El-Roi

Dec 23 2022 - Eric Buresh

I write (and talk) a lot about God’s sovereignty over, well, everything. It can be annoying to my friends sometimes, but mainly, I’m just reminding myself. God has total dominion and works all things according to the counsel of His will down to the tiniest detail. I anchor my life to this truth. My faith in God’s sovereign rule enables me to confidently live without fear in the understanding that there is perfect purpose in everything I experience both the good and (from my human viewpoint) the bad. Nothing that happens is accidental. Nothing is meaningless. It is all part of the Master’s plan for my good and His glory. 

Just as important as His sovereignty, though, is God’s Holy character that guides His sovereignty. If God reigned sovereignly, but He was not inherently good, we would be in a bad spot. If He was sovereign and good, but He didn’t pay much attention to us, we would still be in a bad spot. God’s sovereignty is a good thing precisely because God is who He is in all His infinite perfections that He ultimately sums up with the descriptive word Holy. 

Last week, I was worn out. No particular thing had happened. I just got stretched thin and did a silly thing – I gave up my time with the Lord for a few days in hopes that I could get more done. I figured I could grind through to the weekend. I’ve made this mistake a thousand times if I’ve made it once. Ugg! Walking in my flesh instead of walking by the Spirit did what it always does – it drained me and made me joyless, irritable, and inclined to sin. Saturday morning, I heard the Lord calling to me in my fugue state. Thankfully, I listened. I spent time praying, confessing, casting my cares on Him, asking for more faith, that I would trust Him more and my own strength less, and thanking Him for taking the weight from my shoulders and restoring my joy. The Word that popped into my head as I talked with my Father was El-Roi – the name of God who sees me. My Father was letting me know that He saw me. He understood. He cared. 

The Lord used His name, El-Roi, to comfort me so I’m commending it to you. El-Roi is one of the first recorded names of God in the Bible. Hagar, Abram’s servant, was forced to flee into the desert to avoid the wrath of Abram’s wife Sarai after becoming pregnant by Abram. The angel of the Lord found Hagar, comforted her, and gave her a blessing and direction (Genesis 16:7–10). In response, Hagar declared, You are El-Roi (“The God who sees”) . . . . I have seen Him who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13). 

Throughout the Old Testament, we are constantly reminded that God sees us. It is fundamental to God’s character. God saw Leah’s pain (Genesis 29:31–32). He saw Jacob’s affliction (Genesis 31:42). He saw the suffering and misery of the Israelites in Egypt (Exodus 2:23–24, 3:7–9). He sees us. He understands. He cares. Because there is a sovereign God who perfectly sees you and perfectly cares for your eternal good, you can be confident no matter what comes your way. It will be good, it will be beautiful, and God will get the glory. Praise El-Roi. Thank you Father for seeing me when I needed to be seen and reminding me when I needed to remember! 

P.S. – Our God really sees us. We cannot love like Him unless we take the time and have the focus to really see others. I confess failure here, and I pray for growth. I am perpetually distracted. As the great preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote, “The world and the organizations of life around and about us make things almost impossible; the most difficult thing in life is to order your own life and to manage it. . . . There are so many things that distract us. . . . (Spiritual Depression, 209). Lloyd-Jones wrote this almost 60 years ago. Now, we have a newspaper-television-radio-mailbox-theatre-bulletin board strapped to our hands nearly 24/7 with instant access to work, friends, sports, and any other interests always present. It’s hard to really see others with all these distractions, and it’s impossible to love like God loves without seeing them. I’m constantly reminding myself to simplify inputs and focus on what’s in front of me. Be present. It’s a moment-by-moment fight. Maybe it’s the same for you? 

P.S.S. – If you like listening to sermons while you do life’s mundane tasks, as I do, and like going back in time, as I do, I would recommend the recorded sermons of Martin Lloyd-Jones that can be found at https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/. His verse-by-verse teachings on Acts, Romans, and Ephesians, in particular, opened my eyes to new depths of truth.