He Laughs

Historian Paul Johnson says, “Laughter, when you analyze it, is no joke.”  Likewise, N.T. Wright observed that what comedy and tragedy have in common is that both speak of things being out of order.

When God laughs, it is no joke.  Psalm 2:4-5 speaks of the rulers who take counsel against the Lord’s Anointed, saying, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury.”

God’s laughter at an incongruous world in which the righteous suffer and the wicked seem to prevail precedes his righteous judgment.  And that is no laughing matter.