The God Who Sees Me

Welcome to episode 249 of Grasp the Bible. In this episode, we will examine the topic of the God who sees the overlooked. 

Key takeaways:   

• God does not wait for the worthy to come to Him. He pursues the fleeing. Hagar was running from something with no plan for where to go, and God ran toward her. 
• Divine questions are rarely for God’s information. “Where have you come from and where are you going?” was an invitation for Hagar to face her situation honestly and receive a way forward. 
• God names the suffering before He names the promise. He acknowledged Hagar’s affliction before He spoke of her future. He does not skip over pain to get to blessing. 
• The name Ishmael means “God hears.” Every time Hagar spoke her son’s name she rehearsed the testimony that her cry had been heard. God builds memorials of grace into ordinary life. 
• The invisible suffering of the powerless is fully visible to God. What happens behind closed doors with no witnesses is not hidden from El Roi. He is keeping account. 
• Hagar is the only person in all of Scripture to give God a name. This honor was not given to Abraham, Moses, or David — it was given to a foreign slave woman. God’s deepest revelations often come to the least expected people. 
• God’s pattern throughout Scripture is consistent: He reveals Himself to shepherds, fishermen, a murderer, an adulteress, a teenager. In His kingdom, the last are precisely the ones He seeks first. 

Quotable:   

You’re not too marginalized, too broken, or too insignificant for His attention. The same God who left heaven to find a runaway slave in the wilderness is the God who sees you completely — right now, exactly where you are. 

Application:   

• If you are running from pain without a destination — recognize that God is not trying to drag you back to what hurt you. He pursues the fleeing not to condemn their escape but to redirect their steps. Bring Him your honest answer to the question He asked Hagar: Where are you going? 

• If you are suffering in silence — your unseen struggles are fully visible to God. Chronic pain no one asks about. Financial stress you hide. Grief you carry alone. Caregiving exhaustion you never talk about. El Roi is not indifferent to what no one else can see. He is witnessing every moment and keeping account. 

• If you feel marginalized — by age, economics, health, race, or social standing — you are precisely the kind of person God loves to encounter. Do not let your circumstances make you doubt your worth to Him. He does not reserve His presence for the powerful and prominent. 

• Build your own memorial — Hagar named the well Beer-lahai-roi so the encounter would not be forgotten. When God meets you in a wilderness moment, write it down. Name it. Return to it. Let it become the evidence you rehearse when the next hard season comes. 

