Understanding God: He Sees Beyond the Surface
Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” Therefore, the well was called Beer Lahai Roi… – Genesis 16:13-14
Our meditation on the nature of God today shall be on His penetrative vision. He looks far deeper than we can imagine and sees beyond the surface of any matter. His visions are far-fetched and they see through whatever coating may be covering whatever is beneath.
From our reference passage today, we see how God exemplified this through His interaction with Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant. To an average eye, Hagar obviously looked a pitiable sight with a pathetic story to match too, and she was eager to capitalize on these to whip up sentiments in her favor as well as against her “wicked principals”, Abraham and Sarah.
Anyone with a sense of justice who visits the spring of water where she sat and sees a pregnant woman, looking haggard, in tattered clothing, panting and with tears in her eyes, would be interested in hearing her story. And, after hearing what Hagar has to say, the person would loathe Sarah for the wicked way she treated Hagar and may even take matters into their hands by reporting Sarah and her husband to the authorities for domestic abuse. But there lies the inanity of human judgment. Even with the best of intentions, our judgment and assessment can be ill-informed, not to mention the opinions we form from what is only evident to us alone.
However, in the case of God, because He knows more than we do about any matter, He is more measured and balanced in His own judgment as we can see in the case of Hagar. Even after hearing her pitiable narration, the angel did not join her pity party. On the contrary, he only ordered her to return to her mistress and submit to her authority—end of discussion.
As harsh as this verdict may seem, it is interesting to note that Hagar herself, the aggrieved party and the person to whom the verdict was delivered, did not seem to contend it. Rather, by her own acknowledgement, she only validated the appropriateness of the judgment by saying God had seen her, meaning that God truly knew what was going on and He saw what she had done that led her to where she was. So there was no hiding the truth of the matter from Him. She was the one in the wrong due to her rude attitude towards her boss, so she deserved the treatment she got.
With this her admission, she acknowledged her fault, validated God’s judgment and proved that He truly sees beyond the surface.
Selah!
Also read:
- A Father Shopping
- Understanding God: A Balancing Act
- The Benefits of Wisdom: Organization
- A Faithful Giver
- I Was A Pretender
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