Is God Dead? Series: Cain’s Blessing

Last week, we introduced and then began to unpack the biblical story of Cain killing his brother Abel (Gen 4:1-17), all the while maintaining a keen focus upon God’s character and His justice in an attempt to gain a better understanding of why God may possibly allow evil to exist. To help keep that keen focus upon God’s character and His actions in the face of evil, we made the following doctrinal observation as summarized by the Christian philosopher Elenaore Stump: “Orthodox Christian doctrine holds that persons once created are everlasting and are of infinite value. If they become defective, it is up to a good God not to eliminate them, but to fix them if He can.” Picking up the story: after the murder, when He comes to punish Cain, God doesn’t kill him. There is no blood for blood, or eye for eye, no tooth for tooth. There is no life for life. Instead, God first brings about a special miracle on behalf of Cain by cursing the ground when and wherever Cain tills it. Then, God sends Cain away to wander “the land of Nod” (Gen 4:16). “Nod,” by the way, is a Hebrew word meaning “to wander.” But before he sends him away, God takes pity on Cain and marks him so no one who finds him will kill him. Something important to note: a bit further along in the story, we read that Cain marries, has children, and establishes a city he names Enoch after his son (Gen 4:17). Now it seems to me Cain’s life after he commits the first murder in history, really doesn’t seem that bad. Meanwhile, his brother, righteous Abel, is cold, and dead, and in the ground. No doubt, this story seems to be filled with injustice, and God is right in the middle of it.