El=God

Roy=One who sees

This name of God is only used once in the whole Bible. The name El Roy is used in Genesis 16. Let’s read the passage and then we will talk about it. 

Introduction To Hagar

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 

So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

Regret Sets In

 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” 

Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.” Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭1‬-‭16‬ ‭(ESV)‬‬

The Promise

If you recall, God had promised Sarai and Abram that they would become parents and their descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. “And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Genesis‬ ‭15‬:‭5‬ (‭ESV)‬‬ 

In the view of Sarai, God had made a promise and failed to come through on that promise. She thought she needed to help God fulfill his promise to them. In those days if a woman couldn’t have a baby, it was common for them to have their servants have a child. That child would be considered the child of the wife and husband. To Sarai, this was a perfect solution. After all, she was already past the biological time of having children. 

Living In An Old Identity

Recall, Sarai had not yet been given her name change. She was still living in her fleshly identity of “princess” instead of living in her God given identity of “noblewoman.” As a princess, she thought she should have what was promised to her no matter how it was accomplished. As a noblewoman, she realized she needed to wait for God to fulfill his promise to her because Isaac would be worth the wait. 

Just as every time we try to help God make good on his promises, things backfired on Sarai and Abram. We read in verse 4 that once Hagar became pregnant she started treating Sarai with contempt. Hagar despised Sarai. The seemingly close and healthy relationship Sarai had with Hagar before Hagar was forced to have a baby with Abram was ruined. It doesn’t seem like this relationship ever healed either as God would later tell Abram to throw Hagar and her son out of the house. Sarai would have been better off to let God be God. 

Hagar’s Perspective

Now let’s look at this story from Hagar’s perspective. Hagar was an Egyptian slave who worked for Sarai. I can imagine Sarai treated Hagar well before Hagar became pregnant. Still, Hagar may have preferred to stay in her hometown and live her life as a free woman. I’m sure she was thankful she had owners who were kind to her. Regardless, she was still enslaved and as a result lost her voice and freedom to live her life as she wanted. 

Things were going well until Sarai concocted a crazy plan for her to have a baby with her master. Did Hagar want to do this? I would think probably not, but what Hagar wanted didn’t matter. Did she voice her objection? Maybe, maybe not. Based on what we do know of Hagar I would think she didn’t object. She learned to be obedient. She also knew that God spoke to her masters. Was she there when the angel of the Lord came and had a meal with Sarai and Abram before going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Was she present when Abram told Sarai about the conversation he had with God when God told him he and Sarai were going to be the parents of nations and their descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky? Perhaps this crazy plan was pitched to Hagar that God told them to do this. Would Hagar dare to go against the God of Abram and Sarai? Likely not. 

Regardless if Hagar really agreed to this foolish plan or not, she still chose to obey. When she found out she was pregnant she began to despise her mistress. This tells me that Hagar may not have wanted to be a part of this plan. 

The Fruit

How did Sarai react to this new development? She says in verse 5, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” In other words, “Abram, this is all your fault. I gave you my servant so we could have a baby and now she is being mean to me. Only God himself can determine who is wrong between you and me.” 

In verse 6 Abram replies, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.”  Basically, “She’s your servant. That makes her your problem not mine. Do whatever you want with her.” 

No Other Choice

After this conversation, Sarai started treating Hagar “harshly.” In fact Sarai was so harsh Hagar felt her only option was to leave. Where could she go? If I were Hagar, I’d want to go back to Egypt. In fact that seems to be exactly what Hagar was doing. It says in verse 7 that the angel of the Lord found her in the wilderness going toward Shur. Shur is in fact going toward Egypt from the land of Canaan, where Abram and Sarai were living at this time. 

The Promise For Hagar

What does this angel of the Lord tell Hagar? First he asks her where she came from and where she was headed. Hagar tells him she was fleeing Sarai, her mistress. Then the angel of the Lord tells Hagar to go back and submit to her mistress. He then makes a covenant with Hagar. He tells her that he will multiply her offspring. In fact they will be so numerous that they will become a multitude. 

He tells her she is going to have a son and name him Ishmael, which means “God will hear.” He then tells her that Ishmael will be like a wild donkey and he will be against everyone and everyone will be against him. However, he will live in hostility among his family. I’m sure Hagar had mixed feelings about this prophetic word regarding her son. Maybe she could relate to feeling like she is against everyone and everyone is against her. Perhaps she had a bit of a wild donkey side to her as well. Who knows! She certainly knew what it was like to live in hostility with the people she likely once considered like family. 

How did Hagar react to this news? Did she complain about how she was being treated? Did she give God a list of reasons she shouldn’t go back? No. She actually gave God a new name. She said, “You are El Roy. I know that you look after me.” She was confident that El Roy would continue to look out for her no matter what the future held for her and her unborn son. 

So Hagar went back to live with Sarai and Abram. She gave birth to Ishmael and things were good for a while. 

El Roy Sees You

El Roy is still watching over his children. He is the God who sees you who have a broken heart. El Roy sees you who have been abused by people who claim to care for you. El Roy is there watching out for you who just got a well deserved raise at work. The God who sees is there when you give birth to your baby and rejoices over this new life with you. No matter what your circumstances, good or bad, El Roy is there. He never takes his eyes off you because you are his child. Remember El Roy will never leave you or forsake you, even when everyone else does. Just as he was there with Hagar out in the wilderness and was watching over her, so he is with you no matter where you go. El Roy saw the pain and hardship she was going through in that moment, and he sees when you go through hardship too. However, El Roy is also there in the good times. Just as he is there in the hard times, he also loves to rejoice with you during the good times. 

El Shaddai — El Roy