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P124 - God's Ungodly Sense of Humor

September 1st, 2010

But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you (Proverbs 1:24-26).

The way I typically envision God, He doesn't have much of a sense of humor.  He's always serious, though mostly pleasant.  He wears a long white robe and a long white beard, and He looks down upon the brokenness of our world with an air of frustration and sadness.  He is wise and a little bit slow.  He sighs a lot, and He frowns a bit when I'm with my friends and we fall into bouts of "ungodly humor."  That is to say:  He is not a big fan of sarcasm and irony, at least not in the way that I typically envision God.

But Proverbs 1:24-25 provides a stark contrast to this conservative view of God.  Granted, it's talking specifically about the personification of divine Wisdom, and thus not completely intended to be a character sketch of God Himself -- but there's enough of a correlation between God and His Wisdom, throughout the Proverbs, that it seems reasonable to make some inferences here.  And what I see is that God has a keen appreciation for irony and that He's even able to appreciate a darker sort of humor -- an understanding of the comical side of tragedy that I would normally think of as being "ungodly humor."  It's not that He's mean-spirited, which would go against His general character.  He's just open and honest and inviting.  He wants people to walk in wisdom and godliness.  He embraces anyone who comes to Him and follows Him.  But He's not one to pout, when a person deliberately ignores Him.  And if that person walks away while thumbing his nose at God but then runs into a brick wall that was right in front of him -- though he never saw it because he was too busy making his grand gesture of disdain towards God -- well, God's able to see the humor in that.

While some might infer that God is mean and vindictive, from reading Proverbs 1:24-25, I just don't see it that way.  I see that He's good and wise and loving and accepting... but He's got a sense of humor, too.  And when someone does something stupid that brings about self-inflicted pain, God's able to laugh.  I'd think it would have to be some sort of survival skill, to maintain sanity!  To me, this idea of God having an "ungodly" sense of humor is actually a better mental image than a sober wagging of the finger and a "tsk-tsk-tsk" of disappointment.  What do you think?

This entry is filed under Wisdom, Folly, God.

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