Does God Have A Sense Of Humor?

I know what you are thinking.  Of course, He has a sense of humor...He made you, Gregg and that's funny!  Yeah.  There's that.  Usually people refer to the platypus as God's sense of humor, but anyway...moving on.

The Bible does say we are made in God's image, and for the most part, people enjoy a good laugh.  I, for one, love dad jokes. Admit it! You do too.  But let's look at some example of God's humor throughout scripture.

Just as a disclaimer, not all of these examples may seem funny to us "hardened Westerners" who are used to today's often raunchy comedy, as well as,  some of this gets lost in translation, but all of the below examples were considered humorous at the times they were written. 

Genesis has several stories that contain humor (though the platypus isn't actually mentioned in Genesis, this is where He created all things). I mean...when Abraham and Sarah received the  message that they were going to have a baby, they both laughed.  Sarah was 90 years old, so that was quite an absurd situation.  Abraham laughed.  Sarah laughed.  Everybody laughed.  They even named the baby "Isaac Yitzack" which in Hebrew, means laughter. 

Genesis even contains several "odd couples" along the lines of Laurel and Hardy in that they contrast and complement each other.  Jacob and Esau, Abraham and Sarah, Abraham and Lot.  Ok, before you ask, "What about actual humor...this stuff isn't funny to me...I don't get it."  

Bear with me.

Cain and Abel.  Cain murdered his brother Abel.  I know.  That's not funny.  But, there is an ironic wordplay as a consequence.  For murdering his brother, Cain gets condemned to wander carelessly, in which, after complaining, God agrees to allow him to settle in the Land of Nod.  Here's the irony...the root of the Hebrew verb "to wander" is n-w-d, from which the proper name, "Nod" is derived. What kind of "settling" is Cain likely to experience in a land whose very name means "to wander?"

Let's move to the book of Numbers.  There is a story of Balaam and his talking donkey.  As you know, donkeys don't talk.  Not normally, anyway.  When Balaam was riding his donkey, and the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, the donkey veered off the road.  Balaam beat the donkey to get it back onto the road.  Twice.  And then a third time, rather than veering off the road, the donkey just laid down, and Balaam beat it again.  Can you imagine Balaam's face when the donkey looked at him and said, "Yo, dude...what have I done to you to deserve these beatings?"

Yeah..there are plenty of jokes one can make about talking donkeys, but I digress...

The book of Proverbs has many cases of humor as well.  Proverbs 19:19 says, "A man of great anger will bear the penalty, for if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again."  In other words, a man of violent temper is going to keep getting himself into trouble.  You have no sooner helped him out of problem, he will get himself into another. 

Another, which is a sarcastic view of adultery, "Can a man take fire into his bosom and his clothes not be burned?"  Another great example, "Wealth makes many friends, poverty drives them away."  These are all considered funny in the original language. but it's also really a sad truth, even today.  

Jonah.  I mean...a giant fish swallowed Jonah.  That's such am image, that a children's tale about Pinocchio borrowed that image as well.  The function of humor in Jonah is to get the self righteous to laugh at themselves. Jonah sasses God.  The heathens prove themselves to be even more pious than Jonah, who then succumbs to his comeuppance. Jonah then pouts when the heathens repent and God doesn't destroy them.  He has the audacity to yell at God about this without recognizing the irony in his own comments.  Think about it...Jonah sinned.  Got swallowed by a big fish.  Jonah repented.  God spared him.  Why should He not do the same for others who repent.  A lot of this may be last in the English translation, but the whole story can sorta be compared to Charles Dickens', "Nicholas Nickleby." 

What about sarcasm?  Job has a great bit of sarcasm in chapter 38.  Job was questioning God, and God's reply was to the effect of, "Where were YOU when I created the Earth?  Who determined how big it should be?  Surely you should know this!" He continues with "Who contains the sea?" and "Have you ever commanded the morning and caused the dawn to know it's place?" and, "Have the very gates of death been revealed to you?  Have you seen the gates of darkness?"  And then goes on to say, "Where is the way to the dwelling of light  Where is the darkness?  You must know, for you were born before then."

See...that's the sarcasm...God knew Job wasn't born before then.  It's a sarcastic statement...used to make Job realize that he really overstepped his bounds there. It even goes on from there, but you should read it.  Yes.  God was using sarcasm to great effect.

Even in the New Testament, God uses humor.  Paul used insults hurled at him as humor.  The Apostles were called fools.  Paul, turned that around and said, "Yes.  We are called to be fools for Christ's sake."  In Paul's various letters, Paul reveals a robust sense of humor. He teases.  He exaggerates. He even uses parody and reversal, and ever creates vivid word pictures. For example, in 2 Corinthians 11, he uses biting sarcasm to give what has been termed his "anti-autobiography" while calling himself a fool.  There is another story in Acts, where Paul is preaching and a young man is listening to him, falls asleep and falls out a window and dies.  It's likely a comment on Paul's long-windedness.  

Another example in Acts in 12:12-15, Rhoda is so happy that Peter has been released from prison, when she hears his voice, she forgets to open the door and let him in.  

Jesus also used humor, irony and satire in some of His teachings on "The blind leading the blind; straining out a gnat then swallowing a camel; meticulously cleaning the outside of the cup while leaving the inside dirty; maintaining the outsides of tombs, making sure they are beautiful on the outside, but on the inside containing rotten bodies and bones, etc. In all of these, He makes great and valid points, but uses the absurdity of satire to make them.