Thou God Seest Me - Cathy Corle
“And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?” (Genesis 16:13)
If I made a list of my 10 favorite women in the Bible, this name would not be on it. But these four words from her mouth have echoed through my Christian life: “Thou God seest me.”
One question I ask myself as I read scripture, especially when it comes to women in the Bible, is: “If I asked her to teach me the most important lesson she’s learned about God and His Word and His plan, I wonder what she would say?” I think Hagar would tell me, “Thou God seest me.”
Most of the times we see Hagar’s name in scripture or hear it in preaching, it’s probably not in a positive light. Her name is intertwined with worldliness and idolatrous Egypt, with enmity against God’s people and His plan for them. But a few women in the Bible, like the woman at the well in John four, still bring me encouragement, and leave me saying, “If God can use her, then He can use me, too! If God can hear and answer her prayers and meet her needs, then there is hope for me, too.” That’s why this lesson stands out to me. “Thou God seest me.”
Are you familiar with her story? Abraham and Sarah were called out of Ur to a city whose Builder and Maker is God, but spent the next many years living a nomadic life. They were promised by God that their offspring would be more than the sands of the sea and the stars of Heaven, yet at ages 89 and 99 they were still childless.
Abraham was a man of great faith who spent much time with the Lord, but in one of his faithless moments he took his family to Egypt to provide for them during famine, where he almost lost his wife and he did lose the heart of his nephew, Lot, who later went to Sodom. During this ‘scenic route detour’ through Egypt, their family picked up another passenger, a servant girl named Hagar. If I were writing the story from my imagination, I’d want her to turn to the God of the Bible and serving Him with her whole heart, but it seems as if Hagar clung to her past life instead.
When Abraham and Sarah were at their lowest point of doubt and despair, Sarah suggested that they ‘help’ the Lord keep His promise and have a child through Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar. That was not God’s plan and promise, and the child and his descendants from that union have been the cause of much trouble, grief and pain for the nation of Israel that God did give in answer to His promise through the birth of Isaac.
Now Hagar has run away from the strife between Sarah and herself, even though she contributed to it, and she finds herself alone and needy in a barren desert. God spoke to her, met her need, and made her a promise. That’s when she gave the Lord a special name about who He was in her life: Thou God Seest Me. Many of the names of God that we find in scripture are linked to the lessons we learn about who God is in our life.
I think you and I need to be reminded that that’s exactly who God is. He sees. He hears. He knows. There is nothing in my life that is a mystery or surprise to the Lord. “Thou God seest me.”
Let me quickly name three times in our lives when we should be reminded God is watching. I will mention first those times when I have big needs, maybe even private problems, and I wonder if anyone understands or cares. “Thou God seest me.” The same God who loved us so much that He gave His Son to suffer and die for us -- that is who knows and cares. “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32) I’ve often pictured God saying, “After I’ve given you Heaven’s greatest treasure, of course you can have the piggy bank, too.” God sees and God cares when I have big needs to meet and problems to solve, and He is very able to care for every one.
Here is when I most often think of this verse: in times of sinful temptation. I am very aware of my own weakness, that I could become a stumblingblock and discouragement and heartbreak to another believer. (I have experienced that heartbreak and devastation in the past when some secret came to light about someone I looked up to.) The devil is the father of lies as well as the tempter, and he is often whispering in your ear, “No one will ever know.”
Yet the Bible says that every secret thing will be revealed. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Eccleiastes 12:14) Truth always comes out. But even if no other human would ever know, God knows. He is the One that I will stand before someday at the Judgment Seat of Christ. I should be much more concerned about what God knows than anyone else on earth. As much as I don’t want to be a disappointment to someone else, I definitely don’t want to be a heartbreak to my Heavenly Father.
Oh! and God hears “... every idle word.” Ouch -- I am under conviction! “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12: 36) If I can remind myself habitually that God is listening, it would help me to marshal my mouth. I’m always telling Moms of teenagers to be present and accounted for when teens get together, and as long as there is an adult in the midst, many of the problems and temptations (and topics of conversation) never lift their ugly heads. As God’s child, I need to remind myself that He sees and He knows and He hears. Thou God seest me.
But lately I have been mulling over this facet of the gem. God sees and hears and knows when I have been sinned against. He heard that gossip and slander, that lie about me, that accusation or criticism that sliced my heart in two, and no matter what anyone else may say or think or believe about me, God knows the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
At the exact same moment that Job’s sorry ‘friends’ were saying He was the worst, “You must be guilty. You are hiding something. God is just, and He would never allow all these bad things to happen unless you’ve done wrong. You must have some secret sin... Blah, blah, blah...” At precisely that same moment, God in Heaven was watching, and His words about Job were these: “...Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” (Job 1:8) While they were saying Job was the worst, God was saying he was the best.
Perhaps its BECAUSE God knows the truth and is not deceived by the deceiver who is the accuser of the brethren, maybe that’s exactly what has the devil so mad that he stirs up some people and their faltering thoughts to accuse us. No matter what others think or say, God knows the truth about me, and God is good, even when people are not.
I find it both comforting and convicting, and I always need this reminder. “Thou God Seest Me.”