El Roi

April 2011

Dear Friend of Mary Craig Ministries,

"The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him, or to strengthen those who are fully committed to Him." (2 Chronicles 16.9) In a few weeks an MCM mission team returns to Israel for the fifth time since 1999 on special assignment. The Holy Spirit is moving to prepare a bride in holiness, to prepare a highway of holiness for the people of God. He is roaring over the Middle East and to the mountains of Israel He will be proclaimed God the Faithful God, for He will perform His Word and fulfill His promises. God assured Jeremiah, "I am watching over My Word to perform it" (Jeremiah 1.12); and He watches over His Word even now.

In Israel our MCM mission team will declare God the Faithful and True, the Ancient of Days, the Rose of Sharon, and particularly El Roi, God Who Sees. God sees. God sees all and as the Judge of all the earth, He does right. His judgments are righteous judgments. "The ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD and He watches all his paths." (Proverbs 5.21) There is no hiding from El Roi. He sees and knows all that happens, all that happened, and all that will happen.

When there is shame and guilt, we try to hide, and this tendency goes right back to the Garden. Adam and Eve started out naked and unashamed living before El Roi, but sin brought hiding and the impulse to cover up nakedness before God Who Sees. God may politely ask, "Where are you?" but He already knows where we are, who we are, what we did, why we did it, when we did it, and what will result from it. So God as El Roi may be our comfort or our terror. He is our comfort when we turn to hide in Him.

In Genesis 16 we find the story behind the revelation of God as El Roi. God had promised Abram an heir. But how? Sarai told Abram to take Hagar, her Egyptian servant, as wife. He did, and Hagar conceived. Hagar then despised Sarai. Abram turned Hagar back to Sarai after she said to Abram, "the LORD judge between me and you." Sarai treated Hagar harshly, and Hagar fled into the wilderness from her mistress, Sarai.

The Angel of the LORD found Hagar by a fountain of water, by the fountain in the way to Shur. "Shur" means "fort" or "wall." Hagar ("flight") ran away from Sarai straight into God. Like many of us, she was running away from some oppressive situation or bad memory or from unfair treatment. But God saw her plight.

The Angel of the LORD told Hagar to return to her mistress Sarai and to submit herself under her hands. He knew she had conceived and promised to multiply her seed exceedingly, a great multitude. He told her she would bear a son and named the son Ishmael, meaning "God shall hear" or "whom God hears" because the LORD had heard her affliction. He told her what her son would be like, a wild donkey of a man whose hand would be against every man and every man's hand against him and that he would dwell in the presence of all his brethren. (Genesis 16)

Hagar called the name of the LORD who spoke to her El Roi. El Roi saw her. The well was named Beer-lahai-roi, meaning "the well Living One Who sees me. " Built into the name El Roi are God's attributes of omniscience and omnipresence. Idols don't see anything. They are no-gods; but "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." (Psalm 34.18)

God always accomplishes His purposes. Hagar returned to submit to Sarai and did have a son, Ishmael. That kind of submission requires a belief that what God permits is as much His will as what He appoints. God's permissive providence was operating. F. B. Meyer said, "Through all the discipline of life we must believe that God has a purpose of unfailing love and wisdom. Then our submission is not stoicism, but loving acquiescence in our Father's will." We are never alone, never forgotten, never beyond hope. God sees us entirely, constantly, supremely, and with eyes of holy love.

God searches the heart. Our hearts are to be repentant, circumcised, the flesh cut away so as to expose what is hidden. A circumcised heart is one that is cut so as to be naked before a holy God, living unashamed, reconciled, redeemed, free to be the person God intended, able to function in the purposes ordered by the Lord.

God is shaking the nations, bringing down the proud heart and exalting the lowly. Before El Roi we are to repent of our sins lest we perish. God as El Roi sees our miserable estate, the sin in which we find ourselves. He sent Jesus Christ to live the obedience required by a holy God and to die to pay the penalty for sin, to satisfy divine justice that we might be reconciled to the Living God who Sees, redeemed, and set free to know Him as our Comfort and not our terror.

Whatever your circumstance today, God sees you. He is El Roi and He knows. He is not just omniscient and omnipresent, He is also omnipotent, all-powerful. He can move in your circumstance to heal you, save you, turn your heart, and become your praise.

Hagar was the bondwoman and lived her life in the purposes of God. Sarai was the freewoman and her son Isaac was the child of promise, as are all those born after the Spirit. (Galatians 4.21ff) Discover the power of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. Life is in the Spirit. Jesus came in the power of an endless life and that life can be yours. God sees. There's no point running, hiding, covering up, lying, or fooling ourselves. The thing is, the One Who Sees is also God-Who-Forgives and the One Who Saves.

We ask for your prayers and financial support to meet what God is asking of us. Our next Barnabas Project distribution to the forgotten people of South Florida will be in June. Likewise, MCM actively ministers to those seeking healing, deliverance, help, and hope in Jesus Christ at Craighouse®, our community outreach and fellowship.

Under the watchful eye of El Roi,

Mary Craig

P.S. Go to www.marycraig.org. Order books from our Catalog section using PayPal. Worship with us 4:30 p.m. Sundays. Grow and flourish in small group ministry at Craighouse®, located in the Pompano Plaza at 114 E. McNab Road, Pompano Beach, FL 33060. Log on to www.craighouse.org for a map and more events and Bible studies. Reach MCM at 954-491-7270. Send in your prayer requests.

To donate online, please go here