Genesis 16:13

My Notes

What Does Genesis 16:13 Mean?

"And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?" Hagar — a pregnant Egyptian slave, fleeing her abusive mistress Sarai — receives a visit from the angel of the LORD in the wilderness. She becomes the first person in Scripture to give God a name: El Roi, "the God who sees me." This is extraordinary on multiple levels: a foreign slave woman names God.

Her response — "Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?" — expresses astonishment that she has seen God and survived. But the deeper wonder is that God saw her first. She was invisible to the social structures of her world — a slave, a woman, a foreigner. And God found her in the wilderness and spoke her name.

Reflection Questions

• 1.When have you felt most invisible — and how does knowing God sees you change that experience?
• 2.What does it mean that the first person to name God in the Bible was a slave woman, not a patriarch?
• 3.Who is the 'Hagar' in your world — the invisible person God might be asking you to see?
• 4.How does El Roi — the God who sees — differ from the God you typically imagine?

Devotional

Hagar named God. Not Abraham. Not Moses. Not a prophet or a priest. A pregnant Egyptian slave girl running away through the desert. She's the first person in the Bible to give God a name. And the name she chose tells you everything about what she experienced: El Roi. The God who sees me.

Hagar was invisible. In every way that her culture measured worth — gender, ethnicity, social status, freedom — she had none. She was a slave owned by Sarai, used by Abraham, and abused by the woman who should have protected her. Nobody in this story sees Hagar as a person. She's a tool, a surrogate, a problem to be managed.

But God sees her. In the wilderness — the place of abandonment, the place you go when nobody wants you — the God of the universe tracks down a runaway slave and speaks to her. Not to Abraham about her. To her. Directly. Personally. By name.

If you have ever felt invisible — unseen by the systems that run your world, overlooked by the people who should notice you, reduced to a function rather than recognized as a person — Hagar's God is your God. El Roi. The God who sees you. Not the sanitized, acceptable version of you. The you who's running through the desert, pregnant and scared and angry. That's the you God comes looking for.

And Hagar's astonishment — "Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?" — is the astonishment of every invisible person who discovers they've been seen by God all along. He saw you first. He sees you now.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture