So You Think You Can Laugh

God clearly called and chose Abraham for awesome purposes! But there is this aspect of his story that reveals something humorous about the nature of God. Or perhaps about the nature of man…

In Genesis 15:2, Abraham is basically telling God… “Thanks for all these blessings (that I am not really asking for)…but, how about you give me a son (that I am asking for)!”

Then, in 17:17, Abraham laughs sarcastically after God tells him that he will give him a son through his (old) wife. “Then Abraham bowed to the ground, but laughed in disbelief.” Ha, ha, God! Yeah right!

Next, in 18:11-15 there is this account of Sarah doing the same thing…laughing at the idea of having a baby. “Yeah right, I am too old.” I wonder if this was possibly even some nervous laughter?

Then in 21:6 something really neat happens. It says “Sarah declared, ‘God has given me a spirit of laughter! All who hear about this will laugh with me.” After the “yeah-right-type-of-laughter”, God brings Sarah a real, God-induced spirit of laughter.

Makes me wonder…what is the significance of all this laughter? I think that it says something of God. "So, Big Abe and Sarah…you thought it was funny? Welcome your new baby to the world!" Thank God, they didn’t live in one of those 50+ age qualifying communities that we have now. They'd have been short.

My takeaway: Go ahead and laugh if you want. God will do his thing and defy the odds as he sees fit whether we laugh at his plans or not.

Last thought: Here in these passages, we see them laugh at God. I wonder how often God laughs at us?