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Transcript

0:19

As we discover life-changing wisdom in the Bible's lesser-known verses. Today, Pastor Dale Stein will be talking about Hagar and the God Who Sees Me. Let's get into today's study. Welcome to week one of our 2026 Summer Series. And today we are kicking off with the God Who Sees Me. We're going to be in Genesis chapter 16, verses 7 through 14. So let me ask you this. Have you ever felt invisible? Now, not physically invisible, but invisible in the ways that really matter? You walk into a room and no one acknowledges you. You share your pain and people look past you. You cry out for help and hear only silence. You're there, but you might as well not be. Well, this is where we find Hagar in Genesis chapter 16. She's a slave. She's property, but not a person. She's been used by her master Abraham, abused by her mistress Sarah, and now she's pregnant and running for her life through the wilderness. No one is looking for her, no one cares where she goes. She has no value to anyone, no voice, no advocate, and no future. She is the definition of invisible. But here's what makes this story so powerful. The God of the universe, the God who created galaxies and commands nations, this God pursues a nameless, powerless, foreign slave woman into the desert. He sees her when no one else does. He speaks to her when no one else will. And she becomes the first person in all of Scripture to give God a name. She calls him El Roy, the God who sees me. And today, some of you are feeling invisible. Your pain is private, your struggles are hidden, your suffering goes unnoticed. And I want you to hear this truth from Hagar's story. You serve El Roy, the God who sees, and he sees you completely. So let's look at three truths from this encounter that can anchor our souls when we feel forgot forgotten. First point is this God seeks the fleeing. Let's look at verses 7 and 8. The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness along the road to Shur. The angel said to her, Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are you going? I am running away from my mistress, Sarai, she replied. The angel of the Lord, likely a preincarnate appearance of Christ, finds Hagar in the wilderness. Notice the reversal. Hagar is fleeing affliction, yet God pursues her. She's running away, but God is running toward her. He is the active seeker, the divine pursuer, searching her out and her desperation. And let's look at God's question. Where have you come from and where are you going? Now, this isn't for his information, but for Hagar's reflection. She knows where she's come from, which is Sarai's mistreatment, abuse, and an impossible situation. But where's she going? Well, there's no answer for that. She's fleeing from something by not fleeing to anything. There's desperation without direction, escape without destination. So let me illustrate this force. A marriage counselor spoke of a client who fled home at 2 a.m. after a fight, and that person drove aimlessly for hours. Now a state trooper found her at dawn, completely lost. She admitted that she had no idea where she was going. She just couldn't stay where she'd been. When we are running from pain, we rarely have a plan. We simply want escape. God meets us in wilderness moments, not to condemn our fleeing, but to redirect our steps. If you're running from conflict, failure, or disappointment, recognize that God is pursuing you now, not to drag you back to affliction, but to show you his way forward. Now let's take a look at God seeing our suffering in verses 9 and 12. The angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress and submit to her authority. Then he added, I will give you more descendants than you can count. And the angel also said, You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, which means God hears, for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey. He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives. God's command to return seems harsh, but he's protecting Hagar from certain death and preserving the child she carries. Most importantly, he doesn't send her back empty-handed. God makes her an extraordinary promise, descendants too numerous to count. This is the exact language he used with Abraham. He dignifies this foreign slave woman with a promise typically reserved for the covenant patriarch. The name Ishmael means God hears. Every time Hagar speaks her son's name, she will remember that her cry was heard. God saw her affliction even when no human witnessed it. Sarai's abuse happened behind closed doors where slaves had no defenders, but God saw every moment, keeping account of every injustice. The invisible suffering of the powerless is fully visible to God. During the civil rights era, many African Americans suffered injustices with no witnesses or cameras. One elderly woman in Selma, Alabama said this. They could beat us in the dark, but God had his eyes on every blow. He was keeping account. Your unseen struggles, the chronic pain no one asks about, the financial stress you hide, the caregiving exhaustion you bear alone, the grief you carry privately, all these things are fully visible to God. He's not indifferent, he's keeping account. The Elroy who saw Hagar also sees you. And my final point is this God reveals himself to the marginalized. Let's look at verses 13 and 14. Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who had spoken to her. She said, You are the God who sees me. She also said, Have I truly seen the one who sees me? So that well was named Bir Lahi Roy, which means well of the living one who sees me. It can still be found between Kadesh and Barid. Hagar becomes the only person in Scripture to give God a name, El Roy, the God who sees me. This isn't presumptuous, it's a significant testimony about God's nature revealed through personal experience. Her exclamation, Have I truly seen the one who sees me? It reveals astonishment. In ancient Near Eastern religions, gods didn't bother with slaves or appear to foreign women, yet Yahweh revealed himself to this Egyptian servant girl, dignifying her with his presence. The well became a permanent memorial of God's grace to the marginalized. This pattern continues throughout scripture. God reveals himself to shepherds, to fishermen, a murderer, who is Moses, an adulteress, Rahab, a teenager, Mary, demonstrating that in his kingdom the last shall be first. James Cohn wrote about enslaved peoples' profound spiritual encounters with God. They had visions and dreams and divine assurances that sustained them when they had no earthly hope. Masters could control their bodies, but couldn't prevent God from revealing himself in cotton fields and slave quarters. If you feel marginalized by age, economics, health, or social status, you're precisely the kind of person that God loves to encounter. He doesn't reserve his deepest revelations for the powerful and prominent. Never let your circumstances make you doubt your worth to God. Hagar's story reminds us that we serve Elroy, the God who sees. When you're running from pain, when your suffering feels invisible, when you feel forgotten, remember that God sees you completely. You're not too marginalized, too broken, or too insignificant for his attention. Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you that you are Elroy, the God who sees. You see us in our running, hiding, and suffering. You see the pain we've kept private and the burdens we carry alone. For those who feel marginalized or overlooked, remind them that you delight in revealing yourself to the powerless. For those running from pain, show them your path forward. For those suffering in silence, let them know that you are witnessing and intervening even now. And anchor our souls in this truth. God who saw Hagar sees each of us today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for that message, and thank you to our listeners for your time. Join us next week as Pastor Darrell will speak about Elhud, the unlikely hero.