sarai holds the power and as a result, we next see Hagar as a runaway where we read, When Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.  And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai”  Gen 16:6-8.

I am certain Hagar hadn’t accounted for her life getting as messed up as it had.  Sure, some of what happened, her doing but not all.  Her name, which means stranger, tells us some things.   In some ways, she is a person who’s been looking for a place to fit where her given name would no longer be true.  To this point, she hadn’t found it.

She not finding it, but in the words we now read, God finding her.  In these few words, she is told a lot and will learn a lot.  My guess is that she probably moved past the most important thing she needed to hear by focusing first on the questions she was asked,   

Hagar - Where have you come from? and Where are you going?   :8    

So Where have I come from?  is the question all right, because I’m definitely not from here.  Those people are not my people and this place is not my place.  I come from Egypt yet, Where I’ve come from? is not so easily answered.  Because in Egypt where I was named, I was a stranger.  Among people who told me I was not of them. In that place, given away. To my parents of small value. To my peers undesirable. And to Pharoah, expendable. 

But if you’re asking Where I’ve come from? in recent events, no better, still a slave, a nameless one at that who my master treats harshly.   And your other question:

Where are you going?  I can’t really say.  Anywhere but there.  Staying had become unbearable and when you are dealing with the unbearable, nothing is rational.  It was only after I had left that reality sets in - a wilderness ahead, disrespect going back and no welcome in the land of my birth.  How long would I last before Pharoah learned of the offense I’d brought to him by violating the gift he’d given to those I just left?  

What’s interesting though, is that God isn’t needing these 2 questions to be answered for Him.  He’s asking so she will see where she is.  It’s the same when God asks things of us.   

When He asks, Who is the woman you are with? What is the site you just were on? or What is the choice you’re about to make? He is wanting us to see the path we are on, the steps we are taking, the decision we’re about to make.  God’s asking for our good.

He’s asking so we will stop to consider where that is taking us. He doesn’t bar the door and say, Free will stops here rather He gives us pause to choose - not to condemn but in love, to convict.

Those questions given us by the God who sees us.  He asking to get us to see ourselves as we need to be seen and to see Him as He IS to be seen.

Perhaps most importantly, aren’t the questions asked but the first word she was to hear, Hagar. God doing what Abram and Sarai hadn’t done, their reference to her as maid, God calling her by name!  It’s why Hagar, will say of God, You are EL ROI - the God who sees me. You are the One who knows me.  You are the One who says of us, You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made  Ps 139:13,14.

God wanting Hagar to know - you are the one to whom I’ve come.  You - not found by chance but by intention.  Not found because of all the things you can offer or the little attention dances you do but because you are the one I want.  You not needing to give to Me but Me wanting to give to you.  Because you are the one I greatly love.  You - not a stranger but known and loved by Me.

It’s the same thing God wants us to hear.  Jesus coming to find the one who feels unseen, who finds the one who doesn’t think themselves worthy to be found, who finds the one who’s been told they don’t fit, they don’t belong, their look isn’t right, their behaviour is wrong.  I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly   Jn 10:10.

God not seeking the all-together, the GQ perfect, the intellectually gifted, or the status earned appealing. Not that God doesn’t find these but they not regarded as more worthy, more useful, more candidate right.  He seeking those who will run into Him, knowing that no matter how they may appear, they are just as in need of being found as those commonly pictured as lost and in need of rescue. Jesus seeing and loving those who think themselves unseen. 

God’s truth, I haven’t come ‘for’ your worth - no, I have come to dress you IN My worth.   Because there is no worth other than what is found in Me.  

Where have you been?  The past where you were so messed up.  The self-sufficiency where you thought you were the master of your own fate.  The failures that marked who you were.  The success that deceived, making you think yourself more than you are.  And those places you thought would give you all that you want - I EL ROI see them all.  

Which brings me to a 2^nd brief look at the last name of God we are considering this morning.  I think it fitting to end with this as we’ve walked through several of the names by which God has revealed Himself.  In review: JWHW - GOD Almighty - this name so precious, so Holy the Jews did not dare to say, EL ROHI our Shepherd, ADONAI - our Master, EL TSAFA - our Warrior, EL SHADDAI - our Nourisher and just considered, EL ROI the God who Sees. All these speaking to the power, the wonder, the glory of who God is. 

