The Third Path: Questions 11-14

Questions 11 & 12: Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?” (Genesis 4:6).

The Path of Silence:The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever (Isaiah 32:17).

The Path of Memory: Take time to write your thoughts, about your daily journey or memory.

The Path of Questioning: (Read Genesis 4:1–7).

God, in his infinite creativity, had spun the world into existence. He had spoken light and darkness, the arch of the sky, and the power of the waters into being. He had said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear,”[i] and there was land … and sea … and vegetation, which the land produced. Then, God created what astronomers study and marvel at still today—the sun, the moon, the stars, and all that is found in the heavenlies.

Indeed, while we have always pondered these great creations, God has understood them, for He made them.

Then God filled the earth with the birds of the air and the fish in the sea. Finally, He created every sort of animal, completing His masterpiece with a man, Adam, who bore inside of him a woman, Eve.

For a while—and we do not know how long—Adam and Eve, now married by God, spent their days in a beautiful garden called Eden. Together, we can imagine, they played with the animals, frolicked naked and unashamed in the lush landscape, plucked fruit from trees and berries from bushes and vines and then partook of their sweetness. In the cool of the evenings, God Himself came down to the garden where He walked and talked with His beloved children—this man, this woman. Ah, such peace. Such tranquility. Such a life.

And then …

Satan came. Satan lied. Adam and Eve disobeyed by eating one fruit God had asked them not to eat, and they were then banished from the verdant botanical paradise they’d called home. Satan was doomed to crawl on his belly, groveling in the dust, Adam to struggle against the soil, and Eve would give birth in pain, and yet desire for her husband would continue to rise within her.

In time, Eve gave birth to a son. She named him Cain because, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!”[ii] Interestingly, the Hebrew — Kaniti/Cainiti —means “to possess.” When Eve gave birth to her second son, she named him Abel (Hebel), whose name means “breath.”

The boys grew to become men, and Cain became a cultivator of the soil while his younger brother became a shepherd. We don’t know who instructed them to bring a gift to the Lord from their laboring, but we get our first glimpse at holy, required sacrifices and see that Cain and Abel believed in the sanctity of it. Of bringing the best, or the “first fruits,” of their labor to the altar of the Lord. Of showing God they trusted He would always provide the best for them because they had returned the best to God.

Only problem was … Abel alone brought the “fat portions” from the firstborn of his flock while Cain “brought some of the fruits.” The Bible is clear: there was neither anything wrong with cultivating the land nor about being a shepherd. Neither was one more right than the other. The difference was in the attitude of the giving; Abel had brought the best while Cain brought some. Perhaps Cain’s possession of the “fruit” of his labor meant more to him than what God required of him. Or his trust.

God was not pleased. And when God was displeased, Cain became me’od chârâh—very angry. But the Hebrew word chârâh goes deeper than just “mad.” Chârâh is red-hot, blazing resentment. Fury. Rage that becomes painful and ignites a passion that leads to sin.

Anger, it has been said, is a secondary emotion, which means another, primary emotion has rooted itself inside. Undealt with, the root emotion becomes anger. Such primary feelings can be embarrassment, shame or guilt, fear, distrust, regret, hurt, disappointment, or rejection.

We do not know the dynamics of the first family. Abel could have been his parents’ favorite. He could have been better looking. Funnier. Taller. More athletic. He could have been one of those people who walk into a room and joy skips in with him. Perhaps Cain was as opposite to his little brother as Esau was to Jacob. Perhaps the rage that boiled inside Cain had started long before God showed greater favor to Abel’s sincere sacrifice than the one Cain gave half-heartedly. What we do know is that this raw, unchecked emotional outburst led to sorrow on all sides.

You may think, having read the story in Sunday school as a child or having heard it told in presentations, that Cain—seeing that God was displeased with his sacrifice—immediately killed Abel. But no. First, God gave Cain an opportunity to make things right before they could go oh, so wrong.

“Why are you so angry?” He asked the firstborn of humanity’s parents. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”[iii]

Such advice! Such wise counsel. But instead of heeding God’s warning, Cain continued to stew in his juices. He encouraged Abel to go with him into a field, and there, Cain killed his brother. The breath of Abel was no more. Abel was dead.

***

Many (many) years later, the apostle Paul wrote: Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. He also wrote: Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?[iv]

James wrote: Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.[v]

These words from Paul and James are as wise to those who received them as those God previously spoke to Cain. And all—God’s admonition to Cain, Paul’s to the Christians living in Rome, and James’s to those early Christians scattered by persecution—continue to be relevant today. We should take care to heed them because anger, although a secondary emotion, is capable of countless times more damage as those which fall under the category of primary.

Anger leads to both physical and emotional trauma—increased blood pressure and heart rate, as well as fight-or-flight responses. Anger stops us from logical reasoning. We say words we don’t really mean (or never meant to spill). Our minds go to places where they should not venture, which only increases the rage. We destroy and cannot piece back together. Destroying lives, including those we love.

But anger is also normal; it rises inside us when other, often less noticeable, emotions are not dealt with properly. In fact, we know righteous anger is somewhat expected of us. Who would not be angry if they saw someone hurting the defenseless? Who—any of us—would not become angry when emotionally wounded by another, especially if that person is someone we trusted? Jesus Himself—angry at seeing the moneychangers in a place designed for prayer—cleansed the temple of them by turning over their tables and driving them out.[vi]

Every Christian—and I use the absolute term “every” with confidence—gets angry now and then. The point is to not allow the anger to lead to sin. “In your anger do not sin,” Paul quoted King David[vii] in his letter to the church in Ephesus. He then continued with: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold … Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.[viii]

There are countless ways for us to deal with our anger, but perhaps the first step is to be honest with God. God, I am angry at … because …

Then, dig deeper. Because … and because … and because. Don’t stop until you get to the root of the issue. The anger.

Then, perhaps our final step comes when we choose to forgive that person or those people, just as in Christ, God forgave us. After all, isn’t bitterness and anger the poison we pour for another to die by, only to end up draining the cup into ourselves?[ix]

***

Now it’s your turn to journal on The Path of Questioning. Noting the words I have underlined, plus any words you may have underlined as well, along with the questions God asked Cain—and now asks you—write your answer to Him.

Circle toward the labyrinth’s center with The Path of Prayer. Then, sit quietly for a few moments with God before returning to life as you know it.

Questions 13 & 14: Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “What have you done?” (Genesis 4: 9, 10).

The Path of Silence: People slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain (Jude 10, 11a).

The Path of Memory: Take time to write your thoughts, about your daily journey or memory.

The Path of Questioning: Read Genesis 4: 8–16; 2 Samuel 11.

God had seen it all. The anger. The conspiracy to urge his brother away from the others. The killing. Abel’s blood rose up from the ground and cried out to God, and God, like any good Father, went to the offending sibling.

“Where is Abel?” He asked Cain.

This was Cain’s hand-in-the-cookie-jar moment. “Are you taking a cookie?” a mother asks her child, the one with deer-caught-in-the-headlights eyes and a hand shoved elbow-deep into a decorative jar filled with delectable treats. Like the child, Cain had an opportunity to be honest with God. To fall on his face before the Creator of Life and say, “I did it! I killed him! His body is lying in the field where I left him.” Instead, for reasons almost incomprehensible, Cain lied to God. The all-knowing, all-powerful One. His lie was not outright but, instead, a lie of omission. He knew exactly where he’d left Abel’s body.

Then, sinking deeper into sin, Cain tossed a question back to God. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

This question resonates still today. When we become apathetic to our responsibilities and our call to aid for our fellow human beings, we shrug and say, “What’s that to me?” But it should be everything to us because, as deeply as Abel’s murder hurt God, I believe that the nonchalant attitude of Cain grieved Him far worse than the killing.

