​
​If you sneeze, I will politely respond "Bless you." If you sneeze again.. you are on your own as I adhere to a strict one blessing per sneezer rule.  This is not negotiable.

But sneeze blessings are not the topic of the day instead a Father’s Blessings, and ultimately God’s blessings.  These blessings I want, and like I say often in The Back Pew .. ‘BlESSED beyond my DREAMS’. I want Prayer of Jabez supersized blessings.

TWINS!
It seems just like a chapter ago Isaac was just a boy, but now in Genesis 25 Isaac is all grown up and with his wife Rebecca has twin boys. The first to enter the world was Esau, and right on his heel literally (Ge. 25:25) was Jacob.

These boys were like so many brothers as they were very different from each other. Esau grew up to be a scruffy/hairy outdoors type who loved to hunt. Jacob on the other hand was not scruffy, and liked to hang out in the kitchen with maybe a reputation as a mamma's boy.  

The Father's Blessing
Next we are introduced to the power of the Father’s Blessing, and especially the blessings set aside for the first born in this case.. by beating brother Jacob in the 'birth canal dash' was scruffy/hairy Esau.

I am not sure how or why they worked the way they did in the Old Testament, but it seems like the 'Father’s blessing' had the power to make or break the future of the ‘blessee’. It was like winning the family inheritance lottery.. and there were no TAKE BACKS.

The Blessing Plot Thickens
So one day Esau comes in from hunting famished and is met by his brother Jacob. Esau is so desperate for food, that Jacob talks Esau out of his birthright since Esau replies, "what good is my birth right if I die today from starvation." 

​note: It appears Esau was a great hunter, but a bit of a drama queen. ​

So Isaac asks Esau to hunt, and then fix him some wild game for him and at that time he will give Esau his blessing. 

Well, Rebecca overhears this and wants this blessing to got to her favorite son (and kitchen apprentice) Jacob.  So while Esau is out hunting, she comes up with a planso simple, so ingenious, but with more than a hint of .. WHAT?

Mom schemes to put animal skins on Jake’s arms to appear hairy like his brother Esau. 

As strange as this sounds.. this plan works and Isaac though he was suspicious thought it was Esau, and in the end gives Jacob THE BLESSING OF THE FIRST BORN. The Ol' Birthright  SWITCHEROO​​ is complete!

​So this caper of the misplaced blessing is over.. without me understanding the blessings of Isaac, except the fact that there are no take backs.  The fact is God did intend for Jacob to be blessed as he  continues to bless the descendants of Abraham as promised, through Isaac, and now Jacob to continue the promise of a great nation.

Moral of  the story for us today? Be faithful like Abraham so that God can bless and use you  as part of his plan. Whether you are the first born, that dreaded middle child (kidding), the baby, or you are adopted.. God loves you,  and has a plan to bless & prosper all who love and obey Him.  

Jeremiah 29:11 "'For I Know The Plans I Have For You' Declares the Lord, 'Plans to Prosper You and Not to Harm You, Plans to Give You Hope and a Future.

Psalms 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 

May God find us faithful and full of love for the one true God, and blessed by him in ways that are beyond our dreams.

Jeff (first born) Larson

Now onward and forward we go..

​Do you remember Hagar in Genesis 16, The fact that she had a son with Abraham now complicated life. Tensions and jealousy rose between Hagar and Ishmael with Sarah and Isaac, so Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away.

I obviously do not understand this whole dynamic or know how to justify this.. except I do know that Hagar and Ishmael were not how God planned to bless Abraham but through the birth of Isaac. 

This story is harsh, but in these verses we learn God heard the cries of Hagar and was with the boy. 17 ..the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven "Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying ..Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

Last we chatted, Abraham was healing from.. a ‘MINOR procedure’. 

Next in chapter 19, Abraham is met by three men and welcomes these visitors into his tent to allow them to rest out of the heat of the day.  Abraham then tells Sarah to bake some of her world famous homemade bread while he gets some red meat cooking on the grill.

After dinner, the visitors informed Abraham that Sarah will have a son one year from now. Well Sarah was listening at the entrance and LAUGHED to herself since she was so old.  The guests heard her laughing and reminded Abraham and Sarah that this is not too difficult for the God who created the world. After this the three men left, and headed towards Sodom (aka Sin City). 

