She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” - Genesis 16:13

I really appreciate the story of Hagar, even though I could see why many wouldn’t. It can be a tough read, about an Egyptian slave who was treated with contempt by her mistress. But I believe the bigger story here is how God saw Hagar. 

She flees to the desert desperate for relief, but in the story, God finds her:

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” (Genesis 16:7-8)

Commentators say this angel of the Lord was the pre-incarnate Jesus. I love finding passages where it’s believed that Jesus appeared in the Old Testament. It’s kind of like finding an Easter egg in this part of Scripture or a foreshadow of His official coming.

But this story reminds me of another one much later in the New Testament, when God appeared to another woman, this time by another source of water. 

It reads in John 4:4-8:

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

I do believe it is Jesus who appeared to Hagar, based on similarities between His appearance to the Samaritan woman here. He leads with questions when interacting with both women. For the first it’s, “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” and for the second it’s, “Will you give me a drink?” 

But both are really an invitation to reveal who He is. 

And if the similarities aren’t enough, isn’t something burning inside your heart when you read both passages? Perhaps a longing or thirst you never knew you had?

I believe the source of Living Water found them that day, because both women have a similar exultant response. 

For the Samaritan woman, she dropped what she was doing and immediately went into town to share the news of who she just met. “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” she says in John 4:29. The Bible says many in her town believed that Jesus is the Christ because of her testimony (verse 39).

And for Hagar, “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me’” (Genesis 16:13).

I love that she calls Him, El Roi, the God who sees me. But even more, I love that both of these women, when it’s revealed that they’ve met their Savior, essentially tell Him, “It’s you.” 

As if something inside them recognized the One they’d been longing for. 

I love that we serve a God who’s the type to pick the one out of the crowd who thinks no one’s watching, or the one standing by themselves. I love that He deemed to go out of His way for both of these Gentile women, even going so far as to take a less desirable route. And I love that He found them and forever made them a part of His story. 

So that years later, you and I can read it and know that yes, He is truly El Roi, “the God who sees” you; and yes, He is the God who meets you wherever you are; but also, He’s the One who looks you in the eyes and says, “It’s Me.”

“When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

- Ephesians 3:4-6