Cain was indeed his brother’s keeper. He was the oldest. I imagine when they’d been younger, like most big brothers, Cain showed Abel the way. They would have played together, shared secrets, giggles, and projects. They would have worked alongside their father during the day and, as brothers often do, wrestled in the cool grass later that evening. Until Cain planted the seed of bitterness deep within the soil of his heart, much as he planted his fruit trees and vegetables—those crops he felt he couldn’t give the best of back to God on the sacrificial altar. A seed he cultivated until it sprouted and grew into a wild thing he couldn’t control. Now, his brother lay dead by his own hand and—even though he thought no one had seen the act—God had. God knew. “What have you done?” God asked, not because He did not know, but because He needed Cain to own up to his sin. This is, sadly, the same question He had asked Cain’s parents when He’d found them hiding behind bushes and fig leaves. He asked then and he asks now because it is important to God that we admit our sins. Confession is where the repentance begins. And with the repentance, forgiveness.

But there would be consequences for Cain’s disobedience. He was driven away from his home. His family. “I will be hidden from your presence,” Cain cried out to God. “I will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”[x]

And so he was banished to the Land of Wandering, a place called Nod.[xi]

Years later, King David, a descendent of Cain’s younger brother Seth, did another bad thing. A similar bad thing.

It was that time of year when kings go to war, 2 Samuel 11:1 tell us. The spring of the year, specifically. Yet while David sent his nephew (and the commander of his army) Joab against the Ammonites, the king remained in his palatial home in Jerusalem.

One evening,[xii] David rose from his bed. He climbed the steps to the roof of the palace and began to pace. From there he spied a young woman—a beautiful woman—taking a purification bath, meaning that her monthly period of menstruation had just completed.[xiii]

David, taken by her beauty, went in search of one of his aides. “Find out who she is,” he ordered.

When the aide returned, he told David, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”[xiv]

That question alone should have told the king all he needed to know. For one, Bathsheba was the daughter of one of David’s thirty “mighty men,”[xv] which was a title of honor. Valor. This also meant that her grandfather was Ahithophel, one of David’s chief counselors.[xvi]

For another—and by far the most important to note—Bathsheba was married to Uriah the Hittite, another of his mighty men whom David would have known was away in battle where they belonged. Where David belonged.

Her being the wife of any man should have stopped David from what happened next, but David had already shown his disregard for God’s commandment concerning the king of Israel and marriage. Deuteronomy 17:17 states: [The king of Israel] must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. Up to this point, David had married seven women and had many concubines.

His aide’s question should have stopped David just as God’s questions to Cain should have stopped him from killing his brother. Instead, David sent messengers to get her. To bring her back to him. To his chambers. To his bed.

Later, when Bathsheba realized she was pregnant, she sent word to the king. In turn, David sent word to Joab to send Uriah from the battle to him. Joab did and when Uriah arrived, David asked Uriah a series of near-silly questions.

“How is Joab?” “How are the soldiers getting along?” “How is the battle progressing?”

One can only imagine what Uriah thought. Why had the king brought him out of battle just to check on things? Couldn’t he have sent one of his aides out to bring back such a report?

After the Q&A, David sent Uriah home for the night with the hope that Uriah would see his lovely wife, sleep with her, and upon his return from war would find Bathsheba pregnant with “his” child. But … the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, wrote Robert Burns in his poem “To a Mouse.”[xvii]

When David was told that Uriah didn’t go home but instead had slept at the entrance to the palace with his master’s servants, David called him back in. “Why didn’t you go home?” he asked, perhaps in a tone that read: You’ve been away from your wife for a while. Your exquisitely beautiful wife, I might add. For the love of Pete, man … go home.

But Uriah answered him, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”[xviii]

Uriah the Hittite was an honorable man and, in the presence of David—at that moment—far more righteous and principled than his king. David, in one last effort to cover his sin before the world—because he surely could not do so before God—invited Uriah to dine with him that evening. He fed him well and made sure he had plenty of wine in him, in hopes that such libations would increase his ardor for his wife. But even drunk, Uriah’s virtue and honor stayed intact.

