He is the God who sees me.
In Genesis 16 when Hagar fled from Sarai after she had conceived a child
by Abram the Lord found her near a spring of water in the wilderness and told
her to return and submit to her mistress with the promise that He would
multiply her offspring so that they could not be numbered. His words concerning her son and these
offspring were not covenantal and they were not promising but her response was
to give to Him the name El Roi, the God who sees me. In this passage what He says to the people is
that indeed He has seen them. There is
something less than comforting in that knowledge isn’t there? There is, however, something that is
comforting, that He cares enough to know about us. In Psalm 139 we see David initially
frustrated it seems that there is no place where he can escape from the Lord
but in the end he finds great comfort in that same knowledge. He is not watching that He might find fault
in all we do, He watches His children like both parent and spouse but a
long-suffering parent and spouse whose commitment to the relationship is
permanent. He disciplines those He
loves, always remember that truth.
The man isn’t sure whether Jesus can do anything at all
since His disciples weren’t able to help so he says, “if you can do anything,
have compassion on us and help us.” I wonder
how often people have rejected Jesus and failed to have faith in Him because of
us. The disciples couldn’t do anything and
the man, on that account, doubts whether Jesus can help. He wants to believe, crying, “Help my
unbelief.” The scene had to have been
chaotic, the arguing between the disciples and the scribes and the people
running towards the man and the boy as he spoke with Jesus, and then, in the
midst of the chaos Jesus rebukes the “mute and deaf” spirit and commands it to
come out and it cries out, the spirit itself wasn’t mute and deaf, and the
symptom the father had described seems to manifest again, the people think the
boy dead. Fortunately, Jesus takes his
hand and raises him up to new life, free from this oppression. The reason that Jesus gives for the failure
of the disciples is this kind only comes out with prayer. Perhaps the disciples had lost sight of the
reality that the power to do such things wasn’t inherent in themselves.
To keep in step with the spirit is to remember that there is
neither health nor power in us other than Him.
If we remember this, we will not “become conceited, provoke one another,
or envy one another.” This is the same
idea behind restoring those caught in transgressions gently and bearing one another’s
burdens. We need always be mindful of
the words Rich Mullins wrote, “We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully
made, forged in the fires of human passion, choking on the fumes of selfish
rage. And with these our hells and our heavens so few inches apart, we must be
awfully small and not as strong as we think we are.” The key to perseverance is the knowledge that
He is sovereign over all things and He sees me, we are not alone in the
universe, no matter what my situation God knows and cares. Only in His power can we stand.
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