What Have You Done?

God's questions #3 This one for Cain

Original Artist: Gustave Doré (1865-66) Engraver: Héliodore Pisan (1866) for Gustave Doré’s Illustrated Bible (1866)

                                                                    Questions

                                               Our countless questions wingéd fly
                                                   From earth’s crust to your ears
                                    They range from “How?” and “What?” and “Why?”
                                                With anger, puzzlement, and tears

                                           You probe our hearts with questions too  
                                               They’re found throughout your word
                                                  So tune my ears, my heart renew
                                            To learn from those your servants heard

I am working through a series of posts reflecting on questions posed by God directly to a few individuals in the Bible. I don’t pretend it is exhaustive.

Feel free to check out the two earlier posts touching on God’s question for Elijah (What Are You Doing Here?) and the one for Adam and Eve (Where Are You?).

God had three questions for Cain.¹

“Why are you angry, why are you downcast?” “Where is your brother, Abel?” and “What have you done?” This post is about the third one.

What Have You Done?

You know I know what you have done  
Spilled blood cries from the ground
A lonely, mournful, moving sound
That tells me crouching sin has won

For Abel's blood now stains your hands
This heinous act you can't deny
Your hateful heart now burdened by
remorse and, with it, shame's demands

You gave in to bruised pride’s impulse
And envy proved a fertile seed 
Whose roots and buds did anger breed
To love o’erthrow and peace convulse

By warning you of evil's lust
I hoped you'd turn and seek my face
but anger drove you from my space
and wander dispossessed you must 

The damage your behaviour spawns  
Will through the generations flow    
And with your kin's vile genius grow
To fill the world with violent wrongs
 

There is a sense that the question “What have you done?” is an invitation for Cain to confess his sin to God. He ignored God’s earlier counsel and allowed the anger and disappointment he felt when God chose Abel’s offering over his to rule over him and be twisted into envy, then hatred. God would have been within his rights, and consistent to his future principle of “an eye for an eye”, to have punished Cain with death. Instead he asks, “What have you done?”. In that way, God’s question to Cain is a reminder to me of the unfathomable depth of God’s mercy. There is no sin so heinous that God will not forgive. I mean that. I believe that. I know my own heart and its darkness. The peace I experience rests on the promise of God’s forgiveness. I needed it in the years I lived rejecting him. I need his forgiveness just as much now. His mercy, as revealed in forgiveness, is the hope I hold for anyone I meet. Without his promise of forgiveness, I would have had no message to offer men and women whose behaviour resulted in prison time, I would have no hope for the lonely, the hurting, the broken. I would have nothing to offer anyone. We all need his forgiveness.

Cain reacted strongly to God after learning about the consequences he would suffer for killing Abel. He felt his punishment was unbearable because he understood it to mean he would be shut out from God’s presence and his protection. God corrected his misconception. Neither was true.

What have you done? In God’s question I detect shock and horror, incredulity, and sadness. It is the question of someone who understands that the foolish, selfish, impulsive actions of another will have lasting, even irreparable and tragic consequences. “Cain, what have you done- you have hated, you have allowed crouching, watchful sin to pounce and conquer.” “Cain, are you aware of the damage you have done?” If a man has been capable of killing his brother, who then is safe from violence?

I’ll end these thought on God’s question to Cain by referring to Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon on the Mount. Doing so will make it a bit harder for any of us to judge Cain too harshly. In that sermon, Jesus expands the definition of fratricide by saying: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5: 21-24

Like Cain, God asks each of us: “What have you done?” He asks us to examine the way we live, the way we treat others, the thoughts that pass through our minds, the words that leave our mouths and acknowledge before him our need of forgiveness. We don’t wallow in our failings; we revel in his mercy, a mercy that gives us the chance to do better next time. We rejoice in a love that empowers us through the Spirit, to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

1. Genesis 4: 2-16