Laughter!

Laughter in the Bible?  Surely some mistake - is not our image of fun in religion that of the Rev I. M Jolly, and more of a caricature at that?  

Prepare to be surprised!  However, before going down that road completely, we must acknowledge that laughter is not always the relaxed result of our enjoyment of a humorous situation.  It can also be the involuntary and unwanted evidence of our discomfort at, or disbelief in, a revelation or development with which we are uncomfortable:

Perhaps the most well-known examples of laughter, caused by a reaction to a situation, are the responses of the aged Abraham and Sarah to the divine revelation that they are to have a child together:

This is followed later by Sarah's response:

This is not the end of the matter though, as Sarah laughs again when the promise comes to fruition:

Joy is undoubtably the most attractive reason for laughter, but it is not the only cause of laughter in the Bible. Many Scriptural passages use laughter to symbolise God's power to overcome the activities of mankind pitted against His will and purpose.

The books of Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, which go a long way in echoing the difficulties, emotions and lessons which we find in our modern lives, contain the majority of related references.  The most well known of these is probably Ecclesiastes 3, from which we have:

Psalm 2, which looks forward to the time when Jesus returns to reign upon the earth - an event which in itself will bring fearful emotions to those not looking for it - expresses, in verses used by Handel in his oratorio "Messiah", the way in which God reacts to the scheming which is resorted to by temporal, earthly powers:

We look in Psalm 22 to a time when the Psalmist David, a man after God's own heart, was assailed by difficulties brought on him by temporal forces, but the Psalm is recognised as foreseeing the betrayal and suffering of Christ:

But even as Jesus in turn knew that he would suffer this scorn, so he knew that his heavenly Father would overturn the mocking rule of man. He is recorded in Luke 6 speaking to the material haves and have nots, who may be compared with the spiritually poor and rich:

On the other hand we have:

Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. (Luke 6:21)

So it is that in God's good time all things that He has purposed will come about, and the penny will drop for those who have not known God, while the patience of faithful believers will be rewarded.  We finish with verses celebrating the return of the exiled Jews from Babylonian captivity to Jersualem, which are also relevant to those who today await the return of Jesus the Messiah to rule upon the earth with power:

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