Sodom and Gomorrah
Now Sodom and Gomorrah were the twin cities of evil, and God had enough with their behavior, and tells Abraham he is going to destroy them. But Abraham humbly bargains with God to spare these cities if there could even be found 10 good people.  This is an interesting negotiation, and a great example of God hearing our pleas, and being sensitive to them.  The prayers of a righteous man is heard by God with Abraham, and this is still true today.

Next the two angels arrive in Sodom and Lot pleads with them to come into his home and off the streets because it was not safe there.  They wanted to spend the night in the City Square, but did agree to come to Lot’s home. 

After dinner, the men of this wicked city came asking Lot to send out these men so that they could have sex with them.  Lot being the good host.. good host??? says “no.. don’t do this evil thing, BUT.. you can have my two virgin daughters.”  This is another one of those jaw dropping moments that transcends culture, and to compound the level of wickedness, the men yelled back.. “get out of our way Lot.. we want the men!”

Lot and his Family flee
So these angels, blind these evil men, and then told Lot to warn his family that the Lord is about to destroy these Old Testament sin cities.  In the morning, Lot, his wife, and two daughters flee the city while his future son-in-laws thought Lot was joking and stayed behind. 
​

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
So the two men/angels took Lot and his family and led them from the city, and once they were safe, and they were all instructed.. “don’t look back.” 

Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur from the sky and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah completely while an emergency weather alert was issued 'it's gonna be a hot hot day'.

finally as Lot and his family ran for their lives, Lot’s wife looked back and is turned into a pillar of salt.  Her last words were.. "I think I left the oven on".

FIELD OF STREAMS (Ge 6-9)
If you have ever seen the movie Field of DREAMS you will know  it’s about an Iowa farmer who hears voices telling him to plow under his corn crop and build a baseball field where the ghosts of old pro players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, would play.  Now of course, the neighbors and the town folk think he is nuts, and that he is risking his farm for the sake of old baseball players that no one can see but himself.

The decision for this Iowa farmer to listen to whispering voices saying, “If you build it, they will come”, and then to build a ballpark without having a real explanation of what this is all about takes some faith.  So what about Noah? 

The Bible tells us that Noah was a righteous man, and faithful to God in a world of sin.  
​
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. Genesis 6:5-6

and so God tells Noah, If you build it, they will come.  Genesis 6:13-21 in this case THEY are a literal ‘boat-load’ of animals.

Next, please note the Ark Project was constructed by 600 yr. old  Noah with the assistance of  his 100 year old sons.  

Think about it, Noah was approximately 10 times older than me, and his three 'boys' were 3 times older than my two sons.
​
ALL ABOARD!
Anyways, the ark is built, and then the collection and storing of the animal pairs begins.

Let me add a little perspective here..

• if my ONE DOG was in line to board the ark, and spied Mr. & Mrs. Squirrel about to board.. he would be gone with any chance of him getting back in line before the rain falls is almost NILL.
• Then there would be the other house pet of choice.. THE CAT. There is a reason why the phrase 'like herding cats' is used to describe near impossible tasks, and so it goes without saying boarding two cats onto a big boat filled with numerous other animal sounds and smells is not a given.

and Regarding dogs & cats folklore has it if not for Noah’s keen 600 year old eyes and senses, the demise of the common house cat would have been a certainty.  

Also illustrated below are a few more boarding the Ark highlights.. including the demise of the Unicorn.

LIFE AT SEA..
So now there is a time where God floats the boat. Loaded with animals of every kind I cannot imagine how this all worked out.  I am challenged to get my one rescue dog out several times a day to ensure he does not do his 'bizness' on the carpet so 'say-no-more' bout' waste management on this sea sick petting zoo. But on the bright side the excursions and amenities not found on any other Cruise line, and since they would be in the Ark for I believe 371 days, they might as well make the best of what Noah's Luxury Cruise had to offer..

• Good time for FISHING, or
• maybe WATER-SKI, or
• enjoy the irony of having two GOLDFISH on the Ark
• and let's not forget Noah's summit of MT EVEREST.  

I found a web site which lists the oldest people living today. When I checked it I read of a lady who was 115, and another that was 125, and then some lady I think from Peru that was supposedly 140!  There was a picture of this lady and, yes, she looked every bit of 140.  Of course I am not sure how we can really know she is that old (count her wrinkles like the rings on a tree?), but there is no doubt she is very, very old.

​So segue back to Genesis after Cain kills his brother Abel we move on to a ‘a whole-lotta-begetting’ going on. God’s command to “go forth and multiply” was one command mankind took to heart well beyond just knowing simple math facts!

But old in Genesis is a relative thing.  People in Genesis times lived to be sometimes 800 or 900 years old.

Adam lived to be 930 years old after God created him on the 6th day Genesis 5:5. His son Seth was 912 Genesis 5:8, Noah later on in Genesis we learn lived to be 950 years, and the long in the tooth award winner is .. Methuselah... the oldest man in the history of .. HISTORY. Methuselah was cut down in the prime of life at the age of 969 Genesis 5:25-27

I figure if I eat my veggies, drink milk, get 8 hours of sleep a night along with daily exercise and in only 908  more birthdays I will have Methuselah beat.  That will be in the year.. 2928 when I am neighbors with George Jetson.

They say you are only as old as you feel and I find this to be very little encouragement some days when feeling 'Genesis5esque' old.  Maybe not Methuselah old, but at least somewhere in the mid 500s.  and to think they did not have Ibuprophen.
​

The other interesting pattern of this was how old people were still.. um.. still.. ‘begetting’. While one of today’s serious society concerns is teen pregnancies, this was not the problem with society recorded in Genesis. 

In Genesis 5 it was not unusual for a couple to wait 70 to 500 years old before starting a family.  I guess those 500 years were spent playing golf, world travel using up frequent flyer miles, paying off the mortgage(s), credit card debt, or marking hot yoga off their bucket list. 

Maybe women in Genesis 5 wanted a career as a shepherdess, garden mogul, or working as a Mary Kay Cosmetics specialist before settling down and having kids. ​

​Let me close these early chapters of Genesis with a few more images sharing a Back Pew perspective. 

• Before Salt Lake City Lamech  was living with his daily double, 
  
• Enoch walked with God, and was no more. And finally
  
• the Nephilum. The Hebrew word for Nephilum  is “Fallen ones (maybe angels who smoked)”.. and they were certainly fallen... “fallin’” for the women of Earth – and God was not pleased.

So while it is hard for me to grasp the fact that I am 62.. a Methuselah like age (969) boggles the mind.  But like so many things in the Bible, just because I don’t understand does not make it not true.  

​From Genesis through Revelation I find the evidence and promise of God’s love and grace.
From the Garden to the Flood to the Cross all the way through life today sitting in my Back Pew there is this promise and evidence of a loving God.

May God bless each of you today in ways that are beyond your dreams. I pray you place your faith and hopes in the one true God of our Bibles.

Jeff (Methuselah like aches & pains) Larson

Admittedly Cain did overreact when his ‘garden salad gift’ was rejected by God by killing his brother.  No more Red Bull energy drinks for Cain.

When God asks Cain what happened to his brother he gives the time honored answer. “Am I my brothers keeper?” and perhaps then deflected from his guilt mumbling about his PETA membership being disrespected. 

So there you have it. Adam, Eve, a Garden neglected, and two boys that fight. God's creation is certainly off to a fine start. ​

After creating the world God placed Adam and Even in the beautiful Garden of Eden (aka paradise), and in the center of this garden was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Ge 2:17 which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat of its fruit. A Great setting for a Garden Party, until.. it was ruined.

So how do you ruin a Garden Party?
Rain, snow, gloom of night (mailman stuff), or maybe forget to send out the invites to your party?  Of course snow & ice might happen here in Minnesota (paradICE), but not in paradise (Eden), so how Adam & Eve ruin this Garden Party?

PETS?
Genesis 2:19-20 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 

So as Senior Garden Engineer Adam did his best Dr. Doolittle imitation and talked to the animals naming them one by one. What a daunting task, but 'in the beginning' the streaming library on Netflix was limited, there was no Sunday football, and this task was assigned before Eve arrived with her 'Honey Do List(s)' so he had plenty of time to name a 'couple animals'.

Ok, admittedly all the animals are not pets, but I know my one little rescue dog could get into the right amount of mischief to ruin a garden party. Either chewing up something that is not his, sneaking food that is not his, or.. leaving little doggie-doo 'presents' that are his and I have stepped in.

But we do not read any animals (even a mischievous rescue dog ruined the Garden Party.
​

There was no Old ‘Testament’ Navy, GAP (except between the leaves!), or levi's stores in the Garden so Adam & Eve being naked went for the ‘obvious’ line of clothing.. FIG LEAVES?  

Ge 3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

But.. this 'Fig Leaf' line of fashion had at least a couple serious drawbacks. 
1. Leaf blight, and squirrels, and
2. Fig Leaves were simply not all that flattering. No woman when asking how she looks, wants to hear the words.. "You look like a SHRUB".

And now seeing the bigger picture outside of the world of fashion, Adam & Eve realized life would never be the same. Sin caused a host of irrational emotions.

Ge 3:8-9 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”​

The Invention of the Blame Game..
Naked and afraid Adam & Eve were playing 'Hide & Seek' with God. This is where the time honored (or dishonored) 'Blame Game' was first used. First Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the snake, and the snake did not have a leg (literally & figuratively) to stand on!  

This my friends is how you ruin a Garden Party!

About a week later  a CSI investigation corroborated the entire Genesis 3 account.

So the fall out from this original sin was the snake, woman, and man were cursed and Adam & Eve were then EVICTED from the Garden while Willie Nelson played 'On the Road Again' in the background.  ​​

GOOD NEWS IS.. God's Grace is as they say AMAZING. He will accept us back after any big or small prodigal moments when we truly repent. BUT please note.. God will not be mocked.. an insincere whoopsie attitude  towards our sin move us further away from the safety and blessings God intends for us.

My prayer today all of us to pursue a greater love for our God. To be in a place where obedience to our loving Heavenly Father is a natural expression of this love. May God impress on our hearts His love for us, He desires the very best for us, and realize His Word is a light to guide us in this dark world.

Blessings

Jeff (weeding my garden) Larson

Genesis 1 - In the beginning, God spoke the universe into existence.  Some of those present claimed they heard a loud crackling sound like thunder, but most simply described it as sort of a.. BANG.. actually a BIG BANG! 

At this point let me be clear, I am not here to discuss Old Earth v New Earth theories. This would be above the pay grade of this cartoonist, but what I will say is .. God created and it was GOOD!

Genesis 1:1-31 To summarize, this daunting project was completed in 6 days where Day 1:  DAY , NIGHT , the SKY were spoke into existence by our Almighty Creator. 

Genesis 2:1-3 Then on the 7th day God rested.  In contrast I installed a bathroom floor in our town-home recently and I rested on the 5th, 6th, and 7th days and while it turned out nice it was not Hubble Telescope spectacular like God's Universe.

Those first 6 days His creation included the sun, stars, land, waters, and all the creatures in the sea and on land were created. 

To rule over the lands and seas God created MAN​ Genesis 2:7 in His own image from the dust of the Earth followed by creating WOMAN from man's 'spare rib' declaring it is not good for man to be alone. Genesis 2:18
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To which Adam declared.. "Hey beautiful, where have you been all my life?"   

​Then God commanded Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply".. to which Adam quickly started working on his times tables.

This creation story is all recorded into the Bible book of Genesis. While many Cosmologists believe the Big Bang was the creation of EVERYTHING from NOTHING followed by billions of years of random collisions and explosions resulted in our ever expanding universe, all the planets including Earth including life with all it's complexities.  

​Ok, I believe you can collide a chocolate bar with a jar of peanut butter and end up with a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.. but this Universe has too moving parts + complexities that are bound together with rules and order for me to believe EVERYTHING came from NOTHING.

So I choose to believe there must be an intelligent design behind creation. For me, I believe in a divine creator that exists outside the confines of time and space. I believe this Intelligent Design is described in the Bible Book of Genesis.

​May God bless each of you greatly in your pursuit of truth. This is important stuff, and a foundation for life. If there is a God then the pursuit of Him is a greater science than can be found looking through any microscope or telescope.  Bigger than Star Trek's five year journey exploring the stars.

A while back our pastor gave a sermon on getting to know God by reading our Bibles regularly and systematically.  During this very good sermon our pastor joked that the most read books of the Bible are Genesis and Matthew, because our inspired intentions in January to read through our Bibles fades once we are through Genesis, and Matthew. (Leviticus has killed many a Bible study ).. then the next year we are back in Genesis and Matthew.  I call this bible study plan.. The BEGINAGAINS.

I must be honest and say I have followed the BEGINAGAIN plan many times and not until 2003 did I completely read my Bible from cover to cover AND I CARTOONED THRU IT TOO! Note: Neither Billy Graham or the Pope could say they cartooned through the Bible.  Then in 2018 lightning struck again as I read through my Bible from Genesis through Revelations. YEAH ME!