But what if we see this God as someone whose greatness must be found, whose greatness must be earned?  Who can only be found if we go through certain rituals?  The good news?  He is Here! He is EL SHAMMAH.  This God isn’t far off.  He’s not a God that has to be called from afar, but is present with us right now - to all who call on Him.

This name EL SHAMMAH is the last name revealed about God in the Old Testament Ezek 48:35 and yet it serves as the perfect bridge to what we are introduced to as the New Testament open - this God is IMMANUEL - God with us. 

Jesus, with us - who came in flesh so we can know Him.  Who we have relationship with not as Someone to be feared but as Someone to be loved, He loving us before we came to know and love Him.  He coming, looking for us - to seek and save the lost Lk 19:10.  As Scripture tells us, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is  1 Jn 3:1,2.

The context in which God reveals His name as EL SHAMMAH is interesting.  God had warned His people repeatedly of their sin.  For a time they would repent and return to following Him but then they would turn away and allow other things to be God in their lives. 

To get His people to face their sin, God often allowed  circumstances and enemies to come to help them understand how powerless they were without His strength.  Occasionally this lesson was learned after a tragic defeat but not infrequently, they needed longer times of captivity and difficulty for them to better see who they had become and how far they had fallen.

We know these stories well - of giants and slavemasters, of impassable seas and unscalable walls.  Of wilderness wandering and evil and disobedient kings.  Despite powerful manifestations of God’s power, the people quickly disobeying and turning to other loves.  At times, God’s presence treated almost like a magic charm to be called on when needed.  

He would act.  They would be saved.  Change would briefly come and then God would be forgotten and disobeyed again.  They chasing different gods as do we.  Tim Keller observes:

To contemporary people the word idolatry conjures up pictures of primitive people bowing down before statues… Our contemporary society is not fundamentally different from these ancient ones. Each culture is dominated by its own set of idols. Each has its own ‘priesthoods,’ its totems and rituals. Each one has its shrines - whether office towers, spas and gyms, studios, or stadiums—where sacrifices must be made in order to procure the blessings of the good life and ward off disaster. 

We may not actually burn incense to Artemis, but when money and career are raised to cosmic proportions, we perform a kind of child sacrifice, neglecting family and community to achieve a higher place in business and gain more wealth and prestige.   

We determining the god we will worship.  And yet God EL SHAMMAH who is here, a God of redemption is here to save and guide.  He to take us on paths that are for our good

What is so sad in this is that they and we so often fail to see Who God is.  Instead we choosing to follow God if He brings success to the offer gods we serve; if He acts in accordance with what we think He should do.  Our approach is too often quid pro quo - a ‘something for something’ understanding.  But that’s not relationship, at least not one based on the heart.  What He wants us to know is HIM - He known in His name.  Because in His name we are given everything He wants for us.  In His Name we begin to understand His heart, in His Name we understand His love, in His Name we understand all the good He has for us, all the good He wants for us, all the good He gives us.  All true for those who are His children through what Jesus has done. 

He doesn’t want our compliance, He wants us to step into the certainty and blessing of His love.  Of what He wants to give. Of the Well done’s He wants us to hear.  Of the victories He wants us to win. Of the celebrations He wants us to enjoy.  Of the wonders He wants us to see.

We so often regarding the relationship contractually rather than relationally.  Where God tells us that His love isn't based on our perfection, His love is based on His nature.  That God delights in His children and rejoices over His children with singing.  He takes pleasure in us, He knows our name and hears our cries. He knows our goings in and are going’s out.  He watches over us and provides for our needs Zeph 3:17, Is 43:1, Ps 37:23, 149:4,10:17, Ps 139, Ps 121:8, Phil 4:19.  

And what this means for you and I this morning?  That whatever you are going through, whatever has you furiously treading water, whatever has you wondering if you are going to make it through, whatever diagnosis has come or whatever declaration has been spoken over in the dark of the night - EL ROI sees and EL SHAMMAH is here - with you.  In the mess.  In the impossible.  In the overwhelming.  His presence certain.  His promise sure.  His name just as powerful as it was when He spoke it to Moses.  Just as true as when revealed to David.

His watching over you not for a moment distracted by something else.  His capacity of love not used up on someone else.

His name you are to run into.  His name He calls you to trust.  

His name - the LORD.  His name - ALMIGHTY GOD.  

His name - MASTER, SHEPHERD, WARRIOR, HEALER.

His name FATHER - who SEES and is HERE.   

Right here, right now - in this place - with you!

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