Questions God Ask 03: “What Is This You Have Done?”

The third question God asked in the Bible still revolves around the fall of man. It is rarely given attention, yet perhaps, it deserves much more attention from us. This is a question that God directed to Eve.

Let us read it in the scriptures:

"And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate”(Genesis 3:13, NKJV )

Context 

A few moments ago, Eve found herself walking in the garden carefree.

The devil, taking the personage of the Serpent engaged her in what she considered a progressive discussion. Fully aware of God’s will for them, after listening to the wrong person ( Who told you?), she seemed to have been empowered.

The Bible records that the woman saw that the tree was good for food. It was pleasant to the eyes and desirable to make one wise. She took its fruit and ate. She also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate it.

When Eve was deciding to go with the forbidden fruit, she seemed to know what she was doing. She was making gigantic steps and progressing to be like God, knowing the knowledge of good and evil. 

But did Eve know what she was doing?

Did she know she was registering for a travailing childbirth? Did she know that for the first time, they would see the first signs of death and decay in the falling leaves and drooping flowers? Did she know that her decision would make it possible for her to become a widow? Did she know that her decision would one day make her experience the pain of the death of her own son murdered by her other son? Did she know that this single decision would mark the last time they would partake of the bounties of the garden of God? Did she know she was trading paradise with parched places in the wilderness?

Life Application

Like all sinners who have lived up to date, Eve did not know what she was doing.

The signboard leading ‘Sinwards’ is always obscured with false adverts. It promises what it can’t give. It leads men and women further than they want to go. They end up there confused, broken, and ignorant of their way back home. It promises heaven but delivers hell and Sheol. It promises progress but it ends in failure and discomfiture.

In the world today, nothing has remained consistent as the deceitfulness of sin.

Most people think that Christ’s statement on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” [Luke 23:34] applies to specific groups only. Groups like the mob that shouted “away with this fellow” in preference of Barabbas and the Roman soldiers that vilified Him on the cross.

Instead, that statement applies to all sinners. No sinner knows what they are doing.

In the time of commission, all sinners think they are progressing. Like Eve, they believe they are making a fool out of someone else’s ignorance. But when the mists are rolled away, all sinners realize the truth. They have their consciences clobbered with the fact that they fooled themselves. They sold their souls in a cheap market. 

We do not know what we are doing when we get too busy for God. We do not know what we are doing when we reject the living fountains and hew for ourselves broken cisterns. We do not know what we are doing when we allow the carnal nature to have everything it desires and can have. We do not know what we are doing when we reject Jesus the Light of the world and plunge into the deep darkness of ignorance of God. 

God, in His mercy and desire to save, often approaches us. He does this as we walk in the path of rebellion and self-abuse. He asks us this sincere and salvific question, “What is this you have done?” Our only safety is in providing a sincere answer like Eve did, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

“What is this you have done?” Come on and tell God the truth!