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Genesis 16:13
“[Hagar] called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing,’ for she said, ‘Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.’”
Christian thinkers across theological traditions have confessed that God knows all things past, present, and future. Yet a small minority of professing Christians have called God’s complete knowledge of the future into question. During the Reformation, both Roman Catholics and Protestants opposed the Socinians, a heretical group whose teachings included the denial that God knows the future comprehensively. More recently, certain figures who call themselves open theists have tried to meld historic evangelical views on the doctrine of the Trinity with the affirmation that God knows the future only in part. Views such as these have never really been able to gain traction because the Bible is clear that God knows the future exhaustively. As Isaiah 46:10 tells us, the Lord declares “the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.”
As we continue to think about divine omniscience, or God’s knowing all things, we need to remember that the understanding of the Lord pertains not merely to facts and events but to people as well. To put it another way, God’s knowledge is intensely personal and intimate. He knows each individual human being better than each person knows himself. Hagar’s story in Genesis 16 makes this evident.
Hagar found herself in dire need after Sarai cast her out of Abram’s household (vv. 1–6). Alone, defenseless, and with no one to provide for her, Hagar encountered the angel of the Lord near a spring of water, and he told her that God would bless her with many children (vv. 7–12). Recognizing that the Lord had seen her plight, Hagar “called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, ‘You are a God of seeing’” (v. 13). “You are a God of seeing” translates the Hebrew phrase el roi, and thus we get the name El Roi, “The God who sees.”
Since the Lord knows all things, He sees all things. With Hagar, we learn that God’s seeing is one that pays attention to the specifics, that cares as much about the details as He does the big picture of His overarching plan for creation. In particular, that God saw—that He knew—Hagar indicates His concern for the weak and powerless. She had no real standing in that society, and no one was available to help her after Sarai drove her from her home. Nevertheless, the Lord saw her and took care of her. That same gaze of love and provision falls on God’s people today. Truly the Lord is the Helper of the helpless (Ps. 54:4).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Matthew Henry comments on today’s passage, noting the good news that “He that sees all sees me.” We are not insignificant to the Lord, and He takes special notice of us because we are His people. He cares for us and provides for us both when we are strong and when we are helpless.
For further study
- Exodus 2:23–25
- 1 Samuel 16:7
- Psalm 33:13
- Luke 12:6–7
The bible in a year
- 1 Samuel 14–16
- Luke 14:25–35