DOES GOD HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOUR?

The justification of some Christians that God doesn't have a sense of humour strikes me like a thunder. How do you say a God who created man in his image according to his likeness has no humour? If man does have a sense of humour, so does God. Man's sense of humour may have been somewhat corrupted/perverted due to sin but it doesn't change the fact of the discussion matter. For example, God has intellect just like we do, he is creative just like we are, he feels sad just like we do etc but the sinful nature can make us misrepresent the true nature of God. If God has no sense of humour, I think we should question where man got his. Our sense of humour may not exactly be the same because there are some despicable things human find funny that God will not find funny.

A joyful, cheerful heart brings healing to both body and soul. But the one whose heart is crushed struggles with sickness and depression.

Proverbs 17:22 TPT

The latter part explains what happens when your heart isn't cheerful and joyful and we all know that sickness isn't one of the things God gives.

Laughter is seen as a positive vibe in the bible just as we all know it is (even the bible is doing #positivevibesonly). Just like the word "trinity", the word "humour" can't be found in the bible but that doesn't mean humour doesn't exist in the scriptures. 

The first expression of God's sense of humour was shown in the book of Genesis when the Lord said Abraham and Sarah were going to bore a child at a very old age. Sarah may have thought "what goes on in your mind, God? How would you think an old woman like me will defy normalcy?" The words as regard this news was so funny to Sarah that she laughed. The idea of fathering a child at their age was so funny.

Ever imagined the conversation between Moses and Aaron after Moses came down from the mountain where he was with God for 40 days? Moses comes down from the mountain to find the people of God rejoicing and celebrating before their new god. Moses looking confused like he's in the wrong place then faces Aaron with the question of "Oga, where did this calf come from?" and Aaron goes ahead to defend himself by saying the Israelites grew impatient of his return and they all gathered their gold and he moulded them a golden calf to worship. 

So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

Exodus 32:24 NIV

Moses must have given Aaron that "what a silly excuse" look. Like, "Aaron, you just gave me a toddlers explanation in defending yourself from being rebuked. What nonsense is this that you are telling me?" 

When the ark of covenant was captured by the Philistines and was placed in the temple of Dagon, they later found their god had fallen face down as though bowing to God with its head and hand broken off. As much as this depicts the majesty of God, it makes me laugh each time I read it because I wonder what the Philistines were thinking for them to put the Israelites' ark of covenant in the temple of their god. You've heard about this people and their God, how could you be this dumb🤦🏾‍♀️

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The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17 NIV

".... but will rejoice over you with singing." Draw a mental picture of this. God must definitely be singing while doing some David's dance moves because rejoicing has to do with some physically activity. Imagine someone who is rejoicing over you with singing, how does that make you feel? Loved and entertained? Yeah, I know. 

Jesus must have had one of the best personality ever. How he kept having such a large crowd listen to him and also the loyalty of his 12 makes me mystified. What explanation do you give how people stay long hours to listen to someone talk so much that they forget to eat or go to work? He brought words to life and it must have been fun to be around him. He chose to use parables to explain the things about the kingdom to people, you've never imagined how funny some of these parable may have sounded? Like the story of Lazarus and the rich man? The parable of the persistent widow? Oh! Remember Jarius? Yeah, the guy with the 12 year old daughter who had died before Jesus got to his house. After he raised the girl back to life, he told them to give her food to eat. Who thinks of food immediately after a resurrection had taken place? Lol

People would have been shocked and screamed their lungs out becuase of what they had just seen happened - this is a normal human reaction to resurrection. But Jesus threw in humour by making them realize that a girl who had been sick, died and raised back to life would definitely be hungry and needs to eat. Children that age even eat like there's no tomorrow 😭😂; they have a wild appetite for food. Jesus telling them to give her something to eat must have stabilized the atmosphere that was initially dark with grief. 

Also, at the wedding in Cana, did you think Jesus just sat there looking uninterested in all they were doing? I'm sure he'd have probably just slept in his house instead of going to a place of merry and joy.

After the death of Jesus, John mentioned how a disciple beat Peter to get to the tomb of Jesus. He said "So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first (John 20:3‭-‬4 NIV). Looked to be like they were trying to compete with each other on who was to get there first. I remember when we we're kids, we'd say "last to get there is a goat"😂😂. Then you start running as fast as you legs could carry you. Lol

I'd like to ask, did the book of Esther ever made you ask if they did any other thing other than banquets? Lol, I know!

The word "banquet" appeared more in the book of Esther (with just 10 not-so-long chapters) than any other book in the bible. Those guys were just merrying, wining and dining anyhow😂😂

Oh! How can I forget Jonah? 😂😂

The book of Jonah is a funny book. How do you explain the anger he felt all because God wanted to save the people of Nineveh? Wasn't he suppose to be happy for the people of Nineveh? You're fleeing to Tarshish because you're running away from God. Didn't he know that God is omnipresent? He even had the gut to sleep while there was a storm😂😂

The bible includes both the embarrassing and humorous accounts of God's people. He wants us to understand that life can be crazy but he's forever faithful and ultimately, inspite of our mistakes, he's forever merciful. He knows life can be challenging and can cause us pain and while he wants us to acquire the wisdom to navigate through life. Despite all, he's still proud to call himself our God, he's never ashamed of us.

While God appreciates laughter and has gifted us with it, although, he does not condone laughter at the expense of another or laughter over sinful things. Lighten up, laugh at yourself while learning how to live the way he wants you to. God having a sense of humour doesn't take away his majesty and sovereignty just as having a sense of humour doesn't take away who you are as a person.  We are told to think on things that are pleasing to the God (Philippians 4:8). Our words should be edifying, and therefore our humor should be as well. May God give us the wisdom and grace to do this and may we faithfully apply all that He has given us so that we faithfully represent Him and bring Him Glory. Amen