God Laughs – Introduction
God Laughs – Introduction.
“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 disappointed 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.”
God’s laughter at our unholy shenanigans, of course, are always infused with His mercy, with pity. He knows that we are made of dust and are especially susceptible to the devil’s prompts. But God has no mercy whatsoever when He mocks the devil. God fully scorns Satan and everything he stands for. The devil is the very definition of hubris. Our earthly hubris can always be traced back to that of Satan’s, mere tributaries from the river of evil that is the devil. Satan is the original when it comes to delusions of grandeur. God has complete derision for the Evil One, with his overwhelming and ultimately futile pride. St. Thomas More once said that the devil’s proud spirit makes it impossible for him to endure mocking. So God saves His best trash talk for the devil. God reserves His most scathing scorn for him. God laughs the loudest at Satan.
In this category of “God Laughs,” we will take a look at those moments in Scripture when man’s hubris surely brought God’s derision, God’s laughter, from heaven. May these passages in which we observe man’s unexpected, ridiculous hubris, help us to live into God’s greatness. May these studies remind us of the absurd futility of thinking we can live any way we want, thinking that we can escape God or be equal to Him. And may we deepen our reverence for God as we live into the eternal excellence and splendor of God Almighty.