The God Who Sees (Day 6: Roots & Shoots)

• Ornament: The Eye
• Scripture: Genesis 16:7-13

A Surface Reading

If we learned this story as children, it was likely a footnote in the saga of Abraham and Sarah. Hagar is usually presented as a “complication”—the result of Abraham and Sarah taking matters into their own hands because they lacked patience. In the traditional telling, Hagar is a supporting character, a mistake to be fixed, or simply the “maid” who caused trouble in the family tent. We read the story through Sarah’s eyes, seeing Hagar as a problem.

A Closer Look

Guide: Rachel Held Evans

When we look closer at the text, we see that Hagar is the victim of systemic power. She is an Egyptian slave—likely acquired when Abraham went to Egypt in Genesis 12. She has no agency; her body is used to secure an heir for her owners.

But here is the literary shocker: Hagar is the first person in the entire Bible to give God a name. Not Abraham. Not Noah. Hagar.

When she flees into the wilderness, God does not send her back to be invisible. God asks her, “Where have you come from and where are you going?” God treats her as a person with a history and a future. In response, she calls God El Roi, “The God Who Sees Me.” The text subverts the ancient hierarchy: the person with the least amount of social power is the one who receives the most intimate revelation of who God is.

The View From the Margins

In the ancient world, naming something was an act of authority. Only superiors named subordinates. Yet here, an enslaved woman—the person with the least amount of power in the entire story—claims the authority to name the Creator.

She calls Him El Roi: “The God Who Sees Me.”

This is a radical theological statement. It tells us that you don’t need to be a “Patriarch” to know God. You don’t need to be male, free, or wealthy. God bypasses the powerful tent of Abraham to meet the woman dying in the desert. Hagar teaches us that God is found on the margins, and that the “outsider” often knows God better than the “insider.”

The Question

We often look for God in the “center”—in the big churches, the successful leaders, the happy families. Hagar suggests God is found in the wilderness.

Who is the “outsider” in your life right now? What might they be able to teach you about who God is?