God Laughs – At Attempted Takeovers
God Laughs – At Attempted Takeovers.
“The One who sits enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them… The wicked plot against the righteous; they snarl at them in defiance. But the Lord laughs, for He sees their day of judgment coming… They come out at night, snarling like vicious dogs as they prowl the streets. Listen to the filth that comes from their mouths, their words cut like swords. ‘After all, who can hear us?’ they sneer. For your part, Lord, you laugh at them.” (Psalm 2:4; Psalm 37:13; Psalm 59:6-8).
It seems to me that our Lord God has an ironic sense of humor. He is reported to have deep belly laughs when He looks at mankind and sees how ridiculous we can be. He seems to laugh whenever we humans do things that are laughably absurd. God sees irony everywhere, He observes behavior that is unexpectedly foolish in light of His greatness. God seems amused when He sees the opposite of what one should expect in a God-filled universe. He chuckles at attitudes that defy logic from His perspective. On the one hand, God isn’t surprised by anything. On the other hand, He seems to be pleasantly scornful at what we humans can do.
People build an immense building and think it will reach God and enable access to Him, and God finds it ridiculous. He sees nations without a conscience conspire against God to cut Him out of their laws and society, and God can only say, ‘Are you serious?’ He sees a man who thinks he can become equal to Him in every respect, a god-player, and God can only shake His head. God observes someone who thinks He is able to flee His presence and live as if He doesn’t exist, and God can only look at him with righteous scorn. He hears many of us utter obscene and hurtful language thinking that no one is within earshot, and God can only say, ‘You’re just kidding me, right?’ He sees so many who think they can do evil and live without restraint, and God can only sigh in sad amusement, knowing there will be a true come-to-Jesus moment waiting in the future. God knows that there will be a Judgment Day coming, and He takes joy in the reality of a moral universe that He created. He knows that all who have rejected Him will someday reap what they sown if they have rejected His grace in life. All this foolishness, all this thoughtlessness… Is it that we don’t have a high enough view of God? Is it that we have too high a view of ourselves? Both? Perhaps what makes God laugh loudest is our futile hubris, our unrighteous chutzpah.
Our downfall is probably attributed to our hubris, which can be defined this way:
HUBRIS: a Greek word that means excessive pride; exaggerated self-conceit; overwhelming self-confidence; sheer arrogance; in ancient Greece, hubris was a character flaw reflecting a defiance of the gods, when someone would foolishly or maliciously act against the divine order; someone with hubris always has a lack of self-awareness and won’t stop to examine his behavior or consider other actions; people with hubris are generally too full of themselves to question their motives or actions; people who are overcome with hubris eventually bring about their own downfall. As Rabbi Jonathon Sacks once wrote, “If Scripture is our guide, what makes God laugh is a person’s delusion of grandeur.”
“Why this uproar among the nations, this powerless muttering and plotting of the peoples? Kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together and conspire against the Lord Yahweh and His Anointed. They say, ‘Let us break their chains! Now let us throw off their bonds.’ He who sits enthroned in Heaven laughs, the Lord makes a mockery of them.” (Psalm 2:1-4).
All through human history, there have been nations that have conspired against God, developing plans to erase God from their society, from their laws, from their little world. They have riled themselves up into an uproar as they explore how to challenge God’s power and authority. These national leaders, these empire-builders, take counsel together in their hopes of overthrowing God, of all things. They plot against the King of the Universe! God considers their futile rebellion laughable. These rebels think in their ridiculous hubris that God has chained them down somehow, that He is restraining them, enslaving them, holding them back. They think that Creator God is keeping them from achieving their full human potential, and they believe they have a better way. Don’t they know, says God, that if they aren’t servants of Me, the God of freedom, they will only be enslaved to their own sinfulness? God finds this hubris absurd. God must be thinking, I made you people in my image! I expect some common sense from you! Trying to overthrow Me is like trying to keep the sun from shining!
So the Lord God observes all this pointless planning to take Him out of the picture, and He calmly sits on His throne, unperturbed. God sits enthroned… He doesn’t pace with worry, He doesn’t squirm in distress, He doesn’t tremble with fear, He doesn’t even rise out of His throne to contest their empty threats. God simply sits on His throne in heaven, at peace, and He laughs at their powerless authority as they refuse to acknowledge God’s greatness. How many historic leaders have attempted to ignore or eradicate God? Where are they now? God has scoffed at all of them, from Nero to Mao, from Nimrod to Manasseh, from Jezebel to Stalin. Sure enough, they are all dead and gone, and the Lord remains.
Of course, God is well aware of the serious sin involved in conspiring against Him. He knows what pride looks like. And He is disgusted with the fact these rebels are leading many astray, away from His righteous authority. God’s laughter is ironic, because He sees the Big Picture. He knows these people may have their moments of power now, their moments of glory and influence, but they will surely get what’s coming to them if they continue in their foolishness. They will have their own private come-to-Jesus time, for we live in a moral universe, and sooner or later these anti-God insurrections will reap what they sow.