She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” Genesis 16:13 NIV
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” John 4:19-26 NIV
John tells us Jesus HAD to go through Samaria – the woman at the well needed his insight and teaching. They have an honest conversation about her current living situation and about how to worship God. A good Jew having a conversation with a Samaritan woman was taboo, but Jesus talked with her, listened to her and taught her about true worship.
In Genesis 16 and in Genesis 21, Hagar, an Egyptian slave of Sarai, was in two different desperate situations. The angel of the Lord found her near a spring in the desert in Genesis 16, after she ran away from Sarai. She declared, “You are the God who sees me,” Genesis 16:13. Later, when Ishmael was a teenager Hagar and her son were sent away into the desert. After the water skin was empty, Hagar and her son were desperate for water, and cried. “God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink,” Genesis 21:21.
Hagar was the first person to declare the Lord to be “the God who sees me.” The Samaritan woman and the Egyptian slave would have been used to being overlooked and not heard. Jesus saw the Samaritan woman and engaged her in a serious spiritual conversation. In Hagar’s second time in the desert, God heard her and Ishmael’s cries and provided them with lifesaving water, as well as telling them about Ishmael’s future.
Are you in a situation where you feel like God does not see you? Or that God does not hear you? Do you need encouragement that God is with you, that he sees you and hears your pain? Listen to this song by Phillips, Craig and Dean. Take heart, be assured our God sees you and me, our God hears you and me. He IS the God who sees.
By Grace Hunter
