God has a sense of humor. We should know that since we were made in his image, and we love to laugh.
God has a funny way of speaking to people.
How might Moses’ wife have felt if she asked who he’d been talking to, and he said, “That bush over there”?
Can you imagine the reporter who wrote the article about a donkey talking to his rider (Numbers 22:29)? You might laugh about that, but isn’t it side-splitting funny that Balaam talked back and expected the animal to understand (Numbers 22:30)? What was God thinking when he decided to speak through a donkey?
Surprise has a way of stirring laughter.
Perhaps God expects us to laugh with him when he uses the weak to confound the strong or causes the dunce to out-think the pundits (1 Corinthians 1:27).
I’m pretty sure Samson was a skinny weakling who had to run back and forth in the shower to get wet. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he could slay an army, and his enemies couldn’t figure out how he did that. They kept looking for the secret of his strength (Judges 16:6).
God makes a habit of doing new things, something completely unexpected (Isaiah 43:19). How often he must laugh when he causes bad things to turn out for good (Romans 8:28) and when he makes the last finish first and the first finish last (Matthew 19:30).
Being led of the Spirit, Jesus said funny things.
“I tell you what,” Jesus said, “Go to the lake and catch a fish. Take the coin out of its mouth and pay our taxes” (Matthew 17:27). How nice that Peter didn’t have to fill out a tax return.
“God sees every sparrow,” Jesus said, “where they nest and how they feed their babies. He even knows when they die and could write their obituaries.” Maybe he didn’t use those exact words, but it was something like that. Worthless sparrows. Nobody would pay a penny for a dozen. But what’s funny is what he said after that. “I believe you’re worth more than two sparrows.” I think I hear God thundering laughter from the clouds.
One day, Jesus said, “You will strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). That comparison is funny enough in English, but his audience would have seen the humor in the pun. In Aramaic, the word for gnat is galma, and the word for camel is gamla.
Laughter is great.
Humor adds sweetness that makes the medicine a little easier to swallow. But we shouldn’t overlook God’s purpose, for the Great Physician wants to make us well, without sin.
If we confess our wrongdoing, he is sure to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. — 1 John 1:9