Personal Locator Beacons (PLB) are distress devices built for people involved in land-based outdoor activities. They transmit radio signals that are detected by 12 Earth-orbiting satellites. The satellites relay signals to ground stations that process and determine the beacon location and to whom it belongs. The information is then relayed to search and rescue (SAR).

As useful as this device is, it wouldn’t have helped Hagar much. For no one seemed to care enough about her and her unborn child to monitor their location and progress in the desert. No one except El Roi, that is.

Genesis 16 opens up with Sarai scheming and piecing together a plan to help God fulfill His promise to make Abram’s descendants as numerous as the stars. But there was one problem—Sarai couldn’t get pregnant (v.1). She probably saw herself as the weak link in the chain of God’s plan, so she offered her maidservant, Hagar, to her husband. When Hagar became pregnant with Abram’s child and began to flaunt her “procreational” superiority in front of Sarai, Sarai became upset and began mistreating Hagar (v.6).

Hagar ran away to the desert, feeling hopeless and desperate. The angel of the Lord found her, asked her a couple of questions, and commanded her to give the child the name Ishmael (which means “God has heard your misery”). He then sent her back to Sarai. Before leaving that place, however, Hagar gave the name El Roi to the Lord which means, “You are the God who sees me.” It implied that God saw her situation with perfect clarity and that she was the object of His gracious attention.

In the desert of affliction and misery, trust that God sees your situation with perfect clarity and gives you His active presence (v.28:15), provision (v.20), and protection (Deuteronomy 2:7).