God’s sense of humor?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord’s speech to Job in yesterday’s devotions prompted me to think about God’s sense of humor. For one thing, I realize it is not like ours. People tend to laugh at the misfortune of others whether they slip on a banana peel or keep losing their car keys. HUMOR is more than that, even human humor. Some examples:

§  Physical, slapstick, involving odd bodily behavior. Think “America’s Funniest Home Videos.

§  Self-deprecating, we make fun of ourselves to make people laugh.

§  Surreal or absurd, flipping normal into odd or strange to get a laugh. Consider Monty Python.

§  Improv, like live theatre, made up on the spot, awkwardness, such as Saturday Night Live.

§  Dry Humor, deadpan wit coming from someone who seems totally serious. More later about its forms.

§  Wordplay or puns, rhetorically odd, etc.

§  Observational, laughing at life, used by most standup comedians.

Of these, perhaps God is best at dry humor. Its forms include irony and God is good at irony. In Matthew 23:23ff, Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” While the concept of hypocrisy is not funny, these words mock the Pharisees in a sarcastic manner.

Another example is Jonah. God told him to go and preach to the people of Nineveh, but he ran the opposite direction . . . right into the belly of a big fish. He repented, was coughed out, and did what he was told. He hated his audience but ironically, they accepted his message as from God.

Another form of humor is overstatement or hyperbole. We might say, “It is raining cats and dogs.” Jesus said in Luke 6:41–42, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”

He also used this form of exaggeration when He said, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23–24)

While sarcasm isn’t very funny to those on the receiving end, it is a form of mockery that can seem humorous. In the OT, pagan worshippers challenged God’s prophet Elijah that their god could perform a better miracle. When their god did not respond to their chanting and pleas, Elijah sarcastically mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

God also uses the absurd to get our attention. An example is what happened when a man named Balaam was on his way to an enemy camp and an angel blocked the path. The donkey Balaam rode saw the angel and stopped, but Balaam urged the donkey forward because he couldn’t see the angel. She laid down and he hit her.

“Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?’ And Balaam said to the donkey, ‘Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.’ And the donkey said to Balaam, ‘Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?’ And he said, ‘No.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand.” (see Numbers 22).

We sometimes laugh at God’s creation, even as He describes making the ostrich the way He did in Job 39:13ff or looking at animals like the giraffe or an anteater.

Another example of God’s humor is when an enemy nation captured the Ark of the Covenant, an artifact that symbolized God’s presence, and placed it in a temple devoted to a pagan god. The pagan idol fell facedown before the Ark—twice—with the idol’s head and hands broken off.

Psalm 2:4 and 59:8 also tell how God laughs at those who oppose Him. There is humor in puny man trying to outwit, out-do, or defeat Almighty God.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Faith and godliness do not rule out humor. Laughter can be good medicine and it keeps me from taking myself too seriously, but I need to be wise about humor. It can also be hurtful so I must listen to the Holy Spirit and observe situations with His grace to know when it is time to laugh or time to be serious.