When I write something I’m thinking about publishing on my blog, I constantly refer to a thesaurus. A good writer, by our modern definition, mixes up words and phrases. Repetition makes for boring reading.
But biblical authors would take issue with that. Repetition, they would say, makes for spirited reading. Using the same word over and over in a narrative actually “intensifies the dynamic action” in their opinion.10
Martin Buber describes it this way: “…if you imagine the entire text stretched out before you, you can sense waves moving back and forth between key words, matching the rhythm of the text… it is one of the most powerful means of conveying meaning.”10
So if we want to more fully grasp the meaning of this story of Abram, Sarai, and Hagar, it’s worth looking for the words or phrases that been repeated in the 13 verses so far.
For help with that, we switch from a thesaurus to a concordance. Then it’s not too hard to see the repetition.
The word translated “look or behold or see” is used four times2, as is the verb translated “looked or saw or sees.”4 Five times we come across the same word translated as “sight or eye or spring.”5 And twice is the word translated “presence or face or sight or gaze.”6
So it would seem the author really wants us to see the seeing, sight, and looking that’s happening here.
We ended the second part of this account by noticing that God see us, really sees us, even when we feel completely unseen in the desert places. Where we’ve come from and where we’re going is never outside His gaze.
But what about our gaze? Is our seeing always correct? Probably not, because even these heroes of the faith couldn’t see things right.
Abram wrongly sees the promises of YHWH, the proposals of Sarai, and the personhood of Hagar.
Sarai wrongly sees the timing of YHWH, the supernatural accounts told by Abram, and the affliction of a slave woman.
Hagar wrongly sees the desperation of a barren woman, the frail faith of a nomadic old man, and the mysterious but merciful ways of YHWH.
If we want to be imitators of the Christ who says “I see you,” we need to deal with the plethora of planks in our own eyes.
There’s good reason Saint Paul, who had been blinded spiritually and physically at times, says we should walk by faith not by sight. Our heart can be lead by our eyes, says Job.
Especially when we see promises without fulfillment.
Wars without peace.
Diseases without cure.
Graves without resurrection.
Grief without end.
Judgments without justice.
Struggles without resolutions.
Pain without relief.
O YHWH, remind us that this time and place is not the end; that which our eyes see is only temporary.
Eternal One, remind us that You know where each one of us is coming from and where we are going today, tomorrow, and all the days of our lives.
El Roi, shift my paradigm and refresh my eyes so that I may correctly see my neighbor and my world.
Now let’s wrap up this story and find out where Hagar goes starting in verse 14:
Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; Look/Behold/See2, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
To mark the spot where Hagar gives God a name, there happens, not so coincidently, to be… a well! A place to hear, see, and taste that the LORD is good.
The exact meaning of the well’s name Beer Lahai Roi has been lost to the sands of time. It could mean “The well of Him—the true and living God—who lives and sees me.” Or “The well of her—the one likely lost and dead—who now lives and did see YHWH.”9
Either way it means life, not death.
Seeing, not blindness.
Truth, not myth.
Beer Lahai Roi is a place where both body and soul can be refreshed with Living Water. It’s no wonder that in the years ahead, Issac, the future son of Abram and Sarai, will be drawn to live near this well.
Will others?
I can imagine the Son of YHWH beside it saying “Come to me all who are weary. I hear your cry.”
“Come to me all who are poor, marginalized, disrespected, abused, and unnoticed. I have tender blessings for you.”
“Come to me all who wish to see as I see, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not yet know.”
“Come to me all who wonder if I am slow in keeping my promises. Let me restore your hope.”
And it’s in these words that we find the answer to a final question: if God really did see Hagar’s affliction, why send her back to Sarai?
Because God sees Sarai too.
El Roi wants Hagar to go back and tell Sarai firsthand about a God who sees, a God who hears, and a God who will track us down in the wilderness to tell us we are known to Him.
Then He wants Sarai, when she’s 90 years old and finally holding her very own infant son, to sing him lullabies about El Roi. The Name that can then be passed down to Rebekah and Rahab and Naomi and Hannah and Bathsheba and Elizabeth and all the Marys and you and me and anyone needing to know there is a God who sees.
So Hagar bore a son to Abram; and Abram named his son, to whom Hagar gave birth, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.
Notice the absence of a sentence such as, “Then Hagar returned to Sarai and Abram.”
Since Hagar now knows who YHWH is and who she is in His eyes, such a statement is entirely unnecessary. It’s enough to say “Hagar bore a son to Abram” because doing hard and holy things becomes a bit easier when we know that we are seen, heard, and loved by the eternal, compassionate, all-seeing God.
I see you.
I am here.
Jesus knows me,
this I love.
Jesus knows you,
drink in His love.
Amen and
Maranatha.
May El Roi come quickly.
- 2 – The Hebrew word hinneh can be translated as look, behold or see now.
- 4 – The Hebrew word raah can be translated as saw, seen, sees, or looked.
- 5 – The Hebrew word ayin can be translated as sight, eye, or spring.
- 6 – The Hebrew word panim or paneh can be translated as presence, face, sight, or gaze.
- 9 – Commentary on Beer Lahai Roi
- 10 – Martin Biber, Schriften Zir Bibel, p. 1131 (pulled from BibleProject’s Classroom Notes for The Book Of Jonah p. 25)
Lord, Come Quickly 
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