The God of Laughter and Joy

They say that laughter is good for the body and for the soul. It is good to laugh several times a day to relieve stress, dispel worry, dissolve anger, lower blood pressure, and even relieve pain in some cases. It can help you to relax, and even help you lose weight; in which case, I need to laugh all day every day. Ha-ha that made me laugh. We tell jokes to cause laughter, we watch funny movies or shows that make us laugh, and we sometimes see funny things that people do that make us laugh.

Do you wonder if God laughs? I think He does all the time. How can He as God look at some of the things we as Christians do and not laugh? We are truly a funny people, strange, odd, uncommon, and unusual, peculiar even, at least that’s what 1 Peter 2:9 sums us up as. People even joke, “If you want to make God laugh, just tell Him your plans.” We laugh at that, but nine times out of ten our plans are never even close to God’s plans for us. But why do we laugh at God’s plans? Is it because we don’t believe God, because it’s too hard to imagine, too big to believe, or just to ridicules to be true? Job said, “Yet, my friends laugh at me, for I call on God and expect an answer. I am a just and blameless man, yet they laugh at me (Job 12:4)

Let’s look at the story of Abraham and Sarah. God told Abraham that He was going to make him a father of many nations when Abraham was already an old man past the age of producing children. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah who is ninety years old, bear a child (Genesis 17:17)?” Abraham in a moment of disbelief laughed at God, no, not Abraham. Did this laughter come from the man whom God had just called righteous, because he believed God? Was he now disbelieving God? Later that same laughter of disbelief came from the month of Sarah when she heard the Lord promise her a child in her old age. Therefore she laughed within herself, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” (Genesis 18:12) God had changed Sarah’s name to mean Princess, which is royalty for the mother of many nations and kings, but how was this so, when she was a barren woman and ninety years old already, her biological clock and science says this is impossible.

The Bible says God laughs at the wicked, But the Lord just laughs, for He sees their day of judgment coming (Ps. 37:13). Now I can see Him laughing at them, the Big Bang Theory, now that’s funny. How about you, have you ever laughed at some of the promises of God in the Bible? I have, I have even sometimes said, “Yea right God, I’d like to see you do that.” I admit, before I really got to know God, I thought some of His promises were for the birds. When I read Hebrews and saw so many who didn’t see His promises fulfilled, like even Abraham, he didn’t see what happened with God’s promise to make him a father of many nations. Oh but God. I thank Him that I know Him and trust in all His promises to come to pass, even them that I may not see.

Maybe you don’t believe, because you think they are just for the saints of old, the ones in the Bible days. Nope, all of the promises back then apply to us right now. Like weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning, or lean not on your own understanding, but acknowledge God in all your ways and He will direct your path, or maybe, do not be afraid, for I am with you. All these are tried and true today. How about God’s promise to Noah? God told Noah that He would never send another flood upon the earth. He told him that the sign of this promise would be a rainbow in the sky after the rains. Have you ever seen a rainbow? That is God’s promise fulfilled today. We are filled with laughter and we sing with joy and the other nations said, “What amazing things the LORD has done for them (Ps. 126:2).

One year after God made this promise to Abraham, he and Sarah gave birth to a son whom they named Isaac which means laughter, because Sarah laughed at God. Isaac was the essence of joy manifested in the seed of promise. Today anyone who is in Christ is the product of the promise, because we are of Abraham’s seed. Next time you are tempted to laugh at the promise of God remember this, God is asking you the same question He asked them, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14a). For all God’s promises are yes and amen and you can believe that.