I’ve reread Genesis 4 (ESV), and I’m not understanding why God seems like such a jerk towards Cain.

Granted, the annoying part about the passage is the sheer lack of detail. All we’re told is that Cain and Abel gave an offering, and God like Abel’s more because he gave a bunch of supposedly good stuff. If Cain is a worker of the ground, and gives God stuff based on his occupation, how is he the bad guy and his brother favored?

Then God comes up and asks why Cain is angry when God literally rejected him to his face possibly just hours ago. God doesn’t elaborate on “doing well” just tells him not to be angry which seems so freaking self absorbed.

We have no details of Cain and Abel’s conversation, also annoying. For all we know, Abel could’ve been an absolute jerk and bragged about how much God loved him (like a gajillion Christians we’ve all seen) and that could’ve been the last straw for Cain. Then God continues the favoritism and curses Cain.

So just like what happened in the garden, a human being has a very human inclination, God lets them get provoked and mess up, and then blames the human and exiles them.

As someone who’s grown up in church and gone through every wishy washy process and is still stuck in depression, addiction, and at this point questioning the faith, I’m failing to see how Cain is a really a bad guy here.

If there’s anything that really studies what on earth is going on feel free to send resources my way.