Names of God: El’Roi
“There is an epidemic of loneliness in the United States and lacking connection can increase the risk for premature death to levels comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.” This quotation was the opening line of a research backed NPR article that ran earlier this year. It points out that many older Americans feel lonely, but that the trend is particularly significant with youth aged 15 to 24, who’s in person interactions are being replaced by digital media through their cell phones. Americans in the age group spend an astounding 70% less time in personal interaction that the same age group did 20 years ago. The problem is that we were made for interaction. Our minds and emotions thrive when they are in healthy relationships with others. We have a need to see, and be seen. I’ve always enjoyed it when I come to church, see a friend, often an older person, and say, ‘Go to see you!’ The response that makes me smile is when the person says, ‘Good to be seen!’
The name of God that we investigate today expresses that we can have a real relationship with God in which He sees us, just like we are known by a personal friend. The Hebrew name, which is revealed in Genesis chapter 16 is El’roi. ‘El’ is an abbreviation for the name ‘El’ohim’, which I have written about before. It means ‘mighty ruler,’ or ‘God.’ ‘Roi’ means ‘to see.’ So El’roi, is the God Who Sees. The account that leads to this name being revealed is fascinating. Abram, later to be called Abraham, has received a promise from God that he and his wife Sarai, despite being without children and too old to have any, will miraculously conceive a son. Unfortunately, the promise lingers for decades without being fulfilled, like a gallon of milk sitting around past its expiration date. Abram and his wife grow impatient and decide to help things along. In a practice that rightly seems improper to us today, but was considered necessary at times in the ancient world, Sarai gives her Egyptian servant Hagar to her husband to try to have a child on her behalf. Predictably, the idea simultaneously works and explodes into jealousy. Hagar becomes pregnant, but the ladies in the house can no longer stand to look at each other. Eventually the pregnant servant is cast out of the household to wander the desert in hopes of reaching her ancestral homeland of Egypt several days journey away. She and her unborn baby have been dealt a bad hand. They are second-class citizens, and are now have been tossed out without provision or protection.
Will God just let the poor, the suffering of the world vanish without any intervention? God’s Son, the ‘Angel of the Lord,’ came to Hagar at a remote well in the desert, calls her by name, and asks her a profound question. “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” Does God need this information? He already knows. But He is inviting a suffering woman to confide in him. He didn’t say, “Tell me how you are doing.” She is obviously broken in desperation. But rather He wants her to unload her past griefs and pains. He wants her to tell him her hopes for the future, for the son that she carries in her womb. Those dreams that seem to be evaporating away in the Israeli desert. This is Jesus as divine counselor. God is El’roi. The God who sees our worst tragedies, and most self-conscious aspirations, and comes close to us when we are willing to let him in to these intimate parts of us.
Hagar is astounded.
She didn’t expect God to be concerned about a poor slave. All that she hopes is fulfilled when God tells her that her son, Ishmael, will be no one’s slave, and will multiply into a legacy of thousands of descendants. She returns to Abram’s household with a newfound confidence, trusting that God sees her plight.
And God sees you also. He is El’roi, and he invites you to unburden yourself honestly before him.
When you know God as a personal friend that comes close to you in your deepest struggles and victories, you will find that you have an emotional capacity to draw close to others that need that same support. You will be positioned to reverse the trend of loneliness, and following
God’s initiation, to dive into the hurt, and to find the healing well of connection.
Together in the Journey,
Father Cam Lemons
(Father Cam Lemons serves at St. Timothy’s Anglican Church. Service is at 9 a.m. on Sunday at 700 Hobson St. in Bishop. He also serves at Trinity Memorial Anglican
Church in Lone Pine. The service there is at noon at 220 N. Lakeview Road. For more information, go to StTimothysBishop.com.)