Synopsis
If you were asked to nominate one family in the Bible as the best example of an ideal and perfect family, which family would that be? As you read God's Word, you'll discover that it is hard to find what we might call a "perfect family". You don't have to read far in the Bible to see that there are so many imperfect, dysfunctional families characterized by sin, disharmony, pain, misunderstandings, disagreements, etc. Just in the Book of Genesis alone, we find that the first couple in the World did not live happily ever after. Theirs was a blissful union, at least before the fall – as soon as sin came in, they were not only banished from the garden of Eden, but they began to experience the effects of the fall – disagreements, conflicts, disowning one another (cf. Genesis 3), and so on. The hash reality of the consequences of sin and the depravity of the human heart invaded the first family. In Adam and Eve's two sons, a tragic event unfolds, one that is not only shocking, but is horrifying – human blood stained the cursed ground for the first time, and it was shed at the hands of a brother who rose against his own brother.
In this sermon, we consider
1. The context of the tragedy that befell the first family,
2. The cause of this tragedy,
3. The caution against this impending tragedy, issued by God to the perpetrator of the crime.