There was only one thing left for David to do, and, in his way of thinking, it wasn’t to come clean before God (first) and Uriah (second). Instead, David sent Uriah back into battle with a note to Joab that instructed his commander to place Uriah in the worst part of the battle. Moreover, David wrote, when the fighting became the fiercest, he ordered Joab to withdraw from Uriah “so he will be struck down and die.”[xix]

David’s sin—lusting after a woman who was not his wife, bringing her to his bed, attempting to deceive her husband—had taken an awful turn, one that led to murder. But if David thought he’d gotten away with it, he was wrong. Eventually his sin was exposed by Nathan the prophet. Nathan’s inquiry to David was a bit more indirect than God’s to Cain. “Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?”

David repented, but there would be consequences, including that his household would “live by the sword”[xx] and the baby his new wife, Bathsheba, carried would die.[xxi] Such heartbreak—just as with Cain—because one man could not control his emotions.

***

Paul said it best when he wrote we all sin and we all fall short of God’s glory.[xxii]

The good news to that sad statement is Paul’s next line: and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.[xxiii]

Freely justified, yes—but our goal is not to drive our metaphorical race cars into a speedway and keep driving around and around and around. Our goal is to live lives as sinless as possible. When we repent (which means to not only come to God with our sin, asking for forgiveness, but to turn away from the sin thereafter)—when we accept God’s gracious forgiveness—we must ask the Holy Spirit to make us strong. To guide us. To raise the warning flags as they were once raised with Cain and David.

The Bible gives us the formula for living in holiness. Righteousness. First Peter 1:13–25 is an excellent place to start with words and admonitions: Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”[xxiv]

What did Peter mean when he wrote “fully sober?” That phrase, in the Greek, means to be calm and collected in spirit. To be temperate and circumspect. To be watchful. [xxv] We must be ready to act and not react.

We—all of us—know our weakest points, our Achilles heel. We know the area where temptation strikes hardest. We are aware of the emotions that cause us the greatest grief. Do we think God does not? Do we believe we’ve somehow hidden it from Him?

We have not. So, we begin by being honest with Him and, in that honesty, asking Him to send His Holy Spirit to strengthen us. To raise those warning flags, to ask those questions we need to hear in order not to sin. He will. Whether we watch, listen, and heed is up to us.

***

Circle toward the labyrinth’s center with The Path of Prayer. Then, sit quietly for a few moments with God before returning to life as you know it.

[i] Genesis 1:9

[ii] Genesis 4:1

[iii] Genesis 4:6, 7

[iv] Romans 6:12, 16

[v] James 1:14, 15

[vi] See Matthew 21:12–13; Mark 11:15–17; Luke 19:45–46

[vii] Psalm 4:4

[viii] Ephesians 4:26, 27; 31, 32

[ix] In an effort to discover who first said this (or something like it), I learned that a lot of people claim to, but I cannot get to the root of who said it first. Regardless, it’s true.

[x] Genesis 4:14

[xi] Nod means “wandering.”

[xii] The Hebrew word for the time of day used in Scripture is: ʿereḇ, which means “evening” and may indicate that David had risen from an afternoon nap.

[xiii] See Leviticus 15:19–30. By this we also know that Bathsheba could not have been pregnant before her encounter with King David.

[xiv] 2 Samuel 11:3

[xv] 2 Samuel 23:34

[xvi] 2 Samuel 15:12

[xvii] The literal quote is: The best-laid schemes o’mice an’ men, gang aft a-gley (Scots Language)

[xviii] 2 Samuel 11:11

[xix] 2 Samuel 11:15

[xx] 2 Samuel 12:10

[xxi] See 2 Samuel 12:1–19

[xxii] Romans 3:23

[xxiii] Romans 3:24

[xxiv] “Be holy as I am holy,” comes from Lev. 11:44, 45; 19:2

[xxv] Strong’s G3525

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