LOL Biblical Style
Rabbi Yehudah ben
Shomeyr
Laughter. Most of the time when one thinks of
laughter they think of a stand-up comedian at a night club, or a prank pulled at
a summer camp. In other words we generally think of laughter when something is
funny.
Even the most casual of Bible students know that
the name Isaac means laughter. That’d be like naming your child, “Chuckles”
today; could you imagine!? So why name a child, a Covenant Child, a Miracle
Child, a Child that would go down in the annuls of history listed in the litany
of the Father of a Great People; “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel),” “Father
of Nations, Laughter and Prince of God.”
“Hey Laughter, come here please.”
“Laughter, go fetch Daddy his good sacrificial dagger.”
Sounds “funny” doesn’t it?
Well, “funny” thing is, Isaac’s parents didn’t
give him that name, GOD DID!
People today name their children after “funny”
things. I heard of a girl named “Nautica” after the clothing line. I even have
a friend who named their son “Batman”! No lie! I’m not joking! On a TV show
called “Guys with Kids” one character named his oldest son “Yoda” after the little
green pointy eared Jedi of Star Wars fame. Johnny Cash sings a song about, “A
Boy Named Sue.”
A joke is told of a Native boy who asks his
father how he got his name.
“Father, I wish to know how I received my name.”
The father said, “Son, when your older sister was
born, I looked out the door of our tepee and saw a running deer, and so I named
her “Running Deer.” Your older brother, when he was born, I looked out the door
of my tepee and say a soaring eagle, so that is why he is named “Soaring Eagle.”
Why do you ask Puking Dog?
Can you imagine GOD choosing the name of your
child?
“Laughter! LORD can we negotiate!?”
I’m surprised Abraham didn’t raise a fuss. After
all he wasn’t above making deals with GOD. Remember how he tried to negotiate sparing
the inhabitants of Sodom where his nephew Lot was (Gen. 18:16-33). But we do
not see Abraham making a peep. Why do you suppose this is? Because Laughter is
a very fitting name.
Yitschaq (Isaac) comes from two Hebrew words. The
first, “Tzachak” meaning, “To laugh out loud.” The second, close to the actual
name, “Yischaq” means, “He will laugh.”
Have you ever planned a surprise party for someone
or purchased a special gift for someone and every time you imagine in your head
the look on their face when they open the door and all the guests yell, “Surprise!!!”
or in your mind’s eye you see yourself handing them that gift you know they
have been wanting, and the look of happy surprise or even shock that comes
across their face, you smile to yourself, giddily clap your hands together and
LAUGH. Imagine GOD saying to Himself, “Boy, Oh boy, I can’t wait to see Abraham’s
reaction when I tell him I am going to give him the boy he’s always wanted!”
And the Holy One chuckles to Himself because He is a good GOD who gives good
gifts (Matt. 7:7-11).
So it is likely that GOD laughs, not in hilarity,
but in joyous expectation. I’m sure He knows that Abraham will soon laugh when
he gets the news and will laugh in the future with joy as he bounces baby Isaac
on his knees.
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and
laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an
hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? Gen.
17:17
Abraham laughs, in irony, shock and a bit of
disbelief. “After all this time of Sarah and I trying to have children, we give
up and then GOD steps in when we are old infertile and impotent; how ironic!”
Abraham, old enough to be a grandparent laughs as
he pictures himself and Sarah with a new born baby. Today, he might imagine
himself at Isaac’s graduation taking pictures and a classmate asks, “Hey Isaac,
is that your grandparents?” Well, it’d either make you laugh or cry and Abraham
laughed.
Sarah too laughed in disbelief. If someone comes
up to you and says, “Did you hear? A 90 year old woman just gave birth to a
healthy bouncing baby boy. And get this; the father is 100 years old!” You would
likely huff and chuckle in disbelief, thinking the dude got the headline from a
grocery store new stand tabloid and say, “Yeah, right!” Well, Isaac means to
scoff too! The root word “Tzachak” means to laugh in merriment or scorn,
depending on the context of the passage in which it is used. Sarah must have
laughed in a scoffing way, why else would she try to lie to GOD about it?
Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed
not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh. Gen.
18:15
The laughter of anticipation, irony, shock and
disbelief turns to laughs of joy and fulfillment.
And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and
the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah
conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God
had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his
son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And
Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded
him. And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son
Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made
me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And
she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given
children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age. Gen. 21:1-7
In this laughter of joyful fulfillment is mingled
the reminder of the laughter of anticipation, irony, shock and disbelief,
because when word get out, until they see Isaac with their own eyes, they will
laugh in disbelief before they laugh out with joy.
Isaac reminds us to laugh in the face of the
impossible, laugh in the face of disbelief, to laugh in anticipation of future fulfillment
because we serve a God who specializes in the impossible and the ironic.
The joy (which can produce laughter) of the LORD
is our strength (Ps. 21:1)!
Think about a good sincere and needful thing you’ve
always wanted, or a dream, vision or ministry you feel you must birth that may
seem impossible to obtain. Now go ahead and laugh, for you just might